Reducing contrast in B&W images

Steven Lee · Aug 15, 2022

Why all B&W filters are contrast-enhancing? Yellow, orange, red, etc. I get the lust for dramatic skies some people have, but I find their effect on everything else to be not pleasing. I am thinking about trying blue or cyan color compensating filter to boost shadows under harsh light. Shadows are usually cooler so I'm hoping that by blocking red I'll be able to soften them. Has anyone tried this?

Another idea is to try Ilford Ortho film. Basically looking for alternatives to overexposing+pulling, because that only works on entire rolls.

Thoughts?

MattKing · Aug 15, 2022

You may be using "contrast" incorrectly here. It certainly is understandable if you do, because I regularly see such filters described incorrectly as "contrast" filters when, at most, they should be referred to as "colour contrast" filters.
When it comes to something like using a yellow filter with black and white film, the reason to employ such a filter is to enhance the differentiation of items of different colour in a scene that is being rendered in tones of grey. As an example, a yellow filter is used to make to predominantly blue subjects appear darker when they are adjacent to white or yellow subjects. That differentiation isn't the same sort of "contrast" as one normally talks about with black and white film. Normally, contrast refers to gamma - how areas of similar adjacent tones render with respect to each other - and not how different subject colours relate to each other.
Low or high contrast is a function of the character of the light, the lens, the film and the development. Adding a filter such as a yellow filter doesn't change that contrast, it just darkens some colour in the subject.

Steven Lee · Aug 15, 2022

Matt, you may be talking about film contrast index, that's unrelated to filters. I am talking about scene contrast, and the filters are called "contrast enhancing" because blocking blue light indeed increases scene contrast by making the shadows and the skies darker. It's evident to anyone wearing orange sunglasses. Lens and film are irrelevant to the first half of my question.

I am wondering if anyone tried the opposite: boost the shadows by blocking higher light frequencies.

albada · Aug 15, 2022

Yes, this has been tried. The results were published by Ansel Adams in book 2, titled "The Negative", pages 102-103. He shows photos of a landscape photographed through various filters, including blue. And as you expected, the blue filter lightened the shadow areas relative to the sunlit areas. The effect looked poor in his particular example, but I suspect it would be useful in other situations.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Aug 15, 2022

Steven Lee said:
I am wondering if anyone tried the opposite: boost the shadows by blocking higher light frequencies.

Wouldn't pre-flashing help?

Steven Lee · Aug 15, 2022

@albada thank you! Here's an example where I'd like to use one:

grain elevator · Aug 15, 2022

Steven Lee said:
@albada thank you! Here's an example where I'd like to use one:

View attachment 313037

To get the faces lighter? I'm doubtful it would help, faces don't reflect so much blue light, they're on the warmer side.

jeffreyg · Aug 15, 2022

There are graduated neutral density filters but you can also make your own color graduated filters. Many years ago I decide to do that. It was a little time consuming but not difficult. I used Lee 4x4 blanks and Rit dye. A pot with the dye on the oven to dissolve and warm the dye and slowly raised and lowered the filter so the "bottom" was clear and the "top" more dense and graduated toward the clear. I did a yellow and orange one. You can use them in the Lee holder or hold in front of the lens moving it up or down depending on the sky.

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jeffreyg · Aug 15, 2022

I thought of another way that might be easier for you to try would be to print a filter on Pictorico just to try it. I made mine before PhotoShop and Pictorico.

jeffreyg · Aug 15, 2022

photos of the homemade filters from my phone

xkaes · Aug 15, 2022

Steven Lee said:
Another idea is to try Ilford Ortho film. Basically looking for alternatives to overexposing+pulling, because that only works on entire rolls.

Thoughts?

Ortho film to reduce contrast? To reduce contrast on regular film, decrease the ISO and decrease the development as needed. Over expose the shadows and under develop the highlights.

Steven Lee · Aug 15, 2022

jeffreyg said:
I thought of another way that might be easier for you to try would be to print a filter on Pictorico just to try it. I made mine before PhotoShop and Pictorico.

I actually do have a 80A filter which is far larger than my lens, but it's good enough to experiment. Will do next weekend. Thanks. @xkaes you have suggested to pull by quoting my reason for not pulling. Either you hadn't read what you quoted or there's some massive misunderstanding going on

Doremus Scudder · Aug 15, 2022

I use blue and cyan filters fairly regularly with panchromatic black-and-white film to approximate the effect of orthochromatic/blue-sensitive emulsions.

And, yes, these filters can render shadows much more open and luminous and reduce scene contrast between shaded and sunlit areas.

One unavoidable characteristic of this practice is white skies. Blue skies photographed with a blue filter will almost always be very dense in the negative and render practically white (or completely white) in the print, especially if a strong blue filter is used.

Here's what I use:
For approximating the look of ortho film, a Wratten #44 or #44A is really the best. It has a transmission curve very close to ortho films. However, these are only available as gels. In the field, I'll often carry an 80B or 80A color conversion filter. They look blue, but transmit a large portion of green as well and, therefore, give an ortho rendering.

For approximating the look of blue-sensitive emulsions, you need a sharp-cut blue filter like the Wratten #47. Keep in mind, if you want to do this, that the exposure compensation will be significant. You need to test for that; reading through such strong filters with a meter can only give you a (very) rough starting point.

Best,

Doremus

Steven Lee · Aug 15, 2022

@Doremus Scudder thank you, this is hugely helpful.

albada · Aug 15, 2022

Steven Lee said:
@albada thank you! Here's an example where I'd like to use one:

View attachment 313037

The dark clothes and hull became pure black because they are in shade. And yes, a blue filter will lighten them because shade is lit by bluish light. But as Doremus warned us above, skies will become white (unless burned). Doremus also stated that your meter is "a (very) rough starting point." That's because the spectral response-curve of the meter probably does not match that of film, even when you meter through the blue filter.

xkaes · Aug 15, 2022

Steven Lee said:
@xkaes you have suggested to pull by quoting my reason for not pulling. Either you hadn't read what you quoted or there's some massive misunderstanding going on

My mistake. When I hear ORTHO film, I instinctively think "high contrast lithographic film." Not something I would try to lower contrast.

Steven Lee · Aug 15, 2022

I hear you. Ideally I'd like to keep using my usual films, that's why I'm going to try a blue filter first. Will make sure to share my findings here when I get to it. Thanks.

Romanko · Aug 19, 2022

Steven Lee said:
I'd like to keep using my usual films,

What was the film and the developer you used for this photograph? Have you tried more conventional methods of taming the contrast, like adjusting the exposure index of your film or developing to a lower gamma?
I quite like your image, though. It think that if you reduce the contrast you'll lose some of the atmosphere in this photograph.

Steven Lee · Aug 19, 2022

@Romanko great question. Yes, I am usually quite happy with the desired contrast level with HP5+ in Xtol by dialing it the exposure + development time. But I am bumping into limits of what's possible using Fomapan 100 and 400. I love their spectral sensitivity characteristics, they paint a quite distinct B&W picture of the world, but the density range I can play with and the shape of their toe is not nearly as generous as with HP5+ so I was looking for another lever.

Foma 200 is better, but at the moment only the defective batch is available at the usual retailers (freestyle, B&H, etc).

gone · Aug 19, 2022

A camera w/ a spot meter could have properly exposed the faces on the group outside, but at the expense of blowing out other areas. I shoot Foma 100, 400, Delta 100 and Tri-X. On the same scene, the Delta 100 will show less contrast but more resolution. It's a great film.

FWIW, yellow filters add contrast on my photos (or at least they add apparent contrast), and I think an orange filter gave what looked like less contrast. I only tried it once w/ my ex-wife. She was Black (probably still is), and it did a poor job on the skin color and outside grab shots compared to the yellow.

Note: some lenses are better than others in this regard. My Leicas R lenses handled contrast a lot differently than the Nikkor glass, and it depended on the lens. The old Nikkor H 50 2 Auto lens is a low contrast, Sonnar design that images quite differently in terms of contrast compared to the newer lenses. I prefer to bump contrast up in printing vs trying to reduce once it's on the neg.

Reducing contrast in B&W images

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