Earth Colors

David Brown · Jul 27, 2010

Mustafa Umut Sarac said:
Do you get these colors from your film and lens ?

Yes.

nworth · Jul 27, 2010

The quality of the color depends mostly on the film, not the camera at all (unless you have light leaks) and only a little on the lens. (The more elements in a lens the weaker the color, especially if the coating is poor or there are additional internal reflections.) It is generally easy to get vivid saturated colors with today's films. Color accuracy is another matter. That is especially true with complex colors, like the earth colors, and pastel shades. The technique shown here can be a valuable tool for testing films and printing systems. Make up a board of color samples that are difficult, make test pictures, and compare them under various lighting with the original.

aloha · Jul 27, 2010

JBrunner said:
Yes, but sometimes the camera is not the only tool present.

You damm near made me spray coffee all over my monitor!

That needs to go on a T-Shirt.

mawz · Jul 27, 2010

nworth said:
The quality of the color depends mostly on the film, not the camera at all (unless you have light leaks) and only a little on the lens. (The more elements in a lens the weaker the color, especially if the coating is poor or there are additional internal reflections.) It is generally easy to get vivid saturated colors with today's films. Color accuracy is another matter. That is especially true with complex colors, like the earth colors, and pastel shades. The technique shown here can be a valuable tool for testing films and printing systems. Make up a board of color samples that are difficult, make test pictures, and compare them under various lighting with the original.

Choice of lens can have quite an effect on the resulting colour. My Minolta and Mamiya lenses deliver gorgeous saturated colours while my Pentax lenses tend to deliver much more restrained renderings. There's quite a visible difference between rendering styles even with the same film.

That said, each of these lenses will render a full spectrum of colour, they do differ in how they render it though.

Note that if you like Leica rendering, you'll like Minolta rendering, they're nearly identical with regards to colour rendering.

Ten301 · Jul 27, 2010

I do think different brands of lenses my have some slight effect on color rendering, which would probably only show on positive film. However, I don't get the original post. I don't understand what he is trying to say or accomplish? All things being equal, any standard lens from any of the major manufacturers can render a full range of color. The particular film used would have infinitely more to do with color rendition than what lens is used.

2F/2F · Jul 27, 2010

Ten301 said:
I do think different brands of lenses my have some slight effect on color rendering, which would probably only show on positive film. However, I don't get the original post. I don't understand what he is trying to say or accomplish? All things being equal, any standard lens from any of the major manufacturers can render a full range of color. The particular film used would have infinitely more to do with color rendition than what lens is used.

He stated that he was schooling us all in what we lack...which is why I wondered what the hell he was talking about.

keithwms · Jul 27, 2010

Greg, I would buy that t-shirt too!

The colour neutrality of a lens system and of the film or sensor can be a big issue. But people who need the very best colour rendition know very well about apo/ULD/ED glass and colour profiling and ... you certainly don't need to use a Leica to get it. The unnecessary brandwanking is what set this thread off on the wrong foot.

Poisson Du Jour · Jul 27, 2010

Is there a reason for an intellectually barren thread like this? Comparing artist oils/acrylics to Leica optics defies logic. All the more bizarre since we are viewing colours on screen in three channels.

Delete it.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 27, 2010

I agree!

Jeff

fotch · Jul 27, 2010

Its weird.

36cm2 · Jul 27, 2010

Posted wirelessly..

Please don't delete it. The entertainment value is immeasurable. Mustafa's rabblerousing saldo, followed by a beautifully rancorous rebuttal from 2F/2F, soothe by an endless cast of comic relievers. If you ask me, there's more color in this post than I've ever seen out of a Summacumleica.

cfclark · Jul 27, 2010

JBrunner said:
Yes, but sometimes the camera is not the only tool present.

aloha said:
You damm near made me spray coffee all over my monitor!

That needs to go on a T-Shirt.

Same here--I wish I could convey the color of the coffee I almost splattered on my monitor, but I don't have a Leica.

eddie · Jul 27, 2010

I get those colors from my Dianas, but it's usually not the color of the subject.

kevs · Jul 27, 2010

I'm sure my Bronica, Yashica, Chinon or Nikon lenses and some Fujichrome or Ektachrome would record those hues nicely, but I don't photograph paint samples often. The picture of the couple picking their noses - so good to see his Leica is so sharp.

2F/2F · Jul 27, 2010

kevs said:
I'm sure my Bronica, Yashica, Chinon or Nikon lenses and some Fujichrome or Ektachrome would record those hues nicely, but I don't photograph paint samples often. The picture of the couple picking their noses - so good to see his Leica is so sharp.

Yes!!!!!!!!! It is so sharp that he even asked us to ZOOM IN on it to put it under some REAL scrutiny (just in case we couldn't tell how sharp it was in a tiny version)!!!

A Leica is great all right...exactly as great as the person using it...and that picture PROVES it!

Don't get me wrong. We've all taken unsharp, poorly-timed, far-out-of-color-balance photos...but do we then turn around and use them to prove how great our equipment is? No. We tend to use our best shots to do this. He couldn't find ONE shot that was better than that one to prove how great the Summitar is (and it IS great)?

I also have no idea about the technical information he provided about the glass on the Summitar.

Steve Smith · Jul 28, 2010

aloha said:
You damm near made me spray coffee all over my monitor!

That needs to go on a T-Shirt.

What?.... The coffee?

Steve.

lxdude · Jul 28, 2010

Well, he Mustafa point in there somewhere.

Athiril · Jul 29, 2010

I honestly think the stuff I got now is better than Leica glass, they're overrated imho.

Anyway this is kind of useless if you're not on a calibated monitor (also if its calibrated with a spyder... its still not calibrated, they have horrible inaccurate balance - colormunki that replaces it fixes that), even then I believe this is still kind of useless.

Earth Colors

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