Suggest color filters for B&W Photos.

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I'm new to Black&White Photography.

I would like to know if there are any useful websites that has tips & information on using color filters (Yellow, Green, Orange, etc.) for B&W photography?

I'm using R-lenses 50/f2 and 100/f2.8 APO, any suggestions on color filters? I'm thinking of getting Cokin filters.

-- Taweephol (taweephol_tic@yahoo.com), April 02, 2001

Answers

Just about any photography how-to book published in the last 60 years has the scoop on filters for b&w. It basically boils down to 4: yellow, orange, red and green, with the availability of different strengths in each color. Yellow, orange and red are basically outdoor, landscape-type filters, while green is predominantly used for outdoor portraiture. Many things in nature are of equivalent tonality but different colors. On color film they stand apart but in b&w they all look the same shade of gray. The filters lighten things the same color as the filter and darken the complementary color. The yellow, orange and red filters make white clouds stand out against blue skies, in varying degree (yellow=subtle, orange=slightly exagerated, red=very dramatic). The green filter lightens foliage and darkens red lipstick...it also darkens red skin blemishes, so watch out! The polarizing filter is also useful for b&w, doing basically what it does in color: darken skies, cancel reflections. Personally I find it more convenient to use a polarizer outdoors with b&w simply because I've got one for every lens size and always have one with me. Split graduated neutral-density filters also perform a like function in color as in b&w. I find using colored filters on an SLR a bit too psychedelic for my taste, so I use them more with the Leica M. Note that some camera meters will not give an accurate reading through a red filter, so you will need to meter without the filter and then apply the factor. I use the Cokin holders for split ND filters (made by Singh-Ray, the Cokin "gray graduated" gave me a green cast with color transparency film)but aside from those, which require vertical and rotational positioning, I never saw any reason to use the Cokin system. Why buy expensive lenses and then put inexpensive plastic filters in front of them?

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 02, 2001.

When I started B&W photography couple years ago, I just tried couple rolls without any filter on my Leica M lenses, then bought a B+W yellow#8(022 in B+W) filter and I'm using it ever since and have been pleased with the result. You can see the real difference if begin without any filter.

Of course later on, you'll deifinitely buy all other essential filters as Jay listed if you still enjoy B&W photography.

Just make it simple first, then add more variables to improve it and you can also enjoy this process.

-- Fred O. (yo5454@yahoo.com), April 02, 2001.


Another question as this issue gets addressed:

Let's say I'm using a yellow, green or other colored filter for B&W photography. Do I need to make adjustments in metering by the filter's "factor" with my M6TTL or will the camera's built-in meter be able to "see" the change in light coming in when a filter is placed? In other words a B+W yellow filter has a "factor" of 2 and recommends a +1 stop adjustment. If I am correct here, I would then add a stop to the existing reading from my M6's meter? Thanks,

-- Keith W. Cooper (drcooper@swbell.net), April 03, 2001.


With any camera that meters the light "coming through the lens" (as the M6 & M6TTL do) the meter is automatically compensating for the light fall-off caused by the filter.

Filter Factors must be used when you are NOT reading light through the lens - for example with a hand-held meter, or the top-mounted Leica MR meter used on M2, M3, M4. For those meters you must "dial in" the light fall-off (filter factor) because the meter does not know there is a filter involved.

-- Ken Shipman (kennyshipman@aol.com), April 03, 2001.


Under average conditions, the filter factor is compensated by the TTL metering, but not for extreme case. ex. in sunset, you use a red filter, then the factor is reduced given the whole metering area is composed of red.

-- Fred O. (yo5454@yahoo.com), April 03, 2001.


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