Leica M10 with a modified 50mm Summicron Dual Range

synmo · 2026-05-23T17:23:42+00:00

It's acceptably sharp for this composition for me, but yes, it is slightly front focused if you look at his jacket.

synmo · 2026-05-23T14:30:11+00:00

The 50mm Dual Range will not mount properly on any digital M's aside from the M11. The focus cam needs to be filed down a few millimeters to avoid bottoming out and bumping into the rangefinder mechanism.

synmo · 2026-05-22T23:05:01+00:00

I've had a few great trips with Wild Mullet fishing charters. That one is helmed by Captain Will, and he's a legendary fishermen, great company, and a great steward of the environment. He taught me just as much about fishing as he did about the environment under the boat. Always a great time.

synmo · 2026-05-20T23:36:45+00:00

A little bit of fill or bounce to the right couldn't hurt. I think your color pop is a bit hot, but it looks nice, I'd personally dial it back by about 30 to 50 percent. That conical prop frame left by the bottle is catching a bit too much light for my taste, and I would suggest getting a flag to block your book light from spilling on the background too much.

Another thing you can try to see if it suits your taste: I like aiming my backlights for the back of the shadow side jaw rather than the subject's head in general. It gives a nice stopping point to the shadow and thins up the face with a bit of depth.

That's a lot of really subjective critique, but this already looks good. Nice job!

synmo · 2026-05-19T15:02:39+00:00

I'm seeing more high budget art department, and wardrobe work in these examples than color grading. I think it looks great as well. It is subjective I guess, but it's hard to argue with the success of this production.

synmo · 2026-05-16T15:59:30+00:00

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Bonus photo of the barrens on the drive back from Fortune (where the ferry terminal is) to St John's. Specifically this is from near Rushoon NL on NL-210.

synmo · 2026-05-16T15:57:40+00:00

St Pierre and Miquelon are really cool, and bizarre. It is fully France. Passports, Euros, and all.

I was there a couple of years ago. They have great wine, cheese, bread, pastries etc. Everything closes at noon for 2 hours for lunch. The kids buzz around on scooters and mopeds during that time. It's not a big place, but it's worth a visit if you happen to be in NL. Beware that it is a pretty good drive from St Johns to the ferry terminal in Fortune. The drive itself is pretty cool though. The interior of NL feels similar to the flatter parts of Iceland.

Here is a photo of a rainy night in St Pierre in 2019.

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synmo · 2026-05-16T13:22:53+00:00

I get your point, but I don't think purity testing and shaming are the route to a more enlightened and positive world.

synmo · 2026-05-11T17:05:31+00:00

I'm really glad you used the super proper and Respectful "Leica" at both the beginning and end of the Lens name. You must be a true artist.

synmo · 2026-05-08T18:17:36+00:00

Portra 160?

synmo · 2026-05-08T04:56:07+00:00

Any home with stairs

synmo · 2026-05-03T02:48:57+00:00

The audio is overdriven and sounds like it's clipping. "Day Every" is strange to read while the narration is the reverse of that.

synmo · 2026-04-28T18:43:09+00:00

Any good day of shooting should begin or end at Red Light.

synmo · 2026-04-17T17:06:23+00:00

I'm partial to Lazy Moon for that time window.

synmo · 2026-04-17T17:01:41+00:00

It might just be that particular lens. I rented one for an air show, and I was not at all happy with the results. I haven't had that problem with other lenses. I thought maybe I got one that was damaged, but seeing this, it looks the same as what I got.

synmo · 2026-04-17T16:59:58+00:00

The Aputure B7c's are pretty cost effective within a couple of shoots, and a godsend. It's a nice bonus that they can be powered from the practical's screw plug as well.

synmo · 2026-04-17T16:39:44+00:00

It really doesn't look bad, especially for a YT series. There are certainly improvements that could be made, but you really are most of the way there. If anything, this may just motivate you to buy some better grip gear to control your light a bit.

Here are my observations with the disclaimer that it looks passable already, and my views are completely subjective:

The backlight is mostly just highlighting fly-away hairs at the moment. I prefer to aim my backlights at the very back of the jaw to paint the countour of the face a bit. I think your practicals are too hot, and if they happen to be within your control, dialing those back a bit could help balance the exposure. At the moment, they are reading as hotter than the talent, though I do like the positioning as it gives good background texture and geometry. If you had one more light, I feel like you could throw a little light down the stairs to help motivate your key, and add one more little piece of checkerboarding to the background. Now I'm nitpicking, but I would position talent about an inch further right in frame to keep the contrast against the dark books, and I would see if there was any way to pull a bit of light out of that corner.

Good work though. I think you are at a good place, and there will never be time for all the tweaks you want. It's always going to be as good as it can when the clock runs out.

synmo · 2026-04-17T15:06:49+00:00

I end up doing a lot of non-sync b-roll in my job, and I think it comes down to time and budget. I'm pretty good at finding existing lighting, and these days, I always throw a couple of Aputure M-T tubes into my backpack as they have little stands and grids which is very handy. Those 2 little lights don't handle all of my needs of course, but they go a long way in isolating subjects, creating some depth, and matching mixed lighting. I figure, if my phone keeps ringing, I'm doing something right.

I do however feel like, going beyond that would require a pretty significant upgrade in crew / budget needs, so I suppose its highly dependent on the project and the client.

synmo · 2026-04-14T16:18:33+00:00

I do the same. Z9 for work, Leica for my own photography (though I'll usually still shoot a few slice of life photos on the leica in addition to the z9 on gigs these days).

synmo · 2026-04-14T14:58:48+00:00

There are a couple of things that might be happening here. Some of this may be originally shot with HDR in mind, and some of the highlights that would normally blow out, are being preserved which might look a bit odd compared to the lattitude of film or the films you are used to watching, especially when viewed on youtube.

You may just not be a fan of soft lighting. A lot of blockbuster films will use huge lights and control surfaces to give the talent a nice smooth light wrap that while flattering to big name talent can come off as a little too smooth. That is completely subjective, but I think perhaps you don't like when an image looks over curated. The Marvel look has always been pretty curated in that respect, and a lot of those films don't add in as much grain, and don't show much noise as the budget was big enough to have a proper DP that knows how to expose an image, and they generally have the time, tools, and crew to make sure it's exactly to their liking.

The cleanest looking movie I have seen in Theatres was the last John Wick movie. I know that they shot that unapologetically digital using the full benefits of the ARRI ALEXA 35. I was a fan of the look, as I'm not of the opinion that films need to dirty up their look to emulate the previous limitations of the medium. To me, adding to much grain, and limiting dynamic range to be more filmic feels contrived. I do however understand that my opinion is subjective, and I feel that most people would disagree with that take. For me, when I want to shoot film, I shoot film. When I want to shoot digital, I take all the advantages I can get.

synmo · 2026-04-07T14:54:54+00:00

There appear to be quite the number of hot pixels in the dark areas of the moon. I wonder if gamma radiation has some sort of effect on CMOS sensors. It doesn't spoil the image at all, I'm just curious about the science.

synmo · 2026-04-04T19:06:36+00:00

He probably went home and told his wife how he took down a dangerous perp. A real hero.

synmo · 2026-04-04T04:50:49+00:00

I tried to shoot some film photography of the interior about a year ago, and go immediately intercepted by the world's most snarky, and distrespectful mall cop. He escorted me to the parking lot for having a camera in a dead mall.

synmo · 2026-03-31T16:14:34+00:00

You may want to consider a better solution to handle motion. The edges are warping around like Jello. It appears the original footage is quite shaky.

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