The Right Yellow Filter for Natural Looking B&W?...

[Nicholas Lindan]

I am sure that the skies I shot in my last b&w roll were interesting. They were either a mix of blue and white or gray and white, as I have indicated.

If your skies are white then a yellow filter is the wrong filter for you. A yellow filter can produce 'natural' skies when the sky is a deep clear blue. If the sky is the normal hazy-light-blue/white of the urban environment then a yellow filter will do little.

You need to get a red #25 filter and stack it with a polarizer ... then your skies will show all the detail there is to be seen in them.

 

[johnnywalker]

As I understand it, black and white film is disproportionately sensitive to blue, tending to render it white. A medium yellow filter will fix this, as will a polarizing filter under the right light conditions. Polarizers are most effective when used at right angles to the sun. They are also great for taking the glare off water. Red filters will show more cloud/sky separation than your eye can see and darken the sky. As the poster above showed, they can make the sky very dramatic, especially when combined with a polarizer.

 

[sangetsu]

When shooting scenes with lots of skies, I tend to under-expose. You are using a good meter, and you are also using the built-in meters in your camera, but you need practice to understand these meters and use them properly. If the blue parts of the sky are the subject you are shooting, then you should be metering those parts. If the sky is just the background, and you are metering an up-close subject which is darker (most likely) than the sky, then the sky will become over-exposed and washed out. To get the right combination of exposure for a foreground subject and a background sky, you are going have to meter both, and average the readings out.

Sending your black-and-white film to get developed is asking for trouble. I rarely get good results unless I develop the film myself. If you've got $40 and access to ebay, then you've enough money to buy the equipment you need to process 35mm film at home. Developing black-and-white film yourself is less expensive (it costs me about 2 cents per frame), and will give you better results than what you can get from most labs. You might even find the process enjoyable (as I do).

 

[eddym]

Sending your black-and-white film to get developed is asking for trouble. I rarely get good results unless I develop the film myself. If you've got $40 and access to ebay, then you've enough money to buy the equipment you need to process 35mm film at home. Developing black-and-white film yourself is less expensive (it costs me about 2 cents per frame), and will give you better results than what you can get from most labs. You might even find the process enjoyable (as I do).

Ditto to this advice. Although the suggestion to shoot XP2 is good, and it is great stuff, you'll never have real control over your tones until you process your film yourself. The investment is small, and the lessons learned by doing it are priceless.

 

[L Gebhardt]

This sounds mostly like a printing issue to me. The sky is "over exposed", but there should be detail on the negative. Burning in the sky should let you print the details. Masking will help here if the sky/land border is not simple. Developing less will lower the contrast across the whole image in order to bring the sky into the range of the paper for a straight print. This is not a look I find appealing.

If you are having these printed you may need to spend a bit more for a custom print with dodging and burning. I wouldn't hold out much hope for a decent print from a minilab machine, no matter what filter you use.

I like a #12 yellow to add some density to the sky.

 

[TimVermont]

A light yellow-green filter (#11, I think) is often very satisfactory where there is both sky and green foliage/grass. Other options include a graduated neutral density filter in a sliding holder (Cokin, Lee or similar) and depending on the lighting, a polarizer may help.

 

[Russ - SVP]

I routinely use a deep yellow #15 for outdoor B/W shooting. Much nicer than standard #8.

Kiron Kid

 

[FilmOnly]

The advice here is very much appreciated...and so are the beautiful shots by Nicholas and Kiron Kid. I will consider all suggestions, and even consider learning how to develop at home. I tend to avoid chemicals, fumes, and such. This is perhaps the main reason why I have yet to try developing. Time and the learning curve are also factors.

 

[Mike1234]

If you photograph mostly gray or fully clouded skies and want to avoid printing your own you'll need to either learn to use grad ND filters or pay for custom printing or both. As was stated earlier a deep red filter "might" also help to increase contrast in blue-less skies but, again, foliage will be dark too and shadow areas tend to block out. This is a look I just don't often like. But that's my personal opinion. Lastly, even though the skies are cloudy or gray keeping the sun side (brighter sky) to your back will probably help.

 

[keithwms]

I'll just paste in my response to another query here, in case it is of use to someone.

~~~

I would give superpan and/or sfx a try. A slight yellow filter might give you what you want as well, as might a UV filter or polarizer, but generally I like to avoid putting anything over the lens!

There are many strategies for making clouds 'pop'.... some people simply overexpose the sky and then bleach back the print (with a nonproportional bleach); some selectively bleach, these strategies are sometimes referred to as 'brilliancing' the highlights. Some underexpose and burn, etc. and that can get quite involved like contrast masking. Believe it or not, you can also use the heat of your fingers, during dev of the print, to encourage darker tones in selective spots (just don't try it with amidol, okay?!). This is an ooold problem... but it's been less of a problem in recent years because of the extended pan films.

And there are as many filter suggestions as there are photographers. But the simplest thing, IMHO, is to wield an extended pan film like superpan or sfx... and just shoot it normally or maybe with a mild yellow. Know also that where the exposure goes on the film and on the paper curves can determine how much separation you have in the sky.

 

[polaski]

My eBay search string

I have the pale yellow filters I need so I don't mind telling you that the search string I use to spot the pale yellow filter in its various incarnations is: "(y1,y-1,y44,y-44,k1,k-1)"
Lokk from time to time and you should get a hit or two.

 

[FilmOnly]

I have taken Keith's advice (and other advice, too), and am awaiting the arrival of some Rollei film, both b&w and color. I am also waiting for a Nikon Y44 to arrive.