B&W film vs. Dig Processing

fstopstudios

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One reason that I still shoot film is the "look" of B&W film grain, contrast, etc. Has anyone been able to come close the that traditional Leica B&W feel with a m8/m9 and their post workflow? Love to see some examples and hear your technique if you wouldn't mind sharing.
 
The image above was shot on an M9 with 35mm Summicron f2 verII probably at like f4-2.8... Used lightroom to do the conversion used used my experience of shooting B&W film for oh 20 some years... To achieve the look pushing and pulling tones with the Color Mixer...This image isn't super grainy but there is some grain there..I shot it ISO 160...The tones are great on screen, even better on the print I made on this Moab Somerset Velvet paper which is on the warmer side and has a bit on a tooth...really nice!
 
I've been messing around with some rangefinder lenses on a Sony A7 for the last couple of months.
For this shot I had a Leica Elmar 50mm f3.5 fitted.
U3357I1409080402.SEQ.0.jpg


Here is another with the 50mm Elmar.
U3357I1407791922.SEQ.0.jpg


I process the images in lightroom for the RAW conversion and Silver FX pro to convert to B&W
 
One reason that I still shoot film is the "look" of B&W film grain, contrast, etc. Has anyone been able to come close the that traditional Leica B&W feel with a m8/m9 and their post workflow? Love to see some examples and hear your technique if you wouldn't mind sharing.

I've been doing image processing of film and digitally captured images to monochrome since the middle 1990s and I'm quite happy with my prints now. It would take a class or workshop for me to explain everything I do, and why (which is the important part). But as to tools, I use Lightroom 5 now and it does just what I want. There are a huge range of different 'looks' you can get with any camera in B&W. These are satisfying to me...

Recently captured with Sony A7 + Color-Skopar 28/3.5:


Sony A7 + Color-Skopar 28mm f/3.5
ISO 200 @ f/5.6

Recently captured with Leica CL and M-Rokkor 40/2 onto XP2 Super:


Leica CL + M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 II
Ilford XP2 Super

Recently captured with Leica M8 and Nokton 50mm f/1.5 ASPH (LTM):


Leica M9 + Nokton 50mm f/1.5 ASPH (LTM)
ISO 160 @ f/2.8

enjoy,
G
 
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