Collodion landscapes and filters

Hi all,

When shooting landscapes with wet plates I assume filters like UV filters and yellow filters are as beneficial as they are for black and white film? How common is using filters when shooting wet plates?

Cheers
Peter

pkr1979 said:

I assume filters like UV filters and yellow filters are as beneficial as they are for black and white film?

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No, most of the sensitivity of collodion comes from long-wave UV (350-400nm) with some extension into the blue part of the spectrum; barely any green. So if you mount a yellow filter, you'll record virtually nothing. If you mount a UV filter, you may see exposure cut back by several stops, depending on the quality of the light you're working with.

pkr1979 said:

How common is using filters when shooting wet plates?

Click to expand...

Uncommon; you typically want all the light you can possibly get with wet plate, and then some. Less is more; lenses with big apertures and no filters.

pkr1979 said:

Hi all,

When shooting landscapes with wet plates I assume filters like UV filters and yellow filters are as beneficial as they are for black and white film? How common is using filters when shooting wet plates?

Cheers
Peter

Click to expand...

Peter, do not use any filters over the camera lens when working with Wet Plate Collodion. They will only make things much more difficult than they already are, as noted by Koraks: "lenses with big apertures and no filters" - good advice.

Guys - thanks for this. Much appreciated and noted. No filters.