Photography has always been a small part of my day job at Harvest Family Radio. For instance, every week I shoot candid images during our talk and variety program called Live ’til Five. Some of my recent favorites are included below.
While I take photos for other programs too, this project is unusual in that these are candid and monochrome. I chose black and white only after struggling with white balance consistently while shooting color. Florescent lighting, harsh sunlight from windows, and a combination orange and dark blue backgrounds made skin tones appear slightly off at times.
Seven out of ten shots with true-to-life colors was not a good enough ratio for me, so I set my Olympus camera to monochrome mode and experimented with in-camera tone curves and contrast. After just one or two test sessions, I was happy with the resulting jpegs, which you see here.
I have a raw color backup of every image too, but the black and white jpeg versions are always posted online. My favorites are captured with the stellar M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens. It produces portraits that are sharp and have pleasing out-of-focus backgrounds. You can view more from this series on the Harvest Family Radio Facebook page.
