Tobacco Grads and Blue/Gold Polarisers - who uses them?

[Dr Croubie]

So I was going through the cupboard the other day, looking for stuff I haven't used in a while to add to the pile of crap I'm sending to fleabay one of these days.
I came across a set of Cokin A filters and a few holders. I slightly remember buying them, maybe 2 or so years ago, for a ridiculously cheap price. At the time I tried them out, but didn't use them much since most of my 35mm/MF SLR lenses have >62mm filter threads (max for Cokin A).

So looking at them now, I'm thinking of trying them out again. I've got a 135/3.5 Xenar with a 40.5mm thread (just covers 4x5" with no movements) and a 180/5.6 Symmar-S with 67mm thread that I can step down to 62mm (I'll probably just lose a tiny bit of shift). Also, I can make it work on my 12/21/28" Convertible Anastigmat on 8x10" fairly easily. Maybe on my 65/8 Super Angulon, but that's a bitch to use as it is, and will probably vignette.

There are the requisite coloured filters, a few ND grads, and the two most interesting ones are a Tobacco Grad and a Blue/Gold Polariser.
Now I did try out the tobacco grad once or twice on colour digital and didn't really like it. But now I shoot B+W film I was thinking it'd be perfect for darkening a blue sky and contrasting the clouds, then maybe another colour for the foreground (or just leave it unmolested). Has anyone specifically used a Tobacco Grad for B+W, got any examples? Or anyone tried it and decided it's better to use a regular ND grad alone or with a solid-colour?

The Blue/Gold Polariser is an interesting one, on colour it seems to toggle between 'supersaturated' and 'washed out', but I've never used it on B+W. Does it do much?
(of course the obvious answer is 'try it', which I fully intend to do, but I'm just looking to see if anyone else has examples / has one / uses one / likes it / hates it etc...)

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Tobacco and orange grads are great for B&W landscapes. Totally corny for color.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

I would use it with color , I love sulphur high saturated images from summitar when everywhere illuminated wiith hot filament clear bulbs. It gives energy to the pictures , sometimes I overdose the post processing and rareely it goes fine but these filters can be very fine at experts hands also.

I remember when I recieve saturn and venus mission pictures from NASA and sulphur was energy in the pictures.

If you dont want , I can buy from you Doctor.

Umut

 

[paul_c5x4]

The Blue/Gold Polariser is an interesting one, on colour it seems to toggle between 'supersaturated' and 'washed out',

Try looking at any metallic or wet surface - Polished chrome, wet rocks, and damp leaves are all good. The angle of light also makes a big difference to the effect seen.
One more thing to try - Combine the 173 with a regular polarising filter and rotate one or both in different directions. You may like the effect or you may not


Probably best to stick them on the front of a digicam, run through the various combinations, and if you like the results, shoot some real film - Not sure I'd want to burn through a box of 5x4 on the off-chance something "interesting" appears.