This essay was created during a 2-day seminar located in the Distillery District in Toronto on July 22nd and 23rd 2011 that included both technical and creative content.  

The technical subjects were around the use of the Leica M9 camera itself and the lenses. One attraction of the seminar was access to the full line of Leica M products, including the famous Noctilux.  

The creative side of the material was around street photography.

Several attendees were professional photographers, which made this session different from others I have attended.   

The workshop covered three areas: [1] M9 operations and usage [2] Techniques for Street Photography and Assignments [3] Product trial.

M9 Operations and Usage:

• CCD sensors behave differently than the cmos.  Have better performance in low light. unlike CMOS it is better to under expose under expose -0.3 EV
• Brighten blue to to recover highlights
• Ensure colours properly set before converting the Black & White
• Landscape bracketing: Need 5 points; 2 ev apart

Techniques for street photography

• Assignments: Light and lines; Shadows and silhouettes; People without people; Part representing the whole; Motion; Abstract 
• For street photography: Set to Hyper focal distance; use wide lens (e.g., 28mm); set to 12s timer delay; walk into the scene; Things to meter off (that are 18% grey) include hand and sidewalk; Shoot completely manual

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