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BandW Yellow/Orange filter?

ToddB

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Hey guys,

Just and picked up BandW Yellow/Orange filter for Black and white shooting. I know that is works well for landscapes and to inhance clouds ect.. Can I also use it for street photography/people and general use to help out contrast? What doesn't it work with?

Todd
 

Color film.

As a general rule, filters on black and white film will lighten like colors, and darken opposite colors. So a yellow filter will lighten yellow objects, and darken blue objects. Red filter will lighten red objects, and darken green objects. And so on.

Edit - I should have mentioned that exposure matters as well, overexposure will lessen the effect of a filter. The best approach is to use the lightest i.e. least dense filter that does the job.
 
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The yellow/orange is probably my favourite for landscapes when I want to darken the sky and enhance cloud/sky contrast or cut through blue haze on distant subjects.

However I would be wary of using it without due thought in other scenarios - for one, because it costs you two stops of exposure. It is most useful when you want to darken blue and, to a lesser extent, green in relation to other colours. Whether this will improve contrast depends on the colours in your photo. For example, if your subject is wearing blue jeans and a black shirt, using an orange filter would reduce contrast by darkening the jeans, which otherwise would contrast with the black shirt. Whether that is desirable depends on your intent.
 
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OK.. so in most cases the best application is for landscapes. Thats interesting in regards to stopping down.. I was wondering about that aswell. Since it is a bright color it's advisable to stop down? for example .. your shooting 125th at f16. So it it would 125th @ f8?

ToddB
 
Yes it may be bright but does block some light, therefore the 1-2 stop more exposure. If your camera has a built in meter then that will account for it. If you use a separate meter then just down rate the film, say 400 becomes about 160.
Just remember that the filter lightens it's complimentary colours and darkens the opposite, therefore with your orange filter those warm colours will lighten, the cool ones darken. With landscapes just remember that along with the darkening of skies the cool green foliage will also darken, but autumn foliage will be lighter..because it's orange!
Normal coloured Caucasian skin will also lighten with your orange filter, blue eyes darken...well you get the picture!
 

No.

Filters are best for whenever you need them. I get great results shooting portraits with orange and even sometimes red filters. They hide blemishes. A red filter makes a Caucasian woman's skin glow. It can be a very pleasing effect.

"Stopping down" means constricting how much light gets to the film. It would mean going from f/8 to f/16. "Down" is referring to the area of the aperture getting smaller.

A B+W #16 Yellow-Orange filter requires 1.3 stops of exposure compensation according to the B&H website. So since the filter isn't clear and colorless it blocks some of the light. So you have to compensate by opening up a stop and a third to let in a sufficient amount of light. Besides basic UV and warming filters almost all filters eat up some light and you have to compensate by either increasing exposure time or opening up the aperture.

andrew.roos, was kind of right about street photography. He was wrong about the degree of compensation necessary for your particular filter, but his point is valid. Whatever film you use you will be somewhat less able to hand hold it. In street photography you depend on depth of field to keep your fast spontaneous shot in focus. Since you are shooting medium format you will need all the depth of field you can get. Of course you could simply use faster film but then you will get more grain. Everything in photography is about trade offs. There is no one best way to do just about anything.

My advice since you already have the filter is to experiment. Have your girlfriend or sister pose for you and take a series of shots with various filters and without. Make a note of your shutter speeds and apertures. Then you can decide whether you want to shave 1.3 stops off your ISO for the results you are getting. The other thing you have to consider is the skin and contrast may look nice with the filter but you may have blur from hand shake or an out of focus subject because of restricted depth of field. Tons of trade offs.
 
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Street photography is about the moment. Don't use a filter at all. Filters eat up available light, and you'll need all the light you can get. Landscape photographers are likely to use filters, photojournalists less so most of the time.
 
Good the know pgomena. Just making sure that not missing anything.

Todd
 

Well for me the best application is landscapes, since I'm mostly a landscape photographer Others will use this filter for different reasons. Noble put it best: filters are for whenever you need them. They should not be used automatically for any type of photography.

All filters, no matter how bright their colour, work by blocking some light. So an orange filter works by blocking blue and green light, not by injecting additional orange light. That means you always lose some light, so you need a bigger aperture, slower shutter speed or higher ISO film to get the correct exposure.

Most filters have a "filter factor" on the front of the ring. For example, if you look at your yellow orange filter you will probably see "4x" on the front. That means your exposure needs to be 4 times as long as it would be without the filter (this is a rough guide, since the exact figure depends on the colours in the scene). Alternatively, you could open up the aperture by two stops (say from f/11 to f/5.6), which lets in 4x as much light; or use a film with a 4x higher ISO (ISO 400 instead of ISO 100, for example).
 
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