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Guide

Enter a recipe by hand on the OM-3

If you don't have a computer handy, you can build any recipe on this site directly on the OM-3 using the Creative Dial. It takes a few minutes per recipe, but nothing needs to be plugged in.

Menu and screen names below come from the OM-3 manual and OM System user forums. OM System occasionally renames items in firmware updates, so treat the exact wording as a guide and confirm against what you see on your camera.

When to use this

Versus the OM Workspace workflows.

The JPG workflow is faster and more accurate when you have a computer and a USB cable — it copies every wheel value for you. Enter recipes by hand when you’re travelling, want to tweak a recipe in the field, or just prefer to keep everything on the camera.

New to what these settings mean? Read how color profiles & recipes work first.

1. Read the recipe values off this site

1

Open the recipe you want on this site.

2

Note whether it is a Color or Monochrome recipe, and write down every value: the twelve colour-wheel positions (hue shift and saturation for each), the highlight / shadow curve, contrast, sharpness, gradation, and white balance (preset or Kelvin plus any amber–blue / green–magenta shift).

3

For a monochrome recipe also note the colour-filter effect, toning, and film-grain settings.

2. Open the profile editor on the camera

1

Set the mode dial to P, A, S or M — not a Custom Mode (C1–C5) slot. Profiles can only be edited from the base modes; a Custom Mode replays a frozen copy of the settings.

2

Turn the front Creative Dial to COLOR for a colour recipe, or MONO for a monochrome one.

3

The camera shows the profile picker. Choose a slot to write into — Color 1–4 or Mono 1–4. Picking a slot you don’t mind overwriting keeps the four factory profiles intact.

4

Press OK (or the menu / info button, depending on firmware) to open the detailed edit screen for that slot.

3. Enter the colour-wheel values

Colour recipes.

1

The wheel has twelve points around it. Rotate to a colour point, then set its saturation in or out, and its hue shift around the wheel, to match the recipe.

2

Work around all twelve points. The Super Control Panel and the front / rear dials adjust the highlighted value; the touchscreen works too.

3

If the recipe was built with the Color Creator (CRT) rather than the full wheel, turn the Creative Dial to CRT instead and set the single hue and saturation pair it specifies.

4. Enter the remaining settings

1

Set Highlight & Shadow Control (the tone curve) — highlights, mid-tones and shadows — to the recipe’s values.

2

Set Contrast, Sharpness and Gradation from the Super Control Panel.

3

For a monochrome recipe, set the colour filter effect, toning and film grain.

4

Set White Balance separately — choose the preset or Kelvin value and dial in any amber–blue / green–magenta shift. White balance is not part of the colour profile itself.

5

Confirm to save the profile into its slot.

5. Save the recipe to a Custom Mode

So it survives and you can switch to it quickly.

1

With the profile selected and the camera set the way you want it, open the menu and find Save Settings to Custom Mode (under the Custom Mode / C settings).

2

Choose a slot, C1–C5, and confirm. That slot now recalls the whole camera state, including this profile.

Each Custom Mode stores its own copy of all four Color and four Mono profiles, so you can keep well over twenty recipes on the camera by spreading them across C1–C5.
What you can’t enter by hand: anything the camera has no control for. If a recipe relies on a setting your OM-3 doesn’t expose, use the JPG workflow or apply it in OM Workspace.