Trivia (XCVIII) - Pro Advice

"Why I don't use presets for black and white

When used properly, Lightroom offers what is necessary to obtain "your look" of black & white images. It might take a while to get there, but so does the look you want of color images, and actually every camera.

I have played around a bit with NIK presets in the past where you can get the look of Kodak or Ilford film. However, one thing is that your Leica M9 is not a film camera but a camera of the new digital age. But mainly I find that those are "effect filters" and not really your personal expression. I have met very few - actually nobody - who consistently used plugins or presets. It tend to be like an app for the iPhone that is fun for a while, but then you want a new one.

And what I am looking for in my photographs is a consistent look that is mine, not a new one. I think what I like and what I am looking for, is something that has a pleasant tonality - something that might resemble silver prints from the darkroom - or something that I consider "real black & white."

Now, aesthetics does change. What we once considered being a cool color of a computer (beige in 1985) is no longer cool. The same goes for colors of cars, shapes of things and all. And so it would be logical that the digital age changes our view on what a nice tonality or what nice colors are."

Thorsten Overgaard


Overgaard, T. 2011. Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder Camera. overgaard.dk, [blog] 23rd December, Available at: http://www.overgaard.dk/leica-M9-digital-rangefinder-camera-page-16.html [Accessed: 26 Dec 2013].