experiments in leica

I have always been drawn to sharp monochromatic photos or colour shots with a vintage feel. It is, however, not as easy to achieve these looks in post-production and even harder to plan for them while shooting. I learned earlier this spring that Leica had a new mobile app which mimics the different Leica lenses. I secretly worship all things Leica, but will never (never) be able to afford a Leica. The thought of being able to achieve the Leica look with my mobile photography piqued my curiosity.

The app is available in the Apple App Store. It has a free version and a pro version. I decided to do a trial of the pro version, strictly for my photographic curiosity. I was delighted that the interface not only provides the filters while shooting but also a degree of manual control, including depth of field. As a photographer who firmly believes mobile photography is serious in its own right, I decided to do a few months’ experiment and only shoot in the app to see what kind of results I could achieve. Here is a sampling of my experiments in Leica.

The Edmonton skyline reflects on the glass of the LRT window when crossing the Tawatina Bridge.

Student art in Rutherford Library on the University of Alberta campus.

A stack of pancakes, that I promise I didn’t eat all on my own.

Cooking adventure, with a really clean shallow depth of field effect.

I have a fascination for capturing scenes in windows.

An attempt at using lack of symmetry to focus on light and shadow

Hot tea and sunshine

Oxalis open in the window

Getting flowers and fine details to work at the shallow depth of field setting is still challenging at times, but with patience and adjustment it works well.

Domestic scenes with nice sharpness vs. faded background