My Black and White Workflow

Today I was asked about my black and white workflow. I thought I might answer it here as well:

I only shoot raw, both with my Leica and my Fuji cameras, so technically, there is always color information there. (Hence I was able to convert this image back to color.)

But usually, I never see my images in color, ever.

That is because I have set all of my cameras to black and white, using the “Monochrom” mode on the Leicas and the ACROS (Yellow) film simulation on the Fujis. That way I only see b/w images when looking through the EVF or at the display, both when shooting and also when I review the photos I have taken.

Photo Mechanic, which I use for editing, shows me monochrome photos too, as it uses the preview images generated by the cameras.

And finally, when I import my photos into Lightroom, I have it set up so that it applies a custom preset using a B&W profile (mostly Adobe Monochrome) to the images right away.

That’s it. 🙂


All that being said, I obviously shoot in color sometimes. I even have a whole project I shoot in color.

I also think it is important to note, that some photos do not work in b/w – and some don’t work in color. That is why I usually decide whether to shoot either b/w or color before going out/taking the first picture, because – at least for me – seeing works differently in both cases. I probably should elaborate on that in another post…

Wrestling @ collective.ruhr

A couple of my wrestling images have been on display at collective.ruhr for almost month now. It is always so nice to see my work printed and framed!

Wrestling images framed and on the wall at collective.ruhr