Black and White filters

Black and White filters

  • 80% - 100%

    Votes: 131 19.0%

  • 50% - 80%

    Votes: 116 16.9%

  • 25% - 50%

    Votes: 106 15.4%

  • 10% - 25%

    Votes: 80 11.6%

  • less then 10%

    Votes: 121 17.6%

  • I never use them

    Votes: 65 9.4%

  • I don't own any

    Votes: 69 10.0%
  • Total voters
    688
I rarely carry them, so I rarely use them. With larger formats, I use gelatin filters taped behind the lens prolly 40% of the time with b&w fillm, but with 35mm, I rarely bother. If it's going to be scanned, I can mix the curve and contrast all I like later.
 
I've settled on yellow-green as a general-purpose filter, and sometimes use light orange. Yellow darkens blue, and lightens yellow and skin. But for landscapes the addition of green keeps the foliage from going too dark, thus the yellow-green combo.
 
Only yellow-green (060) and yellow-orange (040) for me. They're also convenient as 1-stop and 2-stop ND filters, respectively. I got B+W MRC ones so I can leave them on as protection filters if I want. No other filter maker puts their best coatings on B&W filters.
 
A Medium Yellow for me...I want to give the Red (25) filter a try sometime...
I have been using a 85A filter on one of my MF lenses and it's been okay...
A Polarizer gets used here and there too...
 
nikon_sam said:
A Medium Yellow for me...I want to give the Red (25) filter a try sometime...
I have been using a 85A filter on one of my MF lenses and it's been okay...
A Polarizer gets used here and there too...
Click to expand...

There is a place for the deep red filter. Ansel Adams positively loved it. It really does make skies that feature white fluffy clouds into a very dramatic scene. I use one, but I feel it can be overdone without too much effort.
 
Hi,

looking at the so far poll results, we see a clear double peak distribution. Many folks use these filters on over half of their images (categories 50% - 80%, and 80% - 100%) while many others rarely use them (blow 10%).
While I find the later not that surprising (a mixture out of can't be asked and I need every photon I could possibly get to reach my film) I hadn't expected the high number members using them a lot.
While here are lots of discussion about films, developers and even printing, I rarely found these filters discussed.
As I said, the poll was very interesting and revealed a completely different picture from what I expected.

Thanks to everyone who participated so far.
Joachim
 
I'm glad that you were surprised Joachim. Are you going to begin getting into various pieces of colored glass now? 😉 I must admit that I am a bit of a filter slut:

filterzombie.jpg


(And that was 3 years ago! 😱)
 
Chris101 said:
I'm glad that you were surprised Joachim. Are you going to begin getting into various pieces of colored glass now? 😉 I must admit that I am a bit of a filter slut:

filterzombie.jpg


(And that was 3 years ago! 😱)
Click to expand...

Oh, I have quite a few of these myself (about 10) without doing to much B&W work. Even the occassional roll of XP2 is a waste in my view without them. When I got my Rolleicord recently (partly as a B&W camera), the first accessoir I got was the yellow filter. By now I have four B&W filters for it and still trying to hunt a "hellrot". I was a bit under the impression that nobody else here bothered - which is clearly wrong according to my poll 🙂
I am still a bit at a loss, why nobody feels like discussing them 😕 I think they have more of an impact on the final image than different developers have.
 
I agree with your final statement in your last post Joachim. Filters have an enormus effect on the image. However, some folks, especially old-old school b&w shooters, are of the opinion that filters are a crutch. I'm from the new-old school, and I disagree. While I don't filter everything, I do use them when it is called for.
 
Chris101 said:
I agree with your final statement in your last post Joachim. Filters have an enormus effect on the image. However, some folks, especially old-old school b&w shooters, are of the opinion that filters are a crutch. I'm from the new-old school, and I disagree. While I don't filter everything, I do use them when it is called for.
Click to expand...

Where did you get the idea that old-school photographers see filters as a crutch? Filters were considered an essential part of every photographer's gadget bag for nearly a century. I certainly grew up with them, and would not have considered not giving myself the choice to use them in the appropriate circumstances.
 
Consistently on landscapes (yellow at least is inevitable to keep the sky in range, red or green may be neccessary to differentiate foliage from wood, earth and rocks), occasionally on portraits to bring out different aspects of the skin. None otherwise - time for choosing the proper filter and exposure factors make them rather less suitable for fast handheld shots.
 
I seem to use filters mostly during summer months. Yellow-green is my first choice, orange second and red comes third.
 
I generally have B&W MRC medium yellow filters attached to all my lenses. This helps give more tone to pale blue skies. They cost me 1/3 of a stop (the paperwork says one stop, but this is not accurate in my usage) and protect the lens. They give me somthing to quickly wipe dust off without worrying about the front element. They are extremely flare resistant and resilient to marks.

I also use organge filters once in a while and normally keep a yellow-orange on my 21mm as I tend to shoot more 'dramatic images' with that lens. If the sky is overcast it has cost me a stop and so I only take it off if I need the speed back. You get so much DOF with a 21 that I rarely need to.

I have red orange and eep red filters but use those less. I would not be without my yellows but could live without the rest.
 
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