Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH Aperture Series: View Over Alabama Hills to Lone Pine Peak and Mt Whitney (Leica M10 Monochrom)
Related: Alabama Hills, apochromatic, black and white, Eastern Sierra, infrared, Leica, Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH, Leica APO-Summicron, Leica APO-Summicron-M, Leica Lenses, Leica M, Leica M lenses, Leica M Monochrom, Leica M10 Monochrom, Leica monochrom, Leica Summicron, Leica Summicron-M, Mt Whitney area, peak bagging, rangefinder
This aperture series from f/2 through f/8 shows what can be done in monochrome versus color; see View Over Alabama Hills to Mt Whitney Range with the Leica M10-R for comparison—sometimes monochrome is just a better fit for the subject matter and lighting conditions.
Filtration is a big plus at times; for monochrome sensors for landscape, I prefer a filter in the orange to deep red range. Here the bluish atmospheric haze warranted the B+W 092 Infrared filter, which has a 50% cutoff at 690nm (very deep red), versus the 610nm cutoff of the B+W 091 Deep Red filter.
Includes images up to full camera resolution from f/2 to f/8, plus crops as well as a 2X linear enlargement at f/8 (160 megapixels) using Topaz AI Gigapixel.
I have a similar scene framed a bit differently and less to my liking, taken just 3 minutes prior with much better cloud shapes, but those 3 minutes cost me.
Leica M10 Monochrom + Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH + filter B+W 092 Infrared
ENV: Alabama Hills, altitude 4200 ft / 1280 m, 58°F / 14°C
RAW: vignetting corrected, push 1.05 stops, +100 Shadows, -100 Highlights, +40 Whites, +75 Dehaze, +15 Clarity, USM {10,50,0}
[low-res image for bot]
