Happy to have happened on this video today. Actually, in January, I decided I would set one of my camera bodies to monochrome for the whole year. It's been a lot of fun to have a full year to think in B&W. I am getting better at is as well (I think anyway).
I’ve never in my life felt as peaceful and self confident as I did almost four decades ago in my high school darkroom. It’s a state of being I’ve tried unsuccessfully many times to recapture.
A darkroom was a lovely place to be: It took as long as it took. There was a big sign and a light outside telling everyone else to just go away. We were in there concentrating on how to get the best out of that one shot.... And (I might have said this earlier)... it took as long as it took. Peaceful, happy days...
1:53. Lovely studio/museum there. Those vintage lenses are so cool. I converted some raw images from a concert to black and white in camera and some of them looked way better in some ways.
My first camera was an Olympus OM-1. I sent it for full maintenance recently and works perfectly. And yes, I had a b/w darkroom. Mystical experience, the red light, the smell, the picture as develops, the wet picture. I think that I was a better photographer at that time without all the technological features that we have today.
Contrast is the diffenrence between the lightest part and the darkest part in a scene or photograph. Dynamic range is the amount of contrast the sensor can capture.
I learned photography from my mother back in the 60s. I bought a Zenit-B 35mm an 50mm lens. We spent hours in the darkroom after each photo outing. I learned a love for B&W half a century ago. Recently I set up an old E-P3 to full B&W mode. It is like a new camera to me now and I love the results.
Thanks Peter. I've just found a passion for B&W. Just set my OMD M5II to the settings described in this video. It's 0544 in the morning and let's see what I come home with. Thanks for an easy and well explained tutorial.
I have been shooting for over 60 years . I started after watching a friend took me into the wet darkroom while in the army. I didn’t use color before digital. Love digital but really see in B&& W.
Hi! Going to age myself a bit. My first photography class was in 1974, in high school. It was black & white photography and we developed in the school darkroom. Today, I use monochrome setting on OMD EM5 Mll camera. More often, I use light room classic to go from color to B&W. Clearly I need to play with the in camera filters! Thank you for this video! Kind regards Rick
I was commissioned for a family shoot in London. The client requested all to be in black and white I was lucky enough to have access to different studios. I chose a huge green screen set. The green casted a lovely soft grey background on all of the images. Very pleased with the result.
Thanks for explaining and showing what the filters do. I made up a B&W profile in my customs menu for this month. I am also going back over some recent images I made in color to see what making them B&W will do.
Peter.. thanks for another great video ... I have a Pen F and use the dial on the front of the camera to quickly switch to MONO often. Exactly for the reason you stated... seeing the B&W in the EVF can complete change how I see and compose a picture. Thanks again and keep up the great work.
Invariably my best images are b/w. I like to use Montone and art 10 on my Om d em 5 II. Since I bought this camera I hardly ever shoot Raw anymore, whereas before I never shot jpeg. The results are amazing and I don’t need to spend hours on my pc. The jpeg quality of Olympus is simply astounding.
LOL! “If I want to ruin the image I will do it myself in post” 🤣 Agree with Peter - view the B&W image in the EVF or the Screen to see if it makes sense as a B&W image. I like the Shadow/Highlight Curve in my Olympus EM10... that and the color filters allow for sooooo many monochrome options
9:00 I just tried the filters on monochrome on the sky behind you watching this on my phone! Red certaunly did add a lot of contrast to the sky. Yellow did a bit. So did orange. I was always fascinated by the orange filter that was always credited with penetrating haze. It seemed to increase sky contrast too.
I absolutely love taking B&W pictures with my Olympus, and if you shoot in raw, you still have the color image. I still recall opening cans of film in my fathers walk-in closet (no windows) and feeding it into a metal spool so I could develop them myself. Oh the joy of realizing that what you took looks just horrible B&W (or forgot to use a filter, or even change filters).
Love black and white. And I find a lot of those images that might have too much nose can work pretty well in Black and White. And yes I did try the darkroom a few times. Not easy....
The last abstract image is the one I liked best, though the street art images are very nice. In the early 70’s in high school I was introduced to working in a darkroom. I was taking print shop and the process for printing involved creating negatives in the darkroom and burning them to a plate. For many years I had a darkroom and shot and developed and printed B&W images. Until the day I got my first Olympus digital camera.
I used to love being in the darkroom. The radio on, the world shut out and the glow of the red light. It was magical seeing the pictures appear, something hard to recreate in digital. I love my EM5 and still see black and white as a good option when shooting.
Thanks for the filters tip, I haven’t noticed they were incorporated in the camera and workspace. I mostly use BW photos for portraits, and sometimes for dramatic scenes.
The black and white capability is the reason I purchased the Pen F, and then later traded for the EM1X. Personally when I see a particular situation that I think will work in black and white. I photography in black and white, train yourself to see in black and white or understand what situations lend themselves to this type of photograph. I don’t do it in post I “commit” to it there and then (a bit like just using a prime lens it’s all you have make it work) As for settings I also adjust the tone curve. Once I’ve found the style / settings I save them to one of the custom functions. My influences came / come from the likes of, Donovan, Bailey, McCullum and Salagardo to name a few. I have done quite a bit of wet darkroom in my day (teenager) using Ilford paper and various films they produced along with the Cosina CT1 camera. Re: which one of your photos did I like. The cardboard boxes on the foot way was my favourite. Cheers.
I find that its good to use in camera settings to see in black and white to give you an idea of what you can then usually do better in post using software like silver efex pro 2.
The C2 Mode on my PEN F is set for Monochrome and I use it quite a lot these days. Additional setup is LF +Raw and I use your suggested setting within Monochrome except the yellow filter because the Pen F does not have it. I use Mac Photos as my main post software (because Aperture is gone) and NIK 's Silver Efex Pro 2 to fine tune my B & W images. I am very happy with the results. Thanks for your great videos Peter, very entertaining and very informative. Good shooting!
I started with B&W in my 1976 6th grade classroom. Every spring, the teacher built a darkroom! With my fathers’ Kodak Retina IIa, I did my best. While I shoot a lot of digital, these days I still shoot B&W film. No darkroom, but with a dark bag I can develop in my kitchen, and scan with an old Nikon film scanner I bought in the early 2000s. Looking forward to Christmas and comparing my OM2n with my new em5 m3
Peter, As I am traveling to Africa next year, I recently purchased the Olympus EM1 Mark ll. As a novice, I am learning MUCH from your short, informative videos in which you use an Olympus camera. Your tutorials with menu steps are invaluable. Please share what you pack in your bag, travel power strips, adaptors, etc. Thanks!
I've done my share of black and white photography and spent many hours in the darkroom in my time. Back then I had an Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR. Which in my opinion was the best 35mm camera around at that time. I'm grateful for digital cameras now. Thanks for the videos, keep up the good work.
I must thy this, Peter, thank you. I learnt darkroom when I was a child and for many years as an adult continued to use it. I loved the darkroom. However, digital is much more convenient. When I first switched to digital, it massive learning curve using editing software.
Whilst I know this is an older video, post, I,would like to add a comment for anyone looking at it. First, color photography was started in the late 1930s, my dad (an amateur photographer) shot mostly Kodachrome 35mm slides, which I have. I studied color photography in schools in the mid 1960s. I also studied B&W photography and shot B&W on film in the 1050s as a youngster, and throughout my secondary school years in the early 1960s, and processed my own film and prints. After a career as both a commercial photographer early on and later a photojournalist, I got the Olympus Pen F after retirement to shoot digital B&W photos with. I use its dedicated B&W setting and have tuned two B&W film emulations, a ASA 125 and a Tri-X simulation. I had the original Pen F 35mm half frame camera in the mid 1960s for a travel camera, and it was brilliant. So getting the new PenF was a must. Cheers
I'm used to smartphone-photography and just recently switched to a OM-D E-M 10 Mark III. I mainly made B/W photos but always shoot them in color and used a black to white gradient map in postwork. I never used just desaturate b/c a gradient map can preserve some information that would be otherwise lost. A little bit similar to the filters. I think I will give the BW mode a try nonetheless and will experiement with the filters also.
@@ForsgardPeter It feels familiar but different. :) If the smartphone is like an unlimited access to a fun waterpark. The E-M10 is like an open door to a beach next to the ocean. It feels, like I had only used the 'P' and 'ART' Modes so far and now I unlocked 'A', 'S' and 'M'.
My first photography class was B&W dark room and I felt in love with photography. I used a lot the dark room that I got use to dress black all the time. I like the picture of the architectural eave (last one). I haven’t done any b&w with my Oly yet because I’m new to this world of MFT.
Hi Peter. I only shoot B&W pictures with my Olympus OMD 10II. I love this camera, I photograph now about 35 years, had at first Nikon, then Sont SLT and now Micro 4/3, and I love it. In my film days, I was using also Olympus, the OM10. I also had a darkroom to process my pictures and the film. Now I am back at the beginning and use still Olympus, and I will never change. Maybe to an OMD 5 II, but now I am still very pleased with my OMD10II. Like your videos, keep up the good work my friend.
I now shoot a fair bit of B&W. Back in the film days, I think I shot only two rolls of B&W versus hundreds of rolls of color. However, when I got my E-5 in 2010, B&W suddenly became easy. I now shoot an E-M1.2. On both cameras, C1 is my standard settings for color and C2 is the same settings, but for B&W. That's the fastest way to switch back and forth. Also, I mostly shoot Raw+JPG, so I have the "digital negative" to work with if I need to mess something up later. :-) My original inspiration was Ansel Adams and his work in Yosemite National Park. I live 90 miles (145 km) from Yosemite Valley, so I'm there a lot. I have visited Yosemite about 200 times in my life. Over the past ten years I have made at least a half dozen day trips to Yosemite specifically to shoot B&W. These trips usually end up with 90% B&W and 10% color. On other trips, I mix color and B&W as the mood strikes me. I am part of a photography team at our church, which has given me the opportunity to make B&W portrait and concert style photos during on-campus events and during the main service.
Great post Peter. I love Black & White photography. One of the reasons I bought recently an OM-4 Ti to shoot B/W with Film again! Using on the OM-D line most functionality (not the ART filters).
I shoot a lot of black and white with my E-PL6, usually with the red filter. I sometimes use the Art Filter's Dramatic black and white, however the Monotone setting is what I use. Thanks for sharing Peter!
Your videos has convinced me to start my photography in a more serious way and I'm seriously considering the Olympus OM-D E-M10 MKII I as my starter camera and I thank you for that! I believe the MFT fits my needs.
Home printing B&W was fun for me, some thirty-five years ago. One nice thing was knowing when shooting upward, parallel lines could easily be restored. A few times, I printed color negs onto B&W paper and used a color gel to change the saturation of equally dense colors. Red, Green and Blue, for starters, don't need to be the same shade of gray. The Cokin filter system was everyday gear for me and their color filters were good when shooting B&W. While all that was fun and I would do it again in a minute, there is no going back. Digital manipulation can be more artistic than exposure settings. Ugh, not playing down getting it right with the camera. Did you ever slip into a dark spot to change an unfinished roll of film in order to change ISO? (ASA/ISO). The trick was to make sure to note how many frames were exposed to avoid doubles. Long ago memories. Another enjoyable video, Mr. Forsgård . Thank you.
Hey, Peter. I've done my share in the dark room with the full process. Yes, digital is a great convenience. I think problem of subject and purpose remains. My always debate is between make it nice and meaningful. It seems that B&W makes you think more.. I want to spend more time with the B&W now
Back years ago I had a dark room, and had lots of fun in it. I had a Fujica ST801 SLR and for black and white, I used Ilford film, chemicals and paper. I remember that at the time Kodak took minutes while Ilford (Ilfospeed) took seconds for developing. For colour I always used Fujicolor film.
I still have some dark room chemicals and cards, and occasionally I use them for some rayograph kind of prints which require no camera at all. For BW photographs, I shoot in RAW+JPG mode. I can see the results with altered settings and added filters according to condition and my taste. And then, if I decide to make some changes with the settings and/or filters, I work on the RAW version.
Great video; thankyou. I remember when my Dad gave me my first camera as a young kid....an Agfa Sillette ii, i used a yellow filter but bunged a colour film in! Pics of my white rabbit came out great! 😆
Thanks for another simple guide Peter. I think you’re absolutely right about colour being distracting from time to time and, being old enough to have family photo albums full of B&W images, I thought it would be interesting to start a project of my own which concentrates on monochrome images, not only of family but also of my locality. I am fortunate to have a B&W image of my house taken in 1904 and to have modern monochrome images might make comparison more meaningful whereas modern colour images might distort comparison. B&W images for me have so much more atmosphere as do B&W movies! On another completely different note, you should stop being diffident about your English. It’s absolutely fine and when my Finnish is as good as your English then I’ll start complaining.
There may be comments about this below, however, as the relatively new owner of a Pen F, it really shines doing B and W. Just look at the superb images posted daily on your site by Sam Thomson- his B and W images are just superb.
Hi Mr Forsgard....Thank you for this exceptional tutorial....About your b&w images....I like all of them.... Since the film photographic days...I am an entuthiastic fan of b&w.....but...at the present time,I have some troubles with my em10 mark II menus....With my Om-2 and the enlarger...things were easy... I'm going to follow all your tips for b&w photography....Thanks a lot Mr Forsgard.My best regards
Yes to all that. Growing up I developed my own B&W film and printed photos using my father's Gnome enlarger; it really was exciting. I have have a couple of rolls of Ilford HP5+ 400 waiting for use in my Fuji GW690III when I get some free time. Yes I shoot digital B&W now and then. My RUclips Banner was shot on my Leica X113 using B&W High Contrast film type and I sometimes shoot my Panasonic GX9 in L Mono-D but mostly I just shoot normal colour then desaturate to grey scales and boost contrast in post. Have been known to use strange tints and use selective colour, whatever I think the image needs really ;-)
It can be risky using the Atomium in the background. I have been contacted by SOFAM for showing it in a few videos because they felt it was commercial because youtube showed ads.
I had the same problem. I was sent a cease and desist email from them and had my video removed. It was only shown in my video for 15 seconds and was just walking through the park.
Last October we were in Pisa Italy, it was in the evening after dinner on our way back to the hotel it just stopt raining. The old pavingstones of the city centre where like stars lit from the streetlights took 100+ in B&W.
Thanks Peter, as an aside - the DJI Osmo gives an impressive image. I recently bought a Spark drone and it is a lot of fun - basically an airborne point and shoot camera.
Hi Peter! Thanx so much! I'm used to using a monochrome mode on my em5mk2 but I absolutely missed a possibility of colour filters there! it's awesome! and answer your first question - yep, I spent a lot of time inside a dark toom from my childhood, a bit later I worked in a photo studio developing and printing photographs, in few words I've sniffed s chemistry.. )))
Peter..thanks for the video. I shoot some B & W now and then. I'ts nice to know what filter,s to use to make the picture,s look better. That,s one of the reason,s I like your video,s....you show us how to do it and what settings to use. I shoot with the M1 - mk2. Keep up the good work.
My Lumix G85 has similar B&W modes and settings -- including the color filters option, which sure beats remembering to bring color filters with me and put them on the lens! But I do prefer to shoot in color and then process the raw files into B&W -- most good editing software lets you have even more control over the B&W aspects, and even emulate the color filters. I shot and developed my own 35mm B&W film (Kodak Tri-X) in high school in the late 1970's on my Nikon F. Now in addition to my Lumix G85 I have a bunch (too many, frankly) vintage 35mm and 120 cameras and I enjoy shooting both B&W and color on them -- though I leave the developing and scanning to The Darkroom lab on the US west coast. Thanks for the video -- that museum looks cool!
In East Germany we had a Foto AG in the school, where we as kids developed our images in the dark room. I can still remember the smell of the liquid (but can’t remember the liquid's name), and how gradually the black and white image appeared on the paper while bathing the image with a clothes peg in the liquid … Actually, I had forgotten that part of my childhood. Only recently, when participating a photo workshop, I remembered that.
Since somewhere in the 70s, I taught the Zone System using Fred Picker's Zone IV darkroom techniques and testing. HC110 and TRI-X were wonderful. Just about every camera I tested indicated that the ASA/ISO that created the largest dynamic range and the smoothest grain was 200.
I did B&W film and print developing in the wet darkroom, 20 years ago. It was a lot of fun for me, and very rewarding. Maybe I'm not as good digitally, but the wet prints I got with the B&W had more tonal range and I think the prints themselves are still more archival than digitally printed ones. Favorite B&W pic of yours from Brussels: The kick scooter in the foreground, modern city buildings in the background B&W ART filter: Grainy B&W is a bit too grainy for me, most of the time. However, for a tight portrait, the grain is visible without being too much. I like this once in awhile, but only for tight portraits. Usually, I will apply it in Olympus workspace, as you said, so the out-of-camera JPG isn't ruined in case I don't like it. Another excellent video; thanks. I will look for one on how to do batch processing in Olympus Workspace. I see there is a feature for it, but how to use it is not so obvious to me.
Good video and nice images Peter. I never used the filters and must try them. I make B&W images for each session as well as Sepia toned images. I made some presets in Lightroom to start with and tweak from there. I love B& W and could do everything B&W but my clients want color. I too find it so much easier than in the darkroom, don’t miss the darkroom one bit.
Hardly ever do B&W with my E-M1mkII, but hardly ever do any color ones with my Pen-F... so yeah, with the Pen-F I do B&W's... but the downside which you touched on is that LR doesn't care about you basically shooting the image in B&W and gives it to you in color. So I either use the JPG, or reconvert the RAW in LR...
I haven't as yet tried out all of the in camera filters. However, I picked up a couple of filters in an op shot. One of them fits my Olympus macro 60mm lens. It's overpowering so I need to experiment a bit more with that. However, I'm always trying to do things a bit differently so I might even try it on my full spectrum converted Olympus camera which I bought specifically for IR photography. I sent it off to have it converted in Melbourne the day I bought it. (OEM 10 Mk11) and I buy my IR lenses from Kolari Vision, the polite company, in the USA. I really love the B&W photos that I can pull out of that camera. In fact, I'm so in love with Olympus that I've given away my Canon camera. Well, I have busted tendons in my shoulder so that was a good excuse to upgrade to something lighter. I haven't tried to use the Olympus software b/c I have secreted the original camera leads somewhere so I'm not able to upgrade my software so that's why I'll stick with Adobe Bridge and ACR which work well for me in the meantime. Definitely not LR! I have tried but still haven't taken a shine to that program even though many people have sung its praises. I only use it for a record when downloading some photos. After sticking to doing in camera B&W shots for a while I'm so disappointed that LR takes over as you mentioned in the video. There's something for everyone and that's definitely not my # 1 choice. On another note, I've never done any darkroom work. Our pics were always sent away for developing. Using my mother's Brownie Box camera was the first time I took a photo when I was 10. I am still so proud to think that I had the foresight that day b/c most of the people in the shot I took have now passed on. Included in it was my grandmother and that's the only photo that family members have of her. At least with software these days I've been able to upscale the photo. My first camera given to me by my parents was a Brownie Starflash. It's not a patch on the old Brownie Boxes. The flash blinds people. It's now in my daughter's collection of old cameras which go back to some as wonderful as you showed in this video. One of the best things about B&W photography is that it calms a busy scene by taking out the multitude of colours that had spoiled the original version. There's something for everyone in photography and being a good all rounder is important to me at this stage of my life. One day I'll get out one of the blue filters you mentioned (I bought one from Kolari Vision) and I'll see how I go with portrait shots. Still, that's not top priority right now, Peter. B&W is my focus for this week, for the 52 Week Challenge you've placed before us.
Peter, Thanks for sharing the details of the b&w functions in Olympus cameras. I have not shot b&w images, yet. Now that you have shared the “ins and outs” I sure will from now on
A large percentage of my digital images are made to be converted to monochrome. Spent countless hours in my home darkroom processing and printing . Went to college to study photography,there was only film ,way before digital . Still printing and storing my work.
Another nice and varied video. I did darkroom work in high school although I shot mostly slides in the old days. I like both regular monotone and the Art setting on my E-M5II. The latter has crunchy grainy contrast that lends itself to some subjects. I didn't realize that you could set digital filters when shooting B&W. You really have a knack for highlighting the capabilities of the Olympus products.
Hi Peter! I loved the short Studio Museum tour! Way Cool! Thanks for sharing your settings & suggestions! FYI: I’ve been shooting B&W film for 50+ years; 30+ years in B&W + Color darkrooms; currently learning digital flows and love B&W from digital. B&W output quality from Olympus was #2 priority choice for buying the Pen-F Digital last year. I like the Oly flow compared to others. . . But does not equate same as Leica M or rollfilm B&W. “Art” vs documentary photos has always been elusive & challenging for me! I love it! Thanks again for a great channel!
Was just discussing this with my daughter two days ago with both of us perfering too enjoy in black and white I didn't know about the filters will give them a try , unfortunately my daughter shoots with a Nikon DSLR so no help for her
Why not shoot JPG + RAW. That way you can edit the RAW file if you do not like the settings choice. And you still get the BW viewfinder screen image in BW.
From some YT videos viewed, the maximum resolution, certainly with the Pen F, is achieved by selecting Superfine jpegs. It is also possible to add Raw to cocktail of image resolution settings. For those interested, Rob Trek has posted an excellent YT video on this for the Pen F. He observed the factory default, jpeg setting is a much less detail capturing Medium jpeg not the maximum Superfine jpeg setting.
Needed more B&W imagery earlier. Maybe a bit choppy a presentation. I never liked art modes - too trashy. I have never tried the Monochrome camera mode. Have never used Olympus Workspace - you are the first to talk about using it.
You should try Olympus Workspace. It is a good editing software for Olympus. It is a bit limited what it comes to local adjustments, but for global adjustments it is ok.
I did quite a bit of B&W darkroom work way back in the 70s. Shooting color was just so expensive, so... I often feel color blurs the message. I've considered doing almost nothing but B&W. Obviously a lot of photos purely for social media and things that are all about the color would be exceptions. Certainly used red, orange, yellow, and green filters back in the day. Curious about the blue filter for male portraits?
Good video, much appreciated. I’ve not done B&W in camera, perfering to use LR or snapseed for any very few conversions I do. With respect to Lightroom, if your preferences are set to bring in only RAW images, then you won’t see in-camera B&W images. You can set LR to load both JPG and RAW images, letting you see the in-camera versions.
I take b& was occasionally; either monochrome setting on camera or later when editing. I like using a red filter when shooting b&w. Would like to get a monochrome digital camera some day too.
I loved working in the darkroom, it was like a bit of magic, kind of like the Polaroid seeing your image emerge, I had my own B&W dark room and had access to a color lab. It is certainly easier in some ways to sit at the computer and you have incredible options there, easier compositing etc. but there is something that is just readily intuitive about the darkroom. I love that they build in the color filters, you can "fix" these things in post but really I want to make my "best negative". ART -- I kind of think of that like Instagram filters and their more natural place being in the consumer directed line rather than pro, but pro generally is "consumer ++"
A nice video. I still like B&W used to develop and process my own. I wish they would include the yellow/green filter that was my default filter with B&W film
I loved my time in college in the dark room, that's where I found my love for photography...and it was only ever B&W film for me. Now that I finally shoot digital I struggle to not just leave my Oly in Monochrome mode because B&W is my default. Slowly breaking out, but I feel like my compositions aren't nearly as interesting in color.
Thanks once more dear Peter. I will try at weekend at the Botanic Park. A question, how about taking a picture at a restaurant on a 5 floor with glass reflecting the insight illumination into the glass and outside a very nice landscape, mountains and so on.? Thanks once more. If you come to Austria once don´t miss the Botanic Garden in Linz, between Salzburg and Viena. It is a 4 Hectar garden incredible I have Fotos from there.
I had a darkroom many years ago. It was fun when there was nothing else. To see the image come up in the developing tray was magic back then, and I even liked the smell of the chemicals. But, given all the advantages of digital, I will never again use film. As far as black & white is concerned I use it very seldom. I might use it if color was completely irrelevant, or if some dramatic effect was better served with B&W. But I would never use the monotone feature on my camera. I will always convert to B&W in post processing, from the original jpeg (I never use raw). And, no, I've never used any of the "art filters". My old Paint Shop Pro X has plenty of those sort of things. Jpegs are more than flexible enough for my needs and are far easier to use than laboriously converting a raw file. Whatever I might do to the jpeg I always save the edited file as a separate (save as) file so I always have the original jpeg.
Hi Peter, thanks for the tutorial, very instructive. Does shooting B&W through the camera produce better results than later converting colour shots through 3rd party software. I convert at the moment and find slight colour casts, also with different makes of paper. I'm looking for real blacks and whites, - high contrast images.
It depends. It is at least easier, you do not need to do anything in post. Well not that much anyway. If you want a really personal look for your images you are better off with doing it in post.
I love b&w. But always post process to get there. Heading across the pond for two weeks with my om-4 ti, 50mm f1.4 and iso 400 b&w. It will be like the old days before the pens and om-d’s got me. Nice video 👍
Thanks Peter. Another informative video. When I used to shoot on film, I played with B&W a lot - with different films and in the darkroom. I had my favourite films I used to use (Pan F for detail and very dark blacks - HP400 when I wanted a bit more grain). Also used to use yellow and red filters when I wanted a bit more contrast. In those days we used to look through an optical viewfinder, so of course, the view was in full colour and you never really knew what you were getting until you switched off the safelight and could see your prints... I've never shot my digital cameras in a B&W mode - I assume you'd just get a jpeg in monochrome, with no way to edit exposure etc, as you would with a RAW file... So - is there any way to have some "darkroom" control with shooting B&W in camera?
![Black And White Photography - [5 things why B&W photography will make you a BETTER photographer]](/img/1.gif)
Happy to have happened on this video today. Actually, in January, I decided I would set one of my camera bodies to monochrome for the whole year. It's been a lot of fun to have a full year to think in B&W. I am getting better at is as well (I think anyway).
That is a cool idea. You must learn a lot!
I’ve never in my life felt as peaceful and self confident as I did almost four decades ago in my high school darkroom. It’s a state of being I’ve tried unsuccessfully many times to recapture.
A darkroom was a lovely place to be: It took as long as it took. There was a big sign and a light outside telling everyone else to just go away. We were in there concentrating on how to get the best out of that one shot.... And (I might have said this earlier)... it took as long as it took. Peaceful, happy days...
Been there, done that. And when I did printing, I'd have the local jazz station on the radio.
I understand that concept! That would have been 38 years ago for me. 1983-84 and into 1985.
1:53. Lovely studio/museum there. Those vintage lenses are so cool. I converted some raw images from a concert to black and white in camera and some of them looked way better in some ways.
My first camera was an Olympus OM-1. I sent it for full maintenance recently and works perfectly. And yes, I had a b/w darkroom. Mystical experience, the red light, the smell, the picture as develops, the wet picture. I think that I was a better photographer at that time without all the technological features that we have today.
Hello from New York City! Please help me understand. What is the difference between contrast and dynamic range? Thank you for your informative video
Contrast is the diffenrence between the lightest part and the darkest part in a scene or photograph. Dynamic range is the amount of contrast the sensor can capture.
I learned photography from my mother back in the 60s. I bought a Zenit-B 35mm an 50mm lens. We spent hours in the darkroom after each photo outing. I learned a love for B&W half a century ago. Recently I set up an old E-P3 to full B&W mode. It is like a new camera to me now and I love the results.
My story is similar. I even had a zenit B but quickly got a better camera.
@@stuarthirsch I moved on to a mamiyaflex and Minolta x700 for many years :)
Thanks Peter. I've just found a passion for B&W. Just set my OMD M5II to the settings described in this video. It's 0544 in the morning and let's see what I come home with. Thanks for an easy and well explained tutorial.
Glad it helped
I have been shooting for over 60 years . I started after watching a friend took me into the wet darkroom while in the army. I didn’t use color before digital. Love digital but really see in B&& W.
Hi!
Going to age myself a bit. My first photography class was in 1974, in high school. It was black & white photography and we developed in the school darkroom.
Today, I use monochrome setting on OMD EM5 Mll camera. More often, I use light room classic to go from color to B&W.
Clearly I need to play with the in camera filters!
Thank you for this video!
Kind regards
Rick
Thanks for sharing.
Is there any advantage in setting the camera to monochrome, or converting the image to monochrome in post??
The advantage is that you will se the image in black & white. That helps a lot.
I was commissioned for a family shoot in London. The client requested all to be in black and white I was lucky enough to have access to different studios.
I chose a huge green screen set. The green casted a lovely soft grey background on all of the images.
Very pleased with the result.
Thanks for explaining and showing what the filters do. I made up a B&W profile in my customs menu for this month. I am also going back over some recent images I made in color to see what making them B&W will do.
Glad it was helpful!
Peter.. thanks for another great video ... I have a Pen F and use the dial on the front of the camera to quickly switch to MONO often. Exactly for the reason you stated... seeing the B&W in the EVF can complete change how I see and compose a picture. Thanks again and keep up the great work.
Yes, Pen F is great for b&w and other looks also.
Invariably my best images are b/w. I like to use Montone and art 10 on my Om d em 5 II. Since I bought this camera I hardly ever shoot Raw anymore, whereas before I never shot jpeg.
The results are amazing and I don’t need to spend hours on my pc. The jpeg quality of Olympus is simply astounding.
I just received an Olympus-410 and I am interested in taking some pics in Black and White. Great tutorial.
Thanks and congrats, a new camera is always exciting!
LOL! “If I want to ruin the image I will do it myself in post” 🤣
Agree with Peter - view the B&W image in the EVF or the Screen to see if it makes sense as a B&W image.
I like the Shadow/Highlight Curve in my Olympus EM10... that and the color filters allow for sooooo many monochrome options
Inspiring! Makes me want to do B&W. I liked all the images but the one with boxes, that first one, grabbed me. Thanks for this video.
Great that were inspired. Did you go out and photograph in B&W?
9:00 I just tried the filters on monochrome on the sky behind you watching this on my phone! Red certaunly did add a lot of contrast to the sky. Yellow did a bit. So did orange. I was always fascinated by the orange filter that was always credited with penetrating haze. It seemed to increase sky contrast too.
Hi Peter, I will play more with B&W photos now because of you. I really appreciate what you shared with us. Thanks so much!
Great to hear! Have you watch this video. It is also about B&W photography: ruclips.net/video/KLSOumLFq88/видео.html
@@ForsgardPeter No I haven't. Now I will. Thanks so much for sharing it Peter.
Really helpful thank you and will be trying black and white this year! again thank you for your time and effort.
Great to hear!
I absolutely love taking B&W pictures with my Olympus, and if you shoot in raw, you still have the color image. I still recall opening cans of film in my fathers walk-in closet (no windows) and feeding it into a metal spool so I could develop them myself. Oh the joy of realizing that what you took looks just horrible B&W (or forgot to use a filter, or even change filters).
Love black and white. And I find a lot of those images that might have too much nose can work pretty well in Black and White. And yes I did try the darkroom a few times. Not easy....
We somehow like grain/noise on our black and white images. We are most likely more used to it vs. grain/noise in color images.
The last abstract image is the one I liked best, though the street art images are very nice. In the early 70’s in high school I was introduced to working in a darkroom. I was taking print shop and the process for printing involved creating negatives in the darkroom and burning them to a plate. For many years I had a darkroom and shot and developed and printed B&W images. Until the day I got my first Olympus digital camera.
Once again, thanks for an informative video!
I used to love being in the darkroom. The radio on, the world shut out and the glow of the red light. It was magical seeing the pictures appear, something hard to recreate in digital. I love my EM5 and still see black and white as a good option when shooting.
Thanks for the filters tip, I haven’t noticed they were incorporated in the camera and workspace. I mostly use BW photos for portraits, and sometimes for dramatic scenes.
The black and white capability is the reason I purchased the Pen F, and then later traded for the EM1X.
Personally when I see a particular situation that I think will work in black and white. I photography in black and white, train yourself to see in black and white or understand what situations lend themselves to this type of photograph. I don’t do it in post I “commit” to it there and then (a bit like just using a prime lens it’s all you have make it work) As for settings I also adjust the tone curve.
Once I’ve found the style / settings I save them to one of the custom functions.
My influences came / come from the likes of, Donovan, Bailey, McCullum and Salagardo to name a few.
I have done quite a bit of wet darkroom in my day (teenager) using Ilford paper and various films they produced along with the Cosina CT1 camera. Re: which one of your photos did I like. The cardboard boxes on the foot way was my favourite.
Cheers.
Thanks for another great tutorial Peter
I find that its good to use in camera settings to see in black and white to give you an idea of what you can then usually do better in post using software like silver efex pro 2.
That is good way too.
Great video Peter Forsgard learned a lot about the color filters
The C2 Mode on my PEN F is set for Monochrome and I use it quite a lot these days. Additional setup is LF +Raw and I use your suggested setting within Monochrome except the yellow filter because the Pen F does not have it. I use Mac Photos as my main post software (because Aperture is gone) and NIK 's Silver Efex Pro 2 to fine tune my B & W images. I am very happy with the results. Thanks for your great videos Peter, very entertaining and very informative. Good shooting!
Thank you! Great that you shared your set up.
A lot of new information for me to learn. Thank you Peter.
Thanks, glad it was helpful.
I started with B&W in my 1976 6th grade classroom. Every spring, the teacher built a darkroom! With my fathers’ Kodak Retina IIa, I did my best. While I shoot a lot of digital, these days I still shoot B&W film. No darkroom, but with a dark bag I can develop in my kitchen, and scan with an old Nikon film scanner I bought in the early 2000s. Looking forward to Christmas and comparing my OM2n with my new em5 m3
Peter, As I am traveling to Africa next year, I recently purchased the Olympus EM1 Mark ll. As a novice, I am learning MUCH from your short, informative videos in which you use an Olympus camera. Your tutorials with menu steps are invaluable. Please share what you pack in your bag, travel power strips, adaptors, etc. Thanks!
I set the Fn2 to A mode with monochrome. Iso crancked up. Contrast plus 2 and green filter. Oh it makes lovely portaits....
I've done my share of black and white photography and spent many hours in the darkroom in my time. Back then I had an Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR. Which in my opinion was the best 35mm camera around at that time. I'm grateful for digital cameras now. Thanks for the videos, keep up the good work.
I must thy this, Peter, thank you. I learnt darkroom when I was a child and for many years as an adult continued to use it. I loved the darkroom. However, digital is much more convenient. When I first switched to digital, it massive learning curve using editing software.
Thank your for the inspiration. My favourite pic was the one with the boxes left outside.
Whilst I know this is an older video, post, I,would like to add a comment for anyone looking at it. First, color photography was started in the late 1930s, my dad (an amateur photographer) shot mostly Kodachrome 35mm slides, which I have. I studied color photography in schools in the mid 1960s. I also studied B&W photography and shot B&W on film in the 1050s as a youngster, and throughout my secondary school years in the early 1960s, and processed my own film and prints. After a career as both a commercial photographer early on and later a photojournalist, I got the Olympus Pen F after retirement to shoot digital B&W photos with. I use its dedicated B&W setting and have tuned two B&W film emulations, a ASA 125 and a Tri-X simulation. I had the original Pen F 35mm half frame camera in the mid 1960s for a travel camera, and it was brilliant. So getting the new PenF was a must.
Cheers
Thanks for sharing.
Some handy hints about settings I wasn’t aware of for monochrome photography with the Olympus. I’ll be trying some of them. Thank you.
Thanks.
I'm used to smartphone-photography and just recently switched to a OM-D E-M 10 Mark III. I mainly made B/W photos but always shoot them in color and used a black to white gradient map in postwork. I never used just desaturate b/c a gradient map can preserve some information that would be otherwise lost. A little bit similar to the filters.
I think I will give the BW mode a try nonetheless and will experiement with the filters also.
Thanks for sharing. How do like shooting with E-M10 MKIII compared to a smartphone?
@@ForsgardPeter It feels familiar but different. :) If the smartphone is like an unlimited access to a fun waterpark. The E-M10 is like an open door to a beach next to the ocean. It feels, like I had only used the 'P' and 'ART' Modes so far and now I unlocked 'A', 'S' and 'M'.
My first photography class was B&W dark room and I felt in love with photography. I used a lot the dark room that I got use to dress black all the time. I like the picture of the architectural eave (last one). I haven’t done any b&w with my Oly yet because I’m new to this world of MFT.
Brilliant.. simple explanation easy to follow. Thanks.
Hi Peter.
I only shoot B&W pictures with my Olympus OMD 10II.
I love this camera, I photograph now about 35 years, had at first Nikon, then Sont SLT
and now Micro 4/3, and I love it.
In my film days, I was using also Olympus, the OM10.
I also had a darkroom to process my pictures and the film.
Now I am back at the beginning and use still Olympus, and I will never change.
Maybe to an OMD 5 II, but now I am still very pleased with my OMD10II.
Like your videos, keep up the good work my friend.
Thank you.
Excellent B/W pictures from Brussels!
Thank you.
I now shoot a fair bit of B&W. Back in the film days, I think I shot only two rolls of B&W versus hundreds of rolls of color. However, when I got my E-5 in 2010, B&W suddenly became easy. I now shoot an E-M1.2. On both cameras, C1 is my standard settings for color and C2 is the same settings, but for B&W. That's the fastest way to switch back and forth. Also, I mostly shoot Raw+JPG, so I have the "digital negative" to work with if I need to mess something up later. :-)
My original inspiration was Ansel Adams and his work in Yosemite National Park. I live 90 miles (145 km) from Yosemite Valley, so I'm there a lot. I have visited Yosemite about 200 times in my life. Over the past ten years I have made at least a half dozen day trips to Yosemite specifically to shoot B&W. These trips usually end up with 90% B&W and 10% color. On other trips, I mix color and B&W as the mood strikes me.
I am part of a photography team at our church, which has given me the opportunity to make B&W portrait and concert style photos during on-campus events and during the main service.
Great post Peter. I love Black & White photography. One of the reasons I bought recently an OM-4 Ti to shoot B/W with Film again! Using on the OM-D line most functionality (not the ART filters).
Thanks.
I shoot a lot of black and white with my E-PL6, usually with the red filter. I sometimes use the Art Filter's Dramatic black and white, however the Monotone setting is what I use.
Thanks for sharing Peter!
I have made a few b&w images on film and also spent some hours in the darkroom. It was the only way back then, but luckily not any more.
Your videos has convinced me to start my photography in a more serious way and I'm seriously considering the Olympus OM-D E-M10 MKII
I as my starter camera and I thank you for that! I believe the MFT fits my needs.
Great to hear and if you have any questions, please ask.
Home printing B&W was fun for me, some thirty-five years ago. One nice thing was knowing when shooting upward, parallel lines could easily be restored. A few times, I printed color negs onto B&W paper and used a color gel to change the saturation of equally dense colors. Red, Green and Blue, for starters, don't need to be the same shade of gray. The Cokin filter system was everyday gear for me and their color filters were good when shooting B&W. While all that was fun and I would do it again in a minute, there is no going back. Digital manipulation can be more artistic than exposure settings. Ugh, not playing down getting it right with the camera.
Did you ever slip into a dark spot to change an unfinished roll of film in order to change ISO? (ASA/ISO). The trick was to make sure to note how many frames were exposed to avoid doubles. Long ago memories.
Another enjoyable video, Mr. Forsgård
. Thank you.
I did sometimes change films in mid roll. Loaded them again. That was sometimes the way to change ISO.
When reading the title I thought what possible could be told about it.... Discovered a whole new menu with options to try out. Thanks.
Hey, Peter. I've done my share in the dark room with the full process. Yes, digital is a great convenience. I think problem of subject and purpose remains. My always debate is between make it nice and meaningful. It seems that B&W makes you think more.. I want to spend more time with the B&W now
Nice video Peter, thank you. Good to remember where we started!
Thanks.
Back years ago I had a dark room, and had lots of fun in it. I had a Fujica ST801 SLR and for black and white, I used Ilford film, chemicals and paper. I remember that at the time Kodak took minutes while Ilford (Ilfospeed) took seconds for developing. For colour I always used Fujicolor film.
OK. Thanks again Peter.
I still have some dark room chemicals and cards, and occasionally I use them for some rayograph kind of prints which require no camera at all. For BW photographs, I shoot in RAW+JPG mode. I can see the results with altered settings and added filters according to condition and my taste. And then, if I decide to make some changes with the settings and/or filters, I work on the RAW version.
Great video; thankyou.
I remember when my Dad gave me my first camera as a young kid....an Agfa Sillette ii, i used a yellow filter but bunged a colour film in! Pics of my white rabbit came out great! 😆
Thanks for another simple guide Peter. I think you’re absolutely right about colour being distracting from time to time and, being old enough to have family photo albums full of B&W images, I thought it would be interesting to start a project of my own which concentrates on monochrome images, not only of family but also of my locality. I am fortunate to have a B&W image of my house taken in 1904 and to have modern monochrome images might make comparison more meaningful whereas modern colour images might distort comparison. B&W images for me have so much more atmosphere as do B&W movies!
On another completely different note, you should stop being diffident about your English. It’s absolutely fine and when my Finnish is as good as your English then I’ll start complaining.
Those old photographs must be very valuable for you. It is really great that you have them.
There may be comments about this below, however, as the relatively new owner of a Pen F, it really shines doing B and W.
Just look at the superb images posted daily on your site by Sam Thomson- his B and W images are just superb.
wow, finally i found really good explanation! thanks so much!
I am glad it helped.
Hi Mr Forsgard....Thank you for this exceptional tutorial....About your b&w images....I like all of them....
Since the film photographic days...I am an entuthiastic fan of b&w.....but...at the present time,I have some troubles with my em10 mark II menus....With my Om-2 and the enlarger...things were easy...
I'm going to follow all your tips for b&w photography....Thanks a lot Mr Forsgard.My best regards
Yes to all that. Growing up I developed my own B&W film and printed photos using my father's Gnome enlarger; it really was exciting. I have have a couple of rolls of Ilford HP5+ 400 waiting for use in my Fuji GW690III when I get some free time. Yes I shoot digital B&W now and then. My RUclips Banner was shot on my Leica X113 using B&W High Contrast film type and I sometimes shoot my Panasonic GX9 in L Mono-D but mostly I just shoot normal colour then desaturate to grey scales and boost contrast in post. Have been known to use strange tints and use selective colour, whatever I think the image needs really ;-)
Tack så mycket! älskar att ta i b&w och du hjälpte mig grymt mkt!!
It can be risky using the Atomium in the background. I have been contacted by SOFAM for showing it in a few videos because they felt it was commercial because youtube showed ads.
I had the same problem. I was sent a cease and desist email from them and had my video removed. It was only shown in my video for 15 seconds and was just walking through the park.
Did not know that. Lets see what happens.
@@ForsgardPeter I hope they leave you alone. With the Atomium having usage protection in Belgium it can be a pain.
just want to say thank you for your help.
You're welcome!
Last October we were in Pisa Italy, it was in the evening after dinner on our way back to the hotel it just stopt raining. The old pavingstones of the city centre where like stars lit from the streetlights took 100+ in B&W.
Just the video I was looking for. I have been fascinated with B&W for street.
Thanks Peter, as an aside - the DJI Osmo gives an impressive image. I recently bought a Spark drone and it is a lot of fun - basically an airborne point and shoot camera.
DJI makes great stuff. Yes the Osmo Pocket is surprisingly good.
Hi Peter! Thanx so much! I'm used to using a monochrome mode on my em5mk2 but I absolutely missed a possibility of colour filters there! it's awesome! and answer your first question - yep, I spent a lot of time inside a dark toom from my childhood, a bit later I worked in a photo studio developing and printing photographs, in few words I've sniffed s chemistry.. )))
Peter..thanks for the video. I shoot some B & W now and then. I'ts nice
to know what filter,s to use to make the picture,s look better. That,s one
of the reason,s I like your video,s....you show us how to do it and what
settings to use. I shoot with the M1 - mk2. Keep up the good work.
My Lumix G85 has similar B&W modes and settings -- including the color filters option, which sure beats remembering to bring color filters with me and put them on the lens! But I do prefer to shoot in color and then process the raw files into B&W -- most good editing software lets you have even more control over the B&W aspects, and even emulate the color filters. I shot and developed my own 35mm B&W film (Kodak Tri-X) in high school in the late 1970's on my Nikon F. Now in addition to my Lumix G85 I have a bunch (too many, frankly) vintage 35mm and 120 cameras and I enjoy shooting both B&W and color on them -- though I leave the developing and scanning to The Darkroom lab on the US west coast. Thanks for the video -- that museum looks cool!
In East Germany we had a Foto AG in the school, where we as kids developed our images in the dark room. I can still remember the smell of the liquid (but can’t remember the liquid's name), and how gradually the black and white image appeared on the paper while bathing the image with a clothes peg in the liquid … Actually, I had forgotten that part of my childhood. Only recently, when participating a photo workshop, I remembered that.
Since somewhere in the 70s, I taught the Zone System using Fred Picker's Zone IV darkroom techniques and testing. HC110 and TRI-X were wonderful. Just about every camera I tested indicated that the ASA/ISO that created the largest dynamic range and the smoothest grain was 200.
I did B&W film and print developing in the wet darkroom, 20 years ago. It was a lot of fun for me, and very rewarding. Maybe I'm not as good digitally, but the wet prints I got with the B&W had more tonal range and I think the prints themselves are still more archival than digitally printed ones.
Favorite B&W pic of yours from Brussels: The kick scooter in the foreground, modern city buildings in the background
B&W ART filter: Grainy B&W is a bit too grainy for me, most of the time. However, for a tight portrait, the grain is visible without being too much. I like this once in awhile, but only for tight portraits. Usually, I will apply it in Olympus workspace, as you said, so the out-of-camera JPG isn't ruined in case I don't like it.
Another excellent video; thanks. I will look for one on how to do batch processing in Olympus Workspace. I see there is a feature for it, but how to use it is not so obvious to me.
Good video and nice images Peter. I never used the filters and must try them. I make B&W images for each session as well as Sepia toned images. I made some presets in Lightroom to start with and tweak from there. I love B& W and could do everything B&W but my clients want color. I too find it so much easier than in the darkroom, don’t miss the darkroom one bit.
Hardly ever do B&W with my E-M1mkII, but hardly ever do any color ones with my Pen-F... so yeah, with the Pen-F I do B&W's... but the downside which you touched on is that LR doesn't care about you basically shooting the image in B&W and gives it to you in color. So I either use the JPG, or reconvert the RAW in LR...
You should give Olympus Workspace a try. It will show the raw image in b&w if shot in b&w.
Thanks Peter. One of your most enjoyable videos, I shall experiment with B&W now. I used to develop film in the '60s as a teenager but not since.
Thank you very much.
I haven't as yet tried out all of the in camera filters. However, I picked up a couple of filters in an op shot. One of them fits my Olympus macro 60mm lens. It's overpowering so I need to experiment a bit more with that. However, I'm always trying to do things a bit differently so I might even try it on my full spectrum converted Olympus camera which I bought specifically for IR photography. I sent it off to have it converted in Melbourne the day I bought it. (OEM 10 Mk11) and I buy my IR lenses from Kolari Vision, the polite company, in the USA. I really love the B&W photos that I can pull out of that camera. In fact, I'm so in love with Olympus that I've given away my Canon camera. Well, I have busted tendons in my shoulder so that was a good excuse to upgrade to something lighter. I haven't tried to use the Olympus software b/c I have secreted the original camera leads somewhere so I'm not able to upgrade my software so that's why I'll stick with Adobe Bridge and ACR which work well for me in the meantime. Definitely not LR! I have tried but still haven't taken a shine to that program even though many people have sung its praises. I only use it for a record when downloading some photos. After sticking to doing in camera B&W shots for a while I'm so disappointed that LR takes over as you mentioned in the video. There's something for everyone and that's definitely not my # 1 choice. On another note, I've never done any darkroom work. Our pics were always sent away for developing. Using my mother's Brownie Box camera was the first time I took a photo when I was 10. I am still so proud to think that I had the foresight that day b/c most of the people in the shot I took have now passed on. Included in it was my grandmother and that's the only photo that family members have of her. At least with software these days I've been able to upscale the photo. My first camera given to me by my parents was a Brownie Starflash. It's not a patch on the old Brownie Boxes. The flash blinds people. It's now in my daughter's collection of old cameras which go back to some as wonderful as you showed in this video. One of the best things about B&W photography is that it calms a busy scene by taking out the multitude of colours that had spoiled the original version. There's something for everyone in photography and being a good all rounder is important to me at this stage of my life. One day I'll get out one of the blue filters you mentioned (I bought one from Kolari Vision) and I'll see how I go with portrait shots. Still, that's not top priority right now, Peter. B&W is my focus for this week, for the 52 Week Challenge you've placed before us.
Thanks for sharing.
Peter,
Thanks for sharing the details of the b&w functions in Olympus cameras. I have not shot b&w images, yet. Now that you have shared the “ins and outs” I sure will from now on
A large percentage of my digital images are made to be converted to monochrome. Spent countless hours in my home darkroom processing and printing . Went to college to study photography,there was only film ,way before digital . Still printing and storing my work.
Another nice and varied video. I did darkroom work in high school although I shot mostly slides in the old days. I like both regular monotone and the Art setting on my E-M5II. The latter has crunchy grainy contrast that lends itself to some subjects. I didn't realize that you could set digital filters when shooting B&W. You really have a knack for highlighting the capabilities of the Olympus products.
Thanks!
For some reason I like the monochrome art filter. Especially with views that could be taken 50 years ago.
So do I, it works for me.
Hi Peter! I loved the short Studio Museum tour! Way Cool! Thanks for sharing your settings & suggestions! FYI: I’ve been shooting B&W film for 50+ years; 30+ years in B&W + Color darkrooms; currently learning digital flows and love B&W from digital. B&W output quality from Olympus was #2 priority choice for buying the Pen-F Digital last year. I like the Oly flow compared to others. . . But does not equate same as Leica M or rollfilm B&W. “Art” vs documentary photos has always been elusive & challenging for me! I love it! Thanks again for a great channel!
Great video. I shoot in color and then post process to black and white, when needed.
Was just discussing this with my daughter two days ago with both of us perfering too enjoy in black and white I didn't know about the filters will give them a try , unfortunately my daughter shoots with a Nikon DSLR so no help for her
Why not shoot JPG + RAW. That way you can edit the RAW file if you do not like the settings choice. And you still get the BW viewfinder screen image in BW.
That is an option too and a good one.
From some YT videos viewed, the maximum resolution, certainly with the Pen F, is achieved by selecting Superfine jpegs. It is also possible to add Raw to cocktail of image resolution settings.
For those interested, Rob Trek has posted an excellent YT video on this for the Pen F.
He observed the factory default, jpeg setting is a much less detail capturing Medium jpeg not the maximum Superfine jpeg setting.
Needed more B&W imagery earlier. Maybe a bit choppy a presentation.
I never liked art modes - too trashy.
I have never tried the Monochrome camera mode. Have never used Olympus Workspace - you are the first to talk about using it.
You should try Olympus Workspace. It is a good editing software for Olympus. It is a bit limited what it comes to local adjustments, but for global adjustments it is ok.
I am wondering if Workspace is on a CD. Can’t find it as an app.
I did quite a bit of B&W darkroom work way back in the 70s. Shooting color was just so expensive, so... I often feel color blurs the message. I've considered doing almost nothing but B&W. Obviously a lot of photos purely for social media and things that are all about the color would be exceptions. Certainly used red, orange, yellow, and green filters back in the day. Curious about the blue filter for male portraits?
Good video, much appreciated. I’ve not done B&W in camera, perfering to use LR or snapseed for any very few conversions I do. With respect to Lightroom, if your preferences are set to bring in only RAW images, then you won’t see in-camera B&W images. You can set LR to load both JPG and RAW images, letting you see the in-camera versions.
I take b& was occasionally; either monochrome setting on camera or later when editing. I like using a red filter when shooting b&w. Would like to get a monochrome digital camera some day too.
I loved working in the darkroom, it was like a bit of magic, kind of like the Polaroid seeing your image emerge, I had my own B&W dark room and had access to a color lab. It is certainly easier in some ways to sit at the computer and you have incredible options there, easier compositing etc. but there is something that is just readily intuitive about the darkroom. I love that they build in the color filters, you can "fix" these things in post but really I want to make my "best negative". ART -- I kind of think of that like Instagram filters and their more natural place being in the consumer directed line rather than pro, but pro generally is "consumer ++"
A nice video. I still like B&W used to develop and process my own. I wish they would include the yellow/green filter that was my default filter with B&W film
I loved my time in college in the dark room, that's where I found my love for photography...and it was only ever B&W film for me. Now that I finally shoot digital I struggle to not just leave my Oly in Monochrome mode because B&W is my default. Slowly breaking out, but I feel like my compositions aren't nearly as interesting in color.
Yes for colour photography a different kind of seeing is required.
Thanks once more dear Peter.
I will try at weekend at the Botanic Park.
A question, how about taking a picture at a restaurant on a 5 floor with glass reflecting the insight illumination into the glass and outside a very nice landscape, mountains and so on.?
Thanks once more.
If you come to Austria once don´t miss the Botanic Garden in Linz, between Salzburg and Viena. It is a 4 Hectar garden incredible I have Fotos from there.
Put the lens against the window glass. The reflection wont show.
@@ForsgardPeter Thanks, so simple I didn´t have such a simple idea.
I had a darkroom many years ago. It was fun when there was nothing else. To see the image come up in the developing tray was magic back then, and I even liked the smell of the chemicals. But, given all the advantages of digital, I will never again use film. As far as black & white is concerned I use it very seldom. I might use it if color was completely irrelevant, or if some dramatic effect was better served with B&W. But I would never use the monotone feature on my camera. I will always convert to B&W in post processing, from the original jpeg (I never use raw). And, no, I've never used any of the "art filters". My old Paint Shop Pro X has plenty of those sort of things. Jpegs are more than flexible enough for my needs and are far easier to use than laboriously converting a raw file. Whatever I might do to the jpeg I always save the edited file as a separate (save as) file so I always have the original jpeg.
If you convert your images to b&w using raw would be a big benefit. There is so much more info in the file that the results are much better.
Hi Peter, thanks for the tutorial, very instructive. Does shooting B&W through the camera produce better results than later converting colour shots through 3rd party software. I convert at the moment and find slight colour casts, also with different makes of paper. I'm looking for real blacks and whites, - high contrast images.
It depends. It is at least easier, you do not need to do anything in post. Well not that much anyway. If you want a really personal look for your images you are better off with doing it in post.
@@ForsgardPeter Thanks Peter, I'll give it a go
Nice video yo. I'm going to give the Oly workspace another go 🙌
I love b&w. But always post process to get there. Heading across the pond for two weeks with my om-4 ti, 50mm f1.4 and iso 400 b&w. It will be like the old days before the pens and om-d’s got me. Nice video 👍
Thanks Peter. Another informative video. When I used to shoot on film, I played with B&W a lot - with different films and in the darkroom. I had my favourite films I used to use (Pan F for detail and very dark blacks - HP400 when I wanted a bit more grain). Also used to use yellow and red filters when I wanted a bit more contrast.
In those days we used to look through an optical viewfinder, so of course, the view was in full colour and you never really knew what you were getting until you switched off the safelight and could see your prints... I've never shot my digital cameras in a B&W mode - I assume you'd just get a jpeg in monochrome, with no way to edit exposure etc, as you would with a RAW file...
So - is there any way to have some "darkroom" control with shooting B&W in camera?
Thanks.