Mr Leica Pinterest Account (Back on it!)

The Mr Leica Pinterest account now links to the blog. The Mr Leica blog has been upgraded to allow you to pin any of the photos shared direct to your Pinterest board(s). Happy pinning!

Pinterest Inspired Photography – Black and White

Ahead of a recent photography trip I found myself browsing vintage black and white film photography images on the Pinterest app. I used to use Pinterest on and off for a period maybe pre-2015, both for collecting inspiration images and sharing a few of my own photos. I found Pinterest great for creating mood boards ahead of photoshoots where I could gather together a set of images to help a model visualise the look I was going for. I have started using Pinterest again so if you want to see the photos that inspire me just look me up – @MrLeica.com (link to profile below).

Leica M9 (& Nikon D800) B&W Images

After scrolling through pages and pages of images on Pinterest and pinning some of those I liked the one thing that struck me is most of the black and white images I admire are high contrasts black and white photos with black blacks. My older photos used to include a lot of high contrast black and white images, especially when I used to share images straight out of the camera as B&W JPEG files, firstly from the Nikon D800 and then from my Leica M9 camera.

Leica M240 – B&W Images

I didn’t get a look I liked straight from the camera with the Leica M240 so since selling my Leica M9 my images are all processed through Lightroom (and/ or Photoshop) to get the desired look. One thing I am aware of since using my Leica M240 is my photos tend to be different shades of grey rather than strong black and white as I think I try to retain as much detail as possible in an image. These Leica M240 photos below are probably more grey than many of my recent images as I am aware I prefer high contrast so try to use it much as possible.

Black and white film photography images

With my black and white film photography I think again I have often lost the thick blacks due to the film stocks I commonly use. Fomapan 100 and Kodak Eastman 5222 Double-X film both have wide latitude and retain shadow detail well. My black and white film developing methods also favours retaining both shadow and highlight detail to produce a flatter negative (depending on the light conditions etc etc).

Proper black blacks!

So with all that said I want to get back to proper blacks, or try it again at least! That’s the plan anyway. I will see if the Pinterest pins I add to my boards continue along this theme going forward.

Bright colour photos (Especially wedding photography)

(For colour photography and especially colour wedding photography you will see from Pinterest that my favourite look is the bright washed out looking fine art wedding photography style but I have not mastered the look yet. Living in the UK doesn’t favour an overly bright photography style! (That’s my current excuse anyway!))