filter recommendations

[DMG]

what type of filters do you use for your B&W work, I want to start using filters with tri-x. I hear some people use yellow and others use red (as you can tell I'm pretty much a filter virgin except for the standard UV, so please be gentle).

 

[markinlondon]

Hi, the colour filters all lighten their own colour and darken the complementary. Of course, in b&w all this does is give a tonal shift. The "sky" filters, yellow, orange and red darken blue skies. yellow is quite mild in effect (I'll ignore the fact that there are different strengths of yellow filters available for the sake of clarity), orange gives a stronger effect, while red will give almost black skies. A green filter will lighten green and darken red and could be handy for flower shots to separate red petals from tonally similar green leaves. My own favourite is the yellow-green which gives the sky effect of a yellow but also gives a longer tonal range where there is green foliage. Hope this helps, see the b+w filter handbook from Schneider if you need more info.

 

[DMG]

thanks Mark, very helpful

 

[peter_n]

Depends on the lenses. I like contrast so with my older lenses I will sometimes use a yellow filter. I think mild contrast filters are unneccessary with modern lenses, but occasionally I will use an orange or a red. Mark's explanation above is accurate but you do need a fairly saturated looking blue sky for it to look black on the neg. A light blue won't do it for you.

 

[Toby]

I used to use a green or yellow/green filter for portraits if I wanted to make the skintones darker and more punchy.

 

[RObert Budding]

I like yellow-green as it works well with both landscapes and people. For portraits you'll get darker lips. But beware - I took a shot this summer and the yellow-green filter accentuated reddish sun damage on the nose of a fair skinned person. It was far more noticable in the print than in person. So that's a situation where I whould have used no filter.

 

[Turtle]

A yellow is a good allrounder, darkening blue skies a touch. Orange slightly more so and red more still. I would disagree that red gives almost black skies as I find this rarely teh case - a deep red is required for this.

I tend to use a yellow all the time as a general protector and remove it if I need the extra stop of speed. I keep red/orange BWs for a bit more punch to skies. I find reds a bit 'middling' in that an orange is fine for moody skies but If I want real drama I go for the deep red, skipping the regular red.

 

[Xmas]

DMG

I normally only use a light yellow, until I start to need too slow a speed. I do clutter up the bag with G, O and R, just in case...

For reflections like blue sky, glass (e.g. spectacles) or water a pola is still useful even in B&W! Never had the time for this I normally miss the shot I want even with a lever winder, so a filter swap never happens.

Noel

 

[KoNickon]

The yellow-green (XO, in Hoya terminology) is a good all-rounder. But I agree with Robert's comment above about using it with fair-skinned (freckled) people -- an orange would be better to tone those down. Because the orange is closer in color to the tone of the skin, it will lighten any blemishes where the green in the XO would enhance them. A red filter would make the lips too light, however.

 

[Xmas]

Some people will like their freckles, blue eyes, and copper or ginger hair...

Noel

 

[DMG]

cheers guys downloaded the B&W filter manual and read it last night. I think I'm going to get a selection of filters in a week or so, for the RFs as well as the MF.