Category: Bangkok

I shot these portraits during the Motor Expo 2018 in Bangkok. I used the Leica Noctilux with my Sony A7R2 and the TechArt Pro adapter. This adapter makes the Leica lens autofocus and works with the face detection of the camera.

Continue reading “Amazing bokeh ! pretty girls with the Leica Noctilux at f/0.95”

I shot these pictures with my Leica M6 TTL, the lens Noctilux, the flash Leica SF 20 , and two different films : Kodak Portra 400 and Ilford HP5 400. The great thing about this combo is that the flash is TTL compatible which means that the light meter takes into account the ISO, the shutter speed and the light coming “through the lens” . In the viewfinder a “thunder” symbol appears, that indicates that the flash is well connected. The internal meter of the camera will take everything into account and will guide you to get the perfect exposure. You’ll find it by playing with the aperture until the red dot appears . Just as an external meter would give you the right aperture in a studio when you fire the flash for testing.
The big challenge is the compulsory shutter speed you have to use : 1/45s . Faster than that, the flash doesn’t fire. But finally, I managed to keep my hands steady and the pictures turned out sharp. I think the flash is really necessary when you shoot models indoors, because it lifts the shadows and make the image brighter without pushing the film.
Black and white films are less forgiving with under or overexposure so it’s not easy to get a great picture indoors with flash. sometimes it looks a little bit underexposed and there is two much grain. As much as I love grain for landscapes, building and objects, with portraits it’s not so flattering. However, all is all, I’m really glad that I shot black and white because when it’s well framed and exposed, it’s really beautiful and more special than color. And finally I’m happy with the pictures I got.
The first pictures featured are the Ilford ones and than it’s Kodak .

Continue reading “Portraits with b&w film and flash : Leica M6 TTL, Flash SF20, Noctilux f/0.95”

I wanted to shoot with my Leica M6 with a flash for a long time and I’ve finally found a flash SF 20 at the Paris Leica store. It is the only flash compatible with the TTL fonction of the M6. It was a second hand of course because this model is not in production anymore. It’s in mint condition and works beautifully.
TTL stands for Through The Lens because there is a sensor in the camera which mesures the light coming through the lens.

In order for the flash to fire, your shutter speed has to be 1/50s or slower. Higher than 1/50s the flash won’t fire.
When you set your iso at the back of your camera , the iso value is displayed on the flash screen. In the viewfinder you can see the flash sign which shows that the metering system (arrows and the red dot) will take into account the flash. That’s the beauty of this TTL system ; everything is taken into account to mesure the perfect exposure ; the shutter speed, the iso, and the distance from your subject. So when you look into the viewfinder the arrows indicates if you are under or overexposed. The only adjustable data is your aperture ; you can’t change the iso nor the distance to your subject, and you don’t want to shoot under the shutter speed of 1/50s because your image might be blurry. So you have to adjust your aperture to get the right exposure. You have to turn the aperture ring according to the arrows inside the viewfinder. When you see the red dot, you have everything in line and you can press the shutter button.
So I went to the Bangkok Motor show to try the system and I shot some portraits of the beautiful presenters that were working for the car makers.
I shot 3 rolls this afternoon ; Cinestill BWxx 250 (black and White) Cinestill 800T (color) , and Kodak TX 400 . That’s the order of display in this article .

Continue reading “Film photography & Flash : Leica M6, Noctilux and Leica Flash SF 20”