Which filter should I get for B&W film?

I’m looking to buy color filters (green, yellow, orange, and red) to use for analog black-and-white photography.

When searching for a green filter, I’ve found several options with different “strengths” of green, and I’m not sure which one I should choose.

Does anyone have advice or experience with this?
Which one would be considered the most classic or versatile to start with?
And what kind of differences should I expect in the final image when shooting black and white with these variations?

These are the markings/values I’ve come across:
LB1, LB2, LB3, LB4, LB6, LB7, LB9, LB11, LB16, LB17.

Green filters are useful for making pale skin look more tanned in portraits. You can use them to highlight (darken) freckles. They also make the leaves of trees look brighter.

A dark green filter will take about 2 stops of light and have a strong effect. The lightest ones take less than 1 stop of light and have a very weak effect.

To see the effect on a color image, load up a color image in an image editing program. Gimp has something called "Mono Mixer" which allows you to convert to black and white while picking how much of each R, G, B channel to use. Use more of the green channel than the others and you will see the effect.

I generally use the ones that take about 1.5-2 stops and don't mess with the weak ones because they don't change much and add a chance for more flare.

Another reason to use a green filter is in making trichromes - there are specific R, G, B filters to use for that purpose which are designed to separate colors cleanly. If you ever expect to make trichromes, you might look for that specific one. Green 58, Blue 47, Red 25.

The most important one is imo a #8 (B+W 022) yellow.
For green I would get a #11 (060) yellow green filter.
There are many used filters made by top makers like B+W, Heliopan or Hoya.
Can't say anything about the filters you showed, microscope supply?
If so there are filters with totally different characteristics (interference filters, short pass...).

I made a comparison some times ago:

The most useful to me are in this order #8, #15, #11 and #25. I have others, but these are used the most.

This might be a good research approach. Look for the section on B&W contrast filters. These are getting less popular and less available so some reading might be required.

I find that I don't use the green very often. For me the 040 from B+W is the most useful. It looks orange to me but they call it dark yellow. I also use the 022 yellow a bit and the 090 red the least.
You can see examples of the effect on these two youtube videos I did.

Pedroga said:

I’m looking to buy color filters (green, yellow, orange, and red) to use for analog black-and-white photography.

When searching for a green filter, I’ve found several options with different “strengths” of green, and I’m not sure which one I should choose.

Does anyone have advice or experience with this?
Which one would be considered the most classic or versatile to start with?
And what kind of differences should I expect in the final image when shooting black and white with these variations?

These are the markings/values I’ve come across:
LB1, LB2, LB3, LB4, LB6, LB7, LB9, LB11, LB16, LB17.
View attachment 418913

Click to expand...

a full set of contrast filtes for analog B&W photography includes a yellow, a green, an orange, and a red filter. a good way to staet is with a yellow-green or just a yellow filter. Orange and red are for sky rendering or dramatic skies. You can also stack them up for an even more dramatic effect. As everythig, it can be overdone

Which filter always depends on the effect you are after (and the lighting/subject)

Each filter will darken it's complimentary colours, compared to things in the filters colour.
Yellow, orange & red tend to work well for landscapes with an increasing effect on skies (and blue items).
Blue filters will darken red items, & green effectively lighten foliage.

I have to admit I use mine mainly for digital infra red, where all the red ones (#25 & #29) work well.
I've found considerable variation in #58 (green) filters. With my SD14 one of the three I have works very well, blocking some but not a huge amount of IR. Of the other two one blocks nearly all the IR & the third practically none. I've also had some variation in IR transmission of the #47 (blue) filters but I think they've all proved usable.

I’ve found three green filters so far: one looks too yellowish, another is a lighter green, and the third seems a bit too dark.

I’m trying to choose glass filters because, as a beginner, I assume they would be more durable. I’d likely follow the same approach when buying red, orange, and yellow filters, which will be the next ones on my list and seem easier to find.

JensH said:

The most important one is imo a #8 (B+W 022) yellow.
For green I would get a #11 (060) yellow green filter.
There are many used filters made by top makers like B+W, Heliopan or Hoya.
Can't say anything about the filters you showed, microscope supply?
If so there are filters with totally different characteristics (interference filters, short pass...).

I made a comparison some times ago:

Click to expand...

I think these photos are very beautiful, the colors, the style, I don't know... it seems like the colored filters add a certain charm, you know?

#8, 15, 21, 25, get used a lot. I sometimes use a #12 (minus blue). I also have a #58 green, but I tend to use that more for tri-colour work.

Pedroga said:

View attachment 418914View attachment 418915View attachment 418916
I’ve found three green filters so far: one looks too yellowish, another is a lighter green, and the third seems a bit too dark.

I’m trying to choose glass filters because, as a beginner, I assume they would be more durable. I’d likely follow the same approach when buying red, orange, and yellow filters, which will be the next ones on my list and seem easier to find.

Click to expand...

You'll find most people here will refer to filters by their number.

Each number filter has a set of defined characteristics including the density and wavelength of light that is filtered. They are usually manufactured by well known makers of camera filters.

You will also find on ebay and amazon, a lot of cheap random coloured pieces of unknown quality glass mounted into filter holders, that usually stand out by not claiming any particular filter number, and have unknown characteristics.

You can have fun experimenting with them, but keep in mind that in most cases you won't be able to compare your results against others who are using known filters.

I mostly use a yellow-green here in the Southwest. Otherwise a yellow or a red for special effects.

For clarity, while some refer to these as "contrast" filters, they probably are more accurately described as "colour contrast" filters, because their purpose is the suppress certain parts of the spectrum, and by doing so, change the contrast in the subject between the colour suppressed and other parts of the subject.
So if you want to darken a blue sky, to make white clouds appear more prominent, you use a yellow or red filter - red because skies often tend actually toward cyan.
So as is often the case, the answer to your question is: "it depends".
I have friends who have an unhealthily large set of different filters, because they like to use filters to do a great variety of things.
Some photographers who use black and white film a lot prefer to leave a light yellow filter on the camera most times, because outside there is a lot of blue light around, and there is often a benefit to be gained from filtering a bit of that back. Tri-X users were famous for doing that, which may be the reason that some of the T-Max emulsions have slightly less blue sensitivity, making a yellow filter less important.
It is probably best to have an idea first about what you want filters to do for you before you chooses one or a few.