Wolfgang Lonien

Without further explanations:

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“Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.”

Robert Frank

(got that quote from here, after reading it elsewhere several times by now)

At the moment, I’m using my digital Olympus OM-D E-M10 camera in black and white. In camera, I simulate a slightly increased contrast, and also a yellow (sometimes orange or red) filter, but I also save it as a raw file so I can do whatever serves the image best still afterwards.

For the first of the images here, the camera was still on colour, but I decided against colour later on my computer. So here are some photos, a last one from October, and some of November already:

Mitchie’s camera, with which I took the photo of my own one, was also set to colour internally, and even to a RGB colour space (I use AdobeRGB). But like I said, these in-camera settings are what they are for me – just previews of what to expect. For that last photo I also wrote a ‘howto’ which you can read on Flickr if you click on that image.

As always, thanks for viewing and reading.

Mitchie & me both have the Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:4-5.6 lens; the “old” one from the Four Thirds line, not the newer Micro Four Thirds version. I got mine together with the E-520 DSLR, and Mitchie got hers with the first Pen E-PL1 camera, as double zoom kits. So Mitchie also has the original MMF-2 adapter, and I have a third party “Viltrox” one. Both allow these lenses to autofocus on Micro Four Thirds cameras, albeit slowly (only the top-of-the-line E-M1 camera has phase detect AF like the old DSLRs had).

Yesterday I thought about the zoom lens since it also covers the 135mm range of my new old OM Zuiko lens, although not at an aperture of 1:2.8 – our variable aperture zoom lenses are almost 2 stops slower at that focal length. The newer 40-150mm/2.8 PRO would do the job but costs a dozen times more, and weighs much more than what we have.

So today I had that zoom on my camera, and took a walk with it. Here are some photos I made, one even before leaving the house:

It’s a very versatile lens. I used it at 79mm for the cat, and at 114mm for the step counter on my mobile phone. All outside photos were taken at 40mm (and all are wide open at f/4), which seems to be a “normal” focal length for me.

You get the newer Micro Four Thirds version of this lens for about 150€ (or $) – a very good value. Highly recommended.

Thanks for viewing.

On Monday, I took these:

New neighbours – not only in the garage

Jasitl – just another selfie in the lift…

Yesterday I went to a check-up in a hospital:

Universitäts Klinikum Frankfurt
Goethe-Universität
Haus 23 (Zentralgebäude), von innen

University Clinic Frankfurt
Goethe University
House 23 (Central Building), from inside

When I was back at home, Mitchie took some photos of Tuna & me:

Tuna and Wolfgang, October 2017

“Ja, ich lieb Dich auch!” – “Yes, I love you, too!”

And since I’m using my film camera again, I also tried the “grainy film art filter” of my digital E-M10 camera yesterday and today:

Tuna the cat, October 2017

Carpet on wooden floor

Frankfurt, with cloudy sky

What I see is the following: these last three pictures may look ok or even good here, maybe even on the preview on Flickr. But when you see them in their original size (also on Flickr if you’re interested), you’ll see that there’s indeed a lot of artificial “grain” – which doesn’t look like film grain at all.

Which means that when/if I want a film look, I should probably use film, and not any of my “digicams”. Don’t know how realistic a digital Pen-F would be, and maybe a Fuji with their Acros simulation is way better – but this here ain’t film. Even Silver Efex Pro2 is much better, tho with that one you also have to tweak the output to come close to film on paper.

This was Sfx with an Ilford HP5+ simulation, from 11 days ago:

Tuna the cat, October 2017, resting after a walk out in 20 degrees, with black & white film simulation

Also no real film, but much closer to it.

Anyway, thanks for reading and viewing.