I have been editing my images made in the City of London, I am now up to the end of 2017, still have 2018 to go. I have made some discovery’s in the process of editing, that I want to share with you today. I have used a wide range of cameras so far the list includes the Sony A7R, A7S, A7rmK2, A6300, RX1RMKII, Leica M10, and I believe that I also used a Nikon D850 for some images. 

I used mostly 35mm and 28mm focal length lens some times I used a 55mm and that lens was the most challenging as the images look nothing like the rest of the images. I found that the Sony 28mm f2 lens that I had was a dog of a lens, it was never really sharp. The lens that surprised me the most as the Zeiss Loxia 35mm now I know why I did not give that lens back to Zeiss, when they loaned it to me. For 35mm I used a Sony Zeiss f2.8 and their f1.4 auto focus lens. I found that I was not always focused on the subject that I wanted to be as the AF had its own way of thinking. Whereas when I used the Zeiss Loxia, I was zone focusing and when I got it right the images just had a really nice quality.  When using my Leica’s I mostly used the Elmarit 28mm f2.8 lens or Summicron f2 ASPH lens.

I noticed that for the first two months of using the Leica M10, I was really all over the place with my exposures and framing. I was learning the camera and it showed up in the quality of the images. I am glad I persevered as once I got the hang of it the images started to get better. But when I was looking through the first two months with that camera I was surprised at how bad a lot of the images are. 

Photographing a subject for a one period of time is good practice as I noticed after time that I stopped trying to take the same sort of image and I started to get my selective and also more experimental in my approach to making images. I think it will take me a bit longer to get through the 2018 images then I can start culling for intent and meaning for the images to start to see how they sit together once that starts I will start to make smaller prints of the images so I can start to shuffle them around and see how each image sits alongside the next image and what meanings I can create through sequencing the images.  

Next project, I am thinking about i need to start to make the images for soon, as I am unsure how long it will take to make. Their was in my head for a while that I might want to work in Black and White for a project now I am thinking maybe I just stay working in colour. I am now thinking that I will use two cameras for my next project. One the Leica M11 with its manual focus lens and zone focusing and the other a Nikon Z8 with the 40mm lens for when I want AF. However, after looking at the number of images that really worked, when I used the Zeiss Loxia 35mm Manual Focus lens. I am tempted to get a Voigtlander 28mm lens for the Nikon Z8, as it will have an even bigger depth of field than the Loxia lens and really work for zone focusing. Something else that I noticed and I have to admit that it has taken me a while to accept this fact. As I as being stubborn about it. When I was using my Sony Mirrorless cameras, I was consistently more accurate with my exposures, as I was using the live histogram in the viewfinder and adjusting the exposure while I am making images. Not making an image and then adjusting my exposure after checking the histogram of the first image. When using any camera in rapidly changing light situations, I need to be constantly adjusting my manual exposure settings, so I found that my exposures where not as consistent as when using my Leica cameras compared to when I used my Sony cameras. The camera that surprised me most in how many images I made with it, was the Sony RX1RMKII I used it a lot. I also found that when I was out making images, I would rarely change lens and some days I would only use one lens and in fact I would only often take out one camera at a time, even though I had a evolving collection of cameras that I could use, because of my Sony Global Imaging Ambassador status. I was always getting new cameras to play with. I have been relatively static in my camera selection since then as I now have a Leica M11 and Nikon D850 and Z8. I am still conflicted as to whether to keep the D850 as it is one of the last great DSLR cameras that is still capable of giving great image quality. In fact I can put images from the D850 next to the images from the Z8 and I can’t tell them apart. For me the thing I like about the Z8 is also the thing I don’t it has an electronic viewfinder that means I am seeing a view of the scene in front of the camera that is dictated by the settings of the camera and the internal jpeg engine that is set for the camera. Whereas the Leica’s and the DSLR (D850) are optical viewfinders and they are really good at what they do. I also know that if I as to trade in the D850 I would not get so much for it at this stage. I might get even less later but then again in 10 years time I suspect (only Suspect) it will become super cool to have such a retro camera. The lens I have for it are exceptional and I cannot still get some of them in the Z mount and I am not holding my breath that I ever will. For example I love the Nikon 105mm f2 DC lens it it the best portrait lens that I have ever used. I have this lens and it works flawlessly on the D850 and would only be a Manual focus lens via an adaptor on the Z8 so not really interested in using it like that. 

I put the collection into Excire (have you heard of Excire it is a Ai catalog that is excellent for identifying and keywording your images). I used it to analyse my camera and lens choices, I found I used quite a few lens and then I did something interesting about the ISO’s that I used. I was often working at 800 or 1600 ISO very few of the images are made at 100ISO, most are in 400- 1600 range with a few lower and a few higher. 35mm was my most used focal length then 28mm and the others tended to be far lower in usage. 

I then decided to look at what my favourite f-stop was and it was actually no surprise as it was most definitely f8 followed by f5.6 what did surprise me was the number of images at f11. I was not so surprised at the number at f4 as often I would lie in lower light. I am now with current technology hit DeNoising a bit disappointed that I did not push my ISO’s as high as I could process of now. That to me is a missed picture opportunity which I will not have to worry about in the next project I am doing.

After doing the analysis and looking at so many images I have found that I like what I am doing and just need to do much more of it. I also need to be faster at editing and selecting images to present to others. So onwards with getting the initial edit completed so I can really start the fun of sequencing the images.

I think that it is important to examine ones workflow, to see how one makes images. I learnt a lot from looking at the images so far. In one aspect, I wish I had been able to do it earlier, but on another aspect, now that the images have had time, I do not remember how I was feeling, when I made the images and when I look at them, they feel fresh to me. This is helping me to be unemotionally engaged with them and I am finding this helpful.