Olympus XZ-1 Settings for Street Photography

Whenever I’m out shooting with the Olympus XZ-1, I put it in Monochrome —I find it funny that Olympus chose to use Monotone to specify the BW mode— Picture Mode with Orange filter and high contrast. This is my settings,

• Monochrome
  • Contrast:  +2
  • Sharpness: +1
  • BW Filter: Orange
  • Picture Tone: Neutral
  • Gradation: Normal
• ISO
  • 320 for bright, sunny day
  • 640 for the afternoon & indoor
  • 1000~1600 for restaurant scenes
• Light Meter
  • ESP for most scenes
  • Center Weighted for portraits, closeups, high contrast scenes
  • Spot for food & macro

Occasionally, I use Grainy Film and Pin Hole Art Filters but mostly for portraits or non moving subjects. Although, I really like the Grainy Film Art Filter, I just can’t afford the lag time that comes with the Art Filter mode.

On sunny days, turning the ND filter on is a big help to control aperture and dof since the XZ-1 shutter speed only goes up to 1/2000 and its aperture only stops down to f/8. I sometimes combine the ND filter with Orange filter in Monochrome Picture Mode to achieve the dark sky, bright white cloud effect.

Monochrome with Orange filter

Monochrome with ND filter

Grainy Film Art Filter