I love black and white. I can hardly imagine portraits in color – unless the color brings the image to a new level in a narrative or at least emotional way. It is important to me that I can guide the viewer’s gaze. They should concentrate on what is important to me, what I want to tell. To do that, it is usually necessary to control the density of information in an image. A shallow depth of field is one possibility, fading out color is another – and of course the two techniques can complement each other wonderfully.

Therefore, I need an absolute bread-and-butter recipe in black and white for my daily work. My preferences are quite clear: distinct contrasts, but without everything being drowned out, burnt out or the midtones falling by the wayside, crisp sharpness and freedom from grain (which, for me, counteracts the impression of sharpness, among other things). The basic ingredients for Dark Punch were ready – a recipe that I can really use for any situation without exception.

Although it is an all-rounder, it still has its own distinctive look. I originally started with the recipe for the GFX and found that it couldn’t be transferred one-to-one to my X-T4.

To get the same result with my test images, I also had to adjust the white balance quite a bit.

If I wasn’t using a GFX in parallel, but ONLY the XT, I would choose the following settings in the camera for Dark Punch: