Coloured Filter with B&W Film?

[GSiGuy]

Been noticing in some B&W shots that i lack some contrast although am not sure that is caused by the scan.

Someone suggested i use a coloured filter and i have been reading up on that ever since. Quite a few websites suggest it is a good idea, with yellow-orange-red filters showing increasing contrast.

I wonder if many of you who shoot B&W film do use a coloured filter and if so, which one?

 

[azzurri]

i do occasionally use a yellow filter and once in a while an orange filter. the latter's contrast is a bit more dramatic... what do you usually shoot? imho, the yellow filter is pretty suited for day to day shoots. orange and red are bit more "specialised". esp red. much more dramatic.

i quite like the orange filter but feel that it's not that good for human subjects. tend to have too much contrast and a tad dark. not sure if this is the norm or i'm just exposing wrongly.

anyway, filters are pretty cheap these days so no harm getting them to try to see if you like the effect

 

[GSiGuy]

i do occasionally use a yellow filter and once in a while an orange filter. the latter's contrast is a bit more dramatic... what do you usually shoot? imho, the yellow filter is pretty suited for day to day shoots. orange and red are bit more "specialised". esp red. much more dramatic.

i quite like the orange filter but feel that it's not that good for human subjects. tend to have too much contrast and a tad dark. not sure if this is the norm or i'm just exposing wrongly.

anyway, filters are pretty cheap these days so no harm getting them to try to see if you like the effect

Thanks for replying. I really wanted to hear from actual B&W film users. I'm quite new with B&W film only having tried neopan and 400TX.

Well i think contrast differs from film-to-film. I in fact find Neopan too contrasty sometimes. I like the balance of 400TX for landscape but maybe abit lacking in portraits. So i suppose from your response, you don't need it most of the time if you shoot mostly landscape?

I intend to shoot B&W soon when i go to Europe. I will be in the cities almost exclusively. So i was wondering if i could "improve" my pictures by using a coloured filter. I imagine i will be shooting mostly architecture type shots.

 

[losheng]

So i was wondering if i could "improve" my pictures by using a coloured filter.

Film contrast is also affected by the type of developer, the dilution, the agitation method, and the temperature of processing. Neopan has a very beautiful tonal range, so if you find it too contrasty, you may want to first look into issues with processing first.

The use of filters typically enhances the separation of tones. So if you find the neopans to be too harsh, filters probably won't help. They are very often used in outdoor shots to give a more dramatic skys, and to lighten or darken foliage and skin tones. Michael Gordon has some great fine art b/w landscapes that were clearly taken with filters:

Joshua Trees, Indian Summer Sky, Mojave Desert, California

Its common for b/w photographers to have a set of 3 color filters. Like the matrix, no one can tell you what they do - you have to see the effects for yourself: shoot a test roll using all 3 different filters, and bracketing your exposure around the recommended filter factors. Shoot each angle several times, each with a different filter and bracketing applied. With just this one roll, you'll get a good feel of what each filter does.

 

[Riotbmx]

I just developed my first roll of B/W film last week with a little experiment on coloured filters.

No filter

Orange filter

Red filter

 

[catchlights]

Yellow, Orange, and Red filters are basically to enhance the contrast of the sky, good for general scenes.
green and light green filters are basically for enhance the contrast of human skin tone, good for people shots, but for beauty shots, sometime we use red filter instead, as it able to smooth out skin tone.

blue filters we don't use, cos it make the scenes hazy, lack of contrast.

we use filters for product shoot also, at time we want to enhance the contrast of the label or make the brand/text more outstanding, there is noway we can burn and dodge in the darkroom to do that.

 

[oceanpriest]

Red, orange, yellow, and green filter are contrast filter. Actually, if you do printing, you can adjust the contrast during printing too without the need to lose any light when you're shooting.

These filters cut light few stops. Yellow cuts 1 stop, orange around 1 stop too, but red cuts 3 stops, so do consider this when you choose your film.

Here are some taken with red filter. You can get dark sky with red filter.

tri-x

fp4 plus

 

[GSiGuy]

Thanks for all the replies, Guys. No straightforward answer until i try i suppose.

I don't develop my own film. Does it matter which developer i send my film to for the final result?

 

[Riotbmx]

Blue filter can be quite interesting as well. Like catchlights had mentioned, it makes scenes hazy. So it's great to capture smoky or misty scene. And from what I've read, the filter makes the opposite colour darker. See the example below

http://www.kgarner.com/blog/archives/2011/09/28/photos-271-waiting-a-study-in-color-and-bw-filters/

BTW if you are using 52mm filter threads I got some extra coloured filters. Ordered a set but before they arrived my uncle found some in the collection. PM if intersted

 

[oceanpriest]

Blue filter can be quite interesting as well. Like catchlights had mentioned, it makes scenes hazy. So it's great to capture smoky or misty scene. And from what I've read, the filter makes the opposite colour darker. See the example below

Photo(s) 271: Waiting – a study in color and B&W filters « You can imagine where it goes from here.

t2i is digital camera, i believe. I dun understand why people shoot digital using contrast filter, you can always adjust it using photoshop channel mixer. :sweat:

 

[oceanpriest]

Thanks for all the replies, Guys. No straightforward answer until i try i suppose.

I don't develop my own film. Does it matter which developer i send my film to for the final result?

absolutely.

even when you are using same developer, same dilution, same timing, how do you agitate the tank will affect the contrast.

actually, exposing your negative and developing your negative is one packet, can't really separate them

as boss nikkornos mentioned in this thread: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/traditional-darkroom/1074940-process-flow-b-w-zone-system.html#post7838446

if the contrast during shooting is too big, you should shorten the development time (or less agitation)
if the contrast during shooting is too plain, you should lengthen the development time (or agitate more)

but since you don't have control on developing process, you should adjust the contrast during exposure, which in this case using contrast filter

 

[Riotbmx]

Oceanprist

Sorry I didn't realised that he used digital for those photos.

 

[sfoto100]

t2i is digital camera, i believe. I dun understand why people shoot digital using contrast filter, you can always adjust it using photoshop channel mixer. :sweat:

actually this is something i keep asking too.. not about ppl shooting digital and yet use color filter, but rather will there be signifcant difference between using color filter with digital camera and digital color filters..

i will have my own answer for red filter as it has arrived.. but not sure about the rest (the rest means other color filter )..

 

[Shadowleong]

You can achieve the same results with filters for film on the channel mixer for digital as digital cameras see in black and white
Using filters on digital cameras mostly are the GND or ND filters to achieve a slow shutter speed

 

[sfoto100]

You can achieve the same results with filters for film on the channel mixer for digital as digital cameras see in black and white
Using filters on digital cameras mostly are the GND or ND filters to achieve a slow shutter speed

u tried it before? as in u shoot the same scene with a color filter and one without but apply channel mixer to make it the same as the one shot with color filter?

or just in theory?

in theory i read in books saying there is no need.. but not sure in real life what will be the real differences and the amount of PP needed..

 

[catchlights]

u tried it before? as in u shoot the same scene with a color filter and one without but apply channel mixer to make it the same as the one shot with color filter?

or just in theory?

in theory i read in books saying there is no need.. but not sure in real life what will be the real differences and the amount of PP needed..

for b&W digital photography, you don't need use contrast filters.
if you use filters, you will add more glass between the subjects and the sensor and also lose some exposure. and also don't have the flexibility of mixing more than one "color filters"

 

[sfoto100]

for b&W digital photography, you don't need use contrast filters.
if you use filters, you will add more glass between the subjects and the sensor and also lose some exposure. and also don't have the flexibility of mixing more than one "color filters"

nevermind

 

[foxtwo]

actually this is something i keep asking too.. not about ppl shooting digital and yet use color filter, but rather will there be signifcant difference between using color filter with digital camera and digital color filters..

i will have my own answer for red filter as it has arrived.. but not sure about the rest (the rest means other color filter )..

Close to the same, but digital naturally affords more customisation.

The common coloured filters are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green & to an extent Blue. But the less common but existing are also 3 strengths of pale yellow, deep yellow, yellow-orange, deep orange and various others for much more intensive colour work.
100MM 4" SQ GEL FILTER/#2A
100MM 4" SQ GEL FILTER/#102
KODAK WRATTEN/WRATTEN 2 Filters

If we are more attuned to how colours interacts with each other, rather than just saying okay, I'll choose yellow instead of orange because I want less contrast overall, I might choose a more specialised filter because I know this filter will affect what. For simplistic sake, we just take yellow as less contrasty than orange, and orange with red. But with that decision, within the shade/hues of a specific colour, example pink in red, we probably miss out the difference in B&W. This is probably a lost technique of film photographers, never to see a master at work poring over colour filters in this era....

I don't see that digital means I automatically leave contrast adjusting to PS. If all I had to consider was using any 3 (R, O, Y) then why not just simply screw on a filter so I don't have to fiddle round with Photoshop at home. (Sometimes more options doesn't mean less work.) Unless I actually have to lug around the entire Wratten set, then sure, PS is a much better solution.

 

[oceanpriest]

u tried it before? as in u shoot the same scene with a color filter and one without but apply channel mixer to make it the same as the one shot with color filter?

or just in theory?

in theory i read in books saying there is no need.. but not sure in real life what will be the real differences and the amount of PP needed..

There's some discussion regarding this: Dedicated Black & White compact camera

It depends of how the color sensor capture the light, but I believe bayer sensor will somehow mess up with the color :bsmilie:

 

[sfoto100]

tks.. anyway i plan to try the red filter this weekd end to fulfill my curosity..

always wanted to try some filter to add mist (i even start a thread asking for advice).. i tried adding mist in PS, i hate it! but maybe i didn't get a good tutorial.. in fact some tutorials are showing very fake mist. my PS skills is of course not expert level also