Straight out of camera jpgs are not my favorite, because there are too many things to get right at the time of the capture, especially in color. It’s pretty much impossible, at least in any kind of action, to get perfect white balance or color balance and saturation in camera. Black and white is a bit different, though, because the color information is eliminated and therefore it offers better starting point for in camera jpg.
In my latest video I’m experimenting with in camera black and white and for that I made two different customized Monochrome Photo Styles for my Lumix G9.
Here are some of my SOOC black and white photos, these have zero post processing, except for the resizing and a mild sharpening after that. After the photos you’ll find my custom settings, just in case you’d like to try them.
All these pictures were shot on the Lumix G9 and the Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens wide open.
Here are my custom settings. The first one, that I also used in the photos above, will produce dark and contrasty photos. The second one will make less contrast and also lighter shadows. I used my Lumix G9, but you can use these settings also on other Lumix cameras.
It’s important to get the exposure right, if you don’t want any post processing and I recommend using the zebra for that. Set the zebra to 95% and place the zebra in the image over the area where you want the last detail before blown out white. I have a video of that, if you are interested.
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