Portrait taken with Monochrom

I was commissioned recently by a long standing client of mine, a firm of solicitors that I shoot Personal Injury photography for to “as usual take photographs showing ………………”. Needless to say I do not use my Leica Monochrom to shoot Personal Injury photographs, but the moment I met this woman I felt that she had an interesting face and wanting to take a close portrait photograph of her using my Leica Monochrom. After finishing my commissioned assignment, I asked the lady if she would mind if I took her portrait using another camera. She didn’t, and I just shot three close images, thinking that this could be the start of a new project for me. It is, but I’m still thinking it through, however it will be something to do with Women Believers or Women of Faith.

The featured photograph was processed in Silver Efex Pro 2 via Lightroom 5. It certainly is a ‘punchy’ image, although a touch hard on the woman, but I like it.  Not too sure if she would have it in her family album, but it would be good on a gallery wall. As the saying goes ” courses for horses”.

The image within this blog is how the original image in Lightroom 5 looked, with just slight nudge (+10) to the right on the clarity slider. A much softer image and perhaps one that she herself would prefer. It shows given the right lighting and correct exposure the Leica Monochrom can produce raw files with loads of detail and information that are more or less useable from the camera.