Orange v 85 warming filters on b/w film

sparrow6224

sparrow6224

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Anyone with expertise can testify whether or not one can expect roughly the same results on b/w film from an orange filter, made for b/w contrast enhancement, and the very similar colored #85 reddish amber warming filter for color film? I've wanted to know this for a long time....
 
It really depends on the spectral characteristics of the subject. The black and white filter is a blocking lowpass filter while colour balancing filters are gently attenuating. For pastel subjects with no strong colour, the difference might be barely visible, but on the other hand, the black and white filter will render a deep blue sky black, where a #85 will attenuate it by a mere two stops over using no filter at all, so that a very bright sky might still end up overexposed white.
 
sparrow6224 said:
Anyone with expertise can testify whether or not one can expect roughly the same results on b/w film from an orange filter, made for b/w contrast enhancement, and the very similar colored #85 reddish amber warming filter for color film? I've wanted to know this for a long time....
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The results will usually be radically different.

The BW "contrast" type of orange filter is a "band pass" filter that totally blocks all blue and most green. It passes most yellow and everything lower in frequency. A pure blue subject will render as black.

The #85, like its siblings the #85B and #85C, are "light balancing" filters which pass all colors. They just reduce the blues a little bit and the greens very slightly. They are designed for using Tungsten balanced color films (Type A films in the case of the #85) under Daylight lighting conditions.

The #85 series filters will have a slight effect on BW film, but only slight. You won't get the noticeably more "dramatic" skies that the "contrast" type of orange and red (#23a, #25, #29) filters can produce.
 
Thanks folks. I had a feeling, though they look very similar, that there are distinct and important optical differences.

Chris 101 -- an amusing reply. Of course since we shoot b/w film most of us are already not acknowleding the present.
 
Instead of orange filter I sometimes use Polarizing filter. You get the same type of effect in the skies but Pol leaves the rest of the image more intact.
 
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