Black and White filters

[Brian Atherton]

From day one I’ve always had a filter my lenses. All the best quality I can find, multi-coated. Depending on the subject, either a light yellow or UV – Heliopan or B+W on my Leica or Hoya UV on my digitals. Mostly it’s a UV.

I don’t abuse my gear but then I don’t baby it, either. Cameras and lenses are out in all weathers, rain or shine.

It’s safer cleaning a filter than a front element, and I feel happier.

For what it’s worth I use Rosco lens cleaning fluid: have done for years.

 

[redhawk]

I have a vintage E. Leitz NY pale yellow filter that came with my Rigid Summicron that lives on my M3 and I leave it on most of the time. It gives a subtle contrast boost that I like. When I find myself in high contrast lighting I'll take it off to pull out shadow detail but otherwise it usually stays on. I also have full-on yellow and red-orange filters for more dramatic effects that I find useful here in the city especially when there are big clouds moving through. I also keep a green filter handy for smoothing skin tones in harsh light.

I rotate color & b/w films in my other two Leicas and I find myself using contrast filters with the b/w films about half the time. Now that I've dialed in my rigs and am confident in the results I can be a bit more pre-emptive with my filter choices which, interestingly enough, seems to result in me using the filters more often than I would otherwise.

 

[Solinar]

An interesting thread: I usually only bring a ND4 filter, especially for summer and ISO 400 film.

If I want the clouds to show, I'll under expose by a stop to stop and half - with the loss of shadow detail as the downside.

Best Regards,

 

[02Pilot]

Mostly medium yellow for general purpose shooting, though for street I'll go without if the conditions aren't bright enough to allow me the aperture and shutter speed minimums I like for zone focusing. I've used red #25, but as others have noted, the effect is rather dramatic; I've found orange much more to my tastes in most landscape shots. I have an OE Voigtlander deep yellow #15 slip-on for my Perkeo II that I really like as well.

I've noticed that TMax 100 seems to have a sort of yellow-filtered look about it even without filtration, so when I use that film I generally do not use a filter. Not sure if the 400 is the same, but I've not noticed a similar effect with any other emulsion.

I'm intrigued by the ideas mentioned above about using green for landscapes and cooling filters for the post-apocalyptic "blasted" look. Anyone have any good examples of these to show?

 

[lxmike]

mainly green and a red for more dramatic effect

 

[lukitas]

Outside, a yellow filter for film

With digital, I discovered the joys of filtering in post. I love it. To my mind, a black and white sky has to be dark to be blue. Maybe I ate too much Ansel Adams.

Cheers

 

[narsuitus]

I usually use medium format (6x7 and 6x9cm), large format (4x5 inch and 8x10 inch), or small format digital to shoot B&W. I rarely shoot 35mm black & white because I am rarely satisfied with the 35mm format B&W image quality.

When shooting black & white, I use filters less than 10% of the time.

I have a variety of glass, polyester, and resin filters. When shooting B&W, I primarily use red, yellow, green, neutral density, graduated neutral density, 720 nanometer infrared, and Baader solar filters.

I primarily use 52mm, 62mm, and 72mm filters. I have step-up rings for my lenses that fall outside these three sizes.


https://flic.kr/p/cc6VzG
https://flic.kr/p/cc6Xrm
https://flic.kr/p/dVCG4Z

 

[Darthfeeble]

I don't shoot film, but I do a lot of BW and I generally (80-100%) use a yellow or red filter on the jpg output of my camera. Does that count?

 

[charjohncarter]

I've posted too many times on the thread, but I have been using a yellow (light) filter with Tmax 400 and Tmax 100. The light yellow filter at least with these T films shot at 1/2 ISO have a big effect on these films. It's fun to see the results but I'm not sure I like it; yet.

 

[WJJ3]

I've posted too many times on the thread, but I have been using a yellow (light) filter with Tmax 400 and Tmax 100. The light yellow filter at least with these T films shot at 1/2 ISO have a big effect on these films. It's fun to see the results but I'm not sure I like it; yet.

I tried a yellow filter on TMAX 100 but the effect was already too strong. I read elsewhere that the TMAX films are already corrected for UV light.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

Well, that's an interesting running total. I have a number of B&W filters but seldom do I use them. The percentage for each option is very close - much closer than I would have ever guessed. These days, because I scan my negs and process via Lightroom, I tend to create the effect in PP. I shouldn't, of course, but I've got out of the habit of using them. Something to change as I was always a big fan of orange filters for landscapes.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I'm getting closer to use only 400 film. No filters for indoors and if pushing it.
But for daytime outdoors I like to use x4 strong filters, which makes it easier for Sunny16 at ISO 100. I'm using green-yellow on J3 (FED-2) and orange on Cron and Summaron (M4-2). Got them just because they were available at the price which makes sense. 🙂

I use light meter not so often if it is as 100. Almost never if it is regular "street" daylight.

Surprisingly, I'm finding green-yellow filter giving me more pleasing results. Nothing crazy, like night if the sky with ted, but overall enhancement. Works for the "street" and for the snow.

Kentmere 400 and HP5 are two films which works well with these x4 filters for me. Very forgiving for overexposure which I prefer to do if I'm in doubt.

LR doesn't give me what I'm getting with these filters for film.

Also it seems what filters giving best results on classic lenses (like I mentioned). With modern lenses I'm getting OK results with UV filter, which is more for protection only.
To me good result would be if scan looks like film and I don't have to over-manipulate it in LR.
The more I manipulate scan digitally the less it looks like film.

 

[coelacanth]

Was searching around this topic and this thread just came up so please allow me to ask this question:

for black and white photography exclusively, is there a reason to choose UV filter over Clear filter? I'm thinking about getting B+W XS-Pro slim filters. I shoot pretty much exclusively black and white film on the lenses I'm getting these filters for. For B&W photo, given that you are getting equally excellent multi-coated filters, I'd imagine Clear filter will be really clear and purely protection while UV filter cuts, well, UV.

Technically, I'd imagine UV filter will be ever so so slightly cutting the visible light more than clear filter. I'm sure it's nothing noticeable, but wondering if there is a clear advantage to the UV filter over the clear one for black and white photography.

Anyone got any insights to this?

 

[airfrogusmc]

I only use filters for effect. I don't use clear and I might use a UV for atmospheric haze but would probably use an orange or red instead to really darken the sky if that is what is desired.

 

[Godfrey]

Haze/UV:

Older B&W films (1960s-1970s) were a bit more blue sensitive than later formulations, so a "haze" or UV filter was more important to help reduce ultraviolet scatter outdoors. These filters still help in some circumstances, particularly high altitude.

Sunny/Daylight conditions:
I find that for most subjects and most films, I like a yellow to orange filter on B&W film. I standardize mostly on 400 speed film, it cuts film speed to around 100-125 and it changes the grayscale rendering of most colors into what I expect. For some subjects, however, a green filter works better—for instance, darker skinned folks will render better skin tones with a green filter than an orange filter (and the reverse is true of light skinned folks). Which to choose is a matter of looking through the filter and visualizing what it does.

Artificial light:
I generally don't use a filter, both to save film speed and because the typical more orangey/yellow color temperature has done what the yellow-orange filter would have done for me.

So I carry a filter set of orange and green filters in my bag and use them when I'm shooting in sunlight, most of the time. I usually have a UV filter for my lenses, but don't use it all that often.

G

 

[Rob-F]

I like to use a yellow filter to give some density to the sky. I generally keep them on the light side so they won't cut the exposure too much. However when shooting Ilford Delta films, I find the sky will generally have a natural tone with no filter being needed. At times I use a light orange filter for more sky drama. Light to medium orange is as far as I go. I own one red filter, but never use it.

 

[Martin Carone Santos]

Almost never. At seaside I use Leitz yellow 1. But I rarely go to the beach.

 

[richard_l]

I use contrast filters whenever they are needed, which for me is fairly often with B&W film.

 

[Daryl J.]

B+W KR3

When I bought my used 50mm collapsible Elmar, it was the only 39mm filter they had and I didn't want to risk scratching the lens. I happened to leave it on, shot some FP-4 and XP2s and liked the effect.

So it's still there.

 

[harpofreely]

Another vote for yellow-green as a general purpose filter. I combine mine with a circular polarizer if I want darker skies.