Tuesday, October 6, 2026

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WORK FOR LEICA?


Leica Headquarters at Leitz Park, Wetzlar
© H. Richter


By Heinz Richter

The Wetzlar daily [m]ittelhessen offered a rare look at what criteria Leica uses to hire people to work at their facility in Wetzlar.  They conducted an interview with Leica personnel officer Alexandra Takak.

Unlike most companies in the US, Leica trains many of their employees in house, including opticians, mechanics, electronics specialists and specialist in metal technology.  But what does it actually take to be hired by Leica as an apprentice?

Lobby of Leica Camera AG
© H. Richter

Grinding of aspherical lens element
© H. Richter

Checking the accuracy of the lens surface
© H. Richter

Not unimportant are the grades achieved in prior education.  The commercial and technical fields include grades in the natural sciences math and physics, while for merchants great emphasis is put on language skills.  Another criterion is the hobbies of the candidates.  Someone who in his spare time likes to take photographs, for instance, has already a closer connection to the company.  Additional importance is put on social skills.  An apprentice must be polite, punctual and reliable.


Cementing of individual lens elements
© H. Richter

More specifically, initially Leica teaches their apprentices basic skills.  Later on they will work in areas pertaining to the particular jobs they are seeking. This has led to Leica being able to employ virtually one hundred percent of their trainees.  In addition, the young people can continue their education with additional training and university studies.  Of course top scientific positions, as in lens design, for instance, require university degrees before any individual can seek a position at Leica.

All lens elements are individually tested
© H. Richter

Installing the sensor of a Leica M10
© H. Richter

Adjusting the sensor of a Leica M10
© H. Richter

Leica also considers it important for the trainees to go beyond the specific requirements of their future position in the company and to have a say in their education.

It should also be mentioned that this approach is free of charge.  Not only are apprentices and trainees able to get an education in specific fields, they will earn an income during this time as well.  In addition, these individuals have the assurance of a job once they have completed their education.



For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.

All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.

_______________________________________________________________________

EDDYCAM - the first and only ergonomic elk-skin camera strap     
 www.eddycam.com        

      



Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

 http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show


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Sunday, October 4, 2026

PHOTOSHOP/LIGHTROOM - YES OR NO



By Heinz Richter


Whenever possible, we should do what we can, prior to pressing the shutter release, to prevent the necessity to make corrections to our photographs afterwards. However, I do not at all prescribe to the idea that all photographs should be what comes out of the camera without any further alterations. That is a sure way to reduce many photographs to mediocracy at best. 


As Ansel Adams once said, the negative (electronic file) is just the score, the enlargement is the performance. With other words, do whatever necessary to obtain the best possible final result. 


That is the very reason why I rarely use any image directly out of the camera.

 

I was looking through some files a while ago, when I came across a photograph that I took a while back with my first electronic Leica, a Digilux 2. I had always rejected it because I considered it a bad image, not worth any further consideration.

 

I decided to work on it, just to see if any worthwhile improvements could be made.

 

The first step was to convert the original to black and white. I my opinion the stark interior of the blacksmith shop is better shown in black and white. Of course, that alone was hardly an improvement.

 

The first adjustment was to render it darker. Definitely better but hardly a good image.


 

I had the good fortune to get involved with Photoshop at its very beginning in the late 80s which is the very reason why I never used Lightroom. One feature is the 'Camera Raw Filter'. It offers the possibility to modify JPEG files as a RAW file. This is important when using images that are not saved as RAW or DNG files. However, the files do not convert to RAW files.


 

I further darkened the image with a slight increase in contrast. The result was a much better image, far superior to the original. 


At this point, further improvements are essentially a judgment call. I decided to add a bit more density. That, however, caused some of the darker areas of the image to lose detail. RAW offers two easy adjustments by changing the density of just the shadow or the black areas. In most cases a shadow adjustment is preferable. This adjustment brought detail back into the shadow areas without influencing the light areas of the image.

 

A similar adjustment can be done to the white and the highlight areas. I used it to tone down the highlights to some degree.

 

At this point no general adjustments are of any use and selected areas have to be addressed individually. 


This included lightening the left hand of the blacksmith as well as the piece of metal he was working on. The same thing was done to the hammer. 


The photograph had to be taken with a relatively slow shutter speed of ¼ sec. That introduced a fair amount of motion blur of the arm. While RAW does allow sharpening of individual areas, the amount of blur in this case is impossible to correct that way. Instead, is used localized darkening along the bottom of the arm which made it appear to be a lot sharper. 


Next, I used the lightening tool to lighten the legs of the pants as well as some areas of the floor and the barrel in the lower left of the image. These tools work very efficiently, allowing for an additional slight increase in contrast. 


One of my favorite photographic enlargement papers during the film days was Agfa Portriga Rapid. It was a warm tone paper. For that reason, I often convert my black and white images to a slight warm tone when working digitally. 


Looking at the original image, compared to the final one, there should be no doubt that post production with Photoshop, Lightroom or other, similar software programs definitely allow to improve our photographs, sometimes to the extent of converting a useless picture to a worthwhile photograph.




For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.

All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.

_______________________________________________________________________

EDDYCAM - the first and only ergonomic elk-skin camera strap     
 www.eddycam.com        

      



Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

 http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show


Click on image to enlarge
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography

Click on image to enlarge
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography

Click on image to enlarge
Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography


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