Your Favourite B&W Film Filters ?

[dcsang]

Hi folks,

Outside of your normal "UV" filters (for those that use them); if you're shooting B&W, what filters do you prefer to use for particular subjects? Do you all prefer the Red25 for landscapes or for people?

Let me here your suggestions as I currently have zero/zilch/nada/niente/butkus/zip/none in terms of B&W film filters.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[kaiyen]

red 25 is too strong for me for most situations, unless I'm really trying to get the sky to pop like crazy.

I generally use a yellow 8 or k2 filter for landscapes. polarizer if I'm dealing with any reflections (can help with sky contrast as well). grad ND too, but that's awfully hard to use with an RF.

I forget what the "people" filters are. Red for caucasian women? Is that right? To reduce ruddiness? Something like that. But I don't do a lot of portraits.

that's about it.

allan

 

[back alley]

in spite of having many filters for most of my lenses i rarely use them.
i find that photoshop offers better control for the look/contrast level and is way easier to control.

however, if you really want a filter or 2 i would start with a medium yellow, then red and maybe a green, in that order.

joe

 

[fredus]

I used to use filter on all my lens. My usual is yellow ... But since I'm scanning my negs, I found out that I can easly reproduce the yellow filter effect with a change in my curve ... So I don't bother anymore. I still use a red filter when I want to produce a special effect, especially on people as seen on these 2 uploaded pictures

Fred

 

[rayfoxlee]

Yellow-green is an ideal general purpose filter. If I could only have one filter, this would be it!

Ray

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I think the yellows have it. Red is popular, but, in my opinion, a K2 (med. yellow) is a nice one. I use red almost as a ND filter when an ND is not available. Red is good, but since I shoot in available light indoors most of the time now, it's not a good choice for what I mostly shoot.

"Outdoors," I think red and green are always handy.

 

[vincentbenoit]

Pantyhose, for glamour shots.

Vincent

 

[peterc]

I have two filters for my RF cameras. A Heliopan Orange 22 and a Hoya Polarizer.
I use the Orange for popping the clouds out of sky shots and the PL I use mostly as a Neutral Density with high speed films when I want shallower DOF.

Peter

 

[vincentbenoit]

I still use a red filter when I want to produce a special effect, especially on people as seen on these 2 uploaded pictures

Very nice! Well worth the trouble I would say.
Cheers
Vincent

 

[Jocko]

In order of preference:
1) Red
2) Red
3) Red.

 

[Fred]

Generally if I use a filter for B&W its a yellow, red drops a little too much light in some cases but this can be a good if you want to back off the exposure and emphasise that creamy bokeh of a wider angle lens such as a 35.

In order, yellow, red then green. I don't currently have an orange filter but that would probably be near the number 1 I'd use.

 

[Nikon Bob]

I am using a med. yellow most of the time, to pop the clouds a bit, and also have a 2 stop ND filter if I want slower shutter speeds. I shoot mostly C41 B&W if that makes any difference.

Bob

 

[richard_l]

Depends on the film. Conventional silver B&W films tend to have a response peak in the blue wavelengths, resulting in white skies. It may take a yellow or orange filter to subdue the peak enough to get a normal sky. Red will give more dramatic landscapes, like in some Ansel Adams photos.

C-41 film has a flatter spectral sensitivity curve than silver, and the usual landscape filters are only needed to compensate for the (usually) overexposed sky area. A light or medium yellow is usually enough. Orange and red are fun, though. Green is supposed to be good for making "Caucasian" people look less sickly and anemic, but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[lido]

I have medium yellow permanently mounted on my J-8. Other than that, Photoshop gives more flexibility in postprocessing if you are half way on the dark side 😉.

 

[Kin Lau]

I like red for a bit of drama, especially if the skies are blue anyhow, which don't show on b&w film.

Red works well indoors too, if you don't want the windows to blow out.

 

[SalmanA]

Well, Yellow and Orange are the 2 filters that I will be getting sometime next week. 😉 😀 (and they are Medium Yellow and Yellow-Orange respectively in B+W designation)

I already have a Red 25A filter that I have used in the past, and it does tend to produce very exaggerated, high-contrast results to the point that I don't use it too often now.

I'd recommend starting with Yellow and Orange filters.

Cheers,

 

[peter_n]

I use regular silver-based B&W film and med. yellow or a yellow/green filter when necessary.

 

[Poptart]

If you have a rfdf, use te wratten 87C for true infrared results. Otherwise the 25 Red. And te polarizer is useful for reflection-cuttin. That's about it.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

What Joe said. Filter use: rare. I do have one of those fancy polarizers, but don't use it that much.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Funny how I don't use polarizers (I've never seen a fancy one, btw) anymore. Wow, all my SLRs are really sitting in the bullpen; they would be the only ones I can think of using them with.