Do I need to spend more on Ortho films?

[eumenius]

Hello friends,

after a big delay I conducted a nice experiment that can be useful for someone. Well, I don't pretend to discover something new, but the "portrait" light cyan-bluish filters really give to you the "ortochromatic" famous look of the skin tones! More, the blue light from the flash does about the same, but in a more harsh a way. I did the comparison of the portaits shot on FP4+ (dev. in Microphen 1+3) with filter on camera, without a filter, and with blue, green and red filters over my Metz 45CT-3 with umbrella, and the portraits on Maco Ortho film. The thing is that I like the effect of blue filtration on camera lens and flash even more than the real ortho film Of course, I printed all my prints from all films to the same maximum black to make them comparable. Does anyone use coloured flash light when shooting portraits, or I'm on a threshold of something new?

Cheers from Moscow,
Zhenya

 

[modafoto]

Does anyone use coloured flash light when shooting portraits, or I'm on a threshold of something new?

I don't use filters when shooting portraits with flash...but after reading this I might give it a try.
Thanks for the idea.

 

[eumenius]

I don't use filters when shooting portraits with flash...but after reading this I might give it a try.
Thanks for the idea.

Yes, give it a try - I didn't expect such an effect. The most flattering effect and the smoothest gradation in my case resulted from green filter - it also gave a nice darker skin tones and darker lips, but the greenish shirt was quite white I was not sorry for it, though

Zhenya

 

[removed account4]

hi zhenya --

if you like those smooth + silky skin tones have you tried using a yellowish-green filter + overexposing your film a few stops? you might like the results even more .... maybe not

have fun!
-john

Hello friends,

after a big delay I conducted a nice experiment that can be useful for someone. Well, I don't pretend to discover something new, but the "portrait" light cyan-bluish filters really give to you the "ortochromatic" famous look of the skin tones! More, the blue light from the flash does about the same, but in a more harsh a way. I did the comparison of the portaits shot on FP4+ (dev. in Microphen 1+3) with filter on camera, without a filter, and with blue, green and red filters over my Metz 45CT-3 with umbrella, and the portraits on Maco Ortho film. The thing is that I like the effect of blue filtration on camera lens and flash even more than the real ortho film Of course, I printed all my prints from all films to the same maximum black to make them comparable. Does anyone use coloured flash light when shooting portraits, or I'm on a threshold of something new?

Cheers from Moscow,
Zhenya

 

[eumenius]

Hi John,

I like silky and smooth skin tones, so I used the YG filter and overexposure before - but it takes stops off my combination, and it's not always good... the filtered flash light seems to me a bit more clean, simple and easy - especially with automatic flashes Yellow-greenish is in reality yellow plus blue, cutting down both reds and blues - that's why the skin becomes so smooth

Cheers from Moscow,
Zhenya

hi zhenya --

if you like those smooth + silky skin tones have you tried using a yellowish-green filter + overexposing your film a few stops? you might like the results even more .... maybe not

have fun!
-john

 

[removed account4]

hi zhenya

oops, i misread your original post - you are filtering the light !

sounds like a great way to achieve the same -- or even better results than filtering the lens. i'd love to see some of your results

-john

 

[eumenius]

Hi John,

yes, I am filtering the light - and that really delivers better results compared to lens filtration, at least it seems so to me It's also easier to make any required filter by using transparent sheet filters over the flash... without worrying about their optical quality

Though the coloured filter set was deisgned by Metz primarily for colour films, I didn't meet anywhere any suggestion to use them with B/W films - so I just tried it I promise to scan my prints and post them here, so everyone could compare.

Cheers,
Zhenya

hi zhenya

oops, i misread your original post - you are filtering the light !

sounds like a great way to achieve the same -- or even better results than filtering the lens. i'd love to see some of your results

-john