Do yo use contrast filters for people?

[puketronic]

For B&W roll film and when light isn't an issue. I'm thinking of trying out some filters, but I'm not sure if they're worthwhile. I'm curious to know how you, users, feel about this.

 

[Chris Lange]

I use a R25 red filter on almost all of my lenses when I'm shooting on the street with my Nikons. I've been shooting Neopan 400 and HP5+ at EI1600 with the red filter, getting roughly the same exposures as I would when I shoot the same films unfiltered at 400. The contrast and grain that are inherent of pushing the film two stops, along with the reduced brightness in the blue wavelengths gives me a -lot- of grit. I love this combination, but it is certainly not for everyone, and most people think I'm crazy for doing it, but when I print the negatives, I love the look.

Then again, I also love the way reversal film cross-processed as a color-neg looks when printed on black&white paper.

N.B. I use the aforementioned Nikon setup in conjunction with an unfiltered Hasselblad and normally rated films. I like having the ability to paint with 2 brushes at once.

 

[tomalophicon]

Hi Chris, can you clear something up for me?
I read that you rate your film at 1600 when using a red filter, so exposing 2 stops less than when you don't use a filter. So if the red filter absorbs 3 stops, how can you be getting the same exposure at 1600?

 

[Chris Lange]

I always thought that the R25 absorbed 2 1/3 stops, I guess I was mistaken.

The way I see it, if I'm shooting unfiltered HP5+, and I have a given exposure of 1/125 at ƒ/4, then popping that filter on puts me somewhere around 1/125 at 1.8. I shoot a lot with a 105/1.8 and a 35/1.4, and don't always want to be so close to wide-open, so I push the film back up 2 stops to get me back into ƒ4 or ƒ5.6 territory. Either way, those negs, processed subsequently in either full strength ID-11 or Acufine have quite a unique look to them. Skin tends to go very light, often just a hair short of blowing out, and any clothes people are wearing (I'm shooting in NYC, where people mostly wear blue, black, and grey), get thrown down into the low end. With all the grain, it's a look similar to etchings, which I love.

 

[Mark Fisher]

Not exactly sure what you mean. If you mean portraits, I'll use a red or orange to minimize blemishes in teenagers (like my daughter). I'll also use one if I need to darken a background full of green things. Filters are just something you use to shift the tones in a way that enhances the image regardless of the type of photography.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I use orange to suppress red head related freckles, and yellow/green to bring up more reds in middle aged ladies.

Sometimes when the sitter is really old and the skin has looked better many decades in the past I find orthochromatic flim gives very good results.
That these days does usually mean dilute developer paired with a lithographic sheet film cut down to fit 4x5 holders, and paired with a whompin lot of light from powerful flash units to counter the slow film speed.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Green filters are supposed to be good for portraits. I am about to try one soon with a soft focus lens.