Which filters do you recommend?

Sirius Glass · Feb 15, 2007

Which filters do you recommend for bringing out the clouds and darkening the sky? I am planning on buying two filters - which ones? :confused:
#6, K1
#8, K2
#9
#11
#12
#13
#15, G
#21
#23A
#24
#25
#25A
#29

Please advise.

Steve

Nick Zentena · Feb 15, 2007

Forget the #6 and #29. The six won't do much. The 29 will do too much most of the time.

Only two? #21 and #15.

Paul Sorensen · Feb 15, 2007

My usual advice to students is that if you want the clouds and sky to look pretty natural, use a medium yellow, if you want a little dramatic, use Orange, and if you want really dramatic, red. I personally use a red 25 a lot, and orange and yellow less, but I think I might be guilty of red filter abuse.

pgomena · Feb 15, 2007

I use a #8 for general landscape purposes, a #12 for moderately darkened skies, and a #23A or 25 for more dramatic skies. Lately I tend toward the #23A over the 25 to avoid too stark a look, but that's a matter of taste. If I were to pick two filters specifically for darkening skies, it would be the 12 and the 25.

Peter Gomena

jgjbowen · Feb 15, 2007

My two most used filters are #8 & #12. But, for darkening skies, I too would use #12 & #25.

Peter De Smidt · Feb 15, 2007

Remember that filters respond differently with different films. As David Kachel pointed out in a magazine article in the early 90s, T-max films repsond differently than other films. With Tri-x, for example, a red filter increases contrast, whereas a green filter lowers it. (These contrast changes are different than the lowering of complementary colors.) With T-max films green increases contrast, whereas red lowers it. Personally, I use a green-yellow filter with T-max 100 quite a bit.

Scott Peters · Feb 15, 2007

Yellow, YellowGreen and Orange - Red is a bit much....

If you are shooting landscape with lots of green, a yellow green is a nice filter to own. Or for Red Rock type stuff for that matter too (Southwest).

Lee Shively · Feb 15, 2007

Over the years, I've amassed a large number of filters. Of those, the two that get the most use are greens and oranges. Specifically, the Tiffen #11 in yellow-green or the B+W 061 in green (I think that's a #13) and the B+W 041 #22 in orange. I've also substituted a Tiffen #15 in dark yellow for the orange filter and got pretty much the same results.

nworth · Feb 15, 2007

It depends on what you want your pictures to look like and on what film you use. Look into some books on black and white photography technique. Most have a section on filter use that gives some sound advice and comparative pictures. These are a big help.

The basic filter to darken the sky a bit and to provide a normal rendition of landscapes with normal panchromatic film is the No. 8, medium yellow. If you usually use TMax100 film, this corection may not be quite right, and the No. 6, light yellow, filter is sometimes recommended. I've found the No. 11, yellow-green, filter to be very useful to darken the sky and lighten dark foliage. I would recommend it as a second filter. As time goes on you can accumulate the more exotic filters. The basic set should probably include the No. 25, red, No. 15, orange, and a polarizer as well as the No. 8 and No. 11. But you will probably want to add others as well. The polarizer is just as essential in black and white as it is in color.

BradS · Feb 15, 2007

I rarely use anything more than a polarizer filter. Occasionally, a Nikon L39 or the medium yellow or yellow-green. If I need to cut through haze or fog, I'll pull out the orange filter. I have red but really never use it.

So, I guess if I had to choose just two, I'd get a polarizer and maybe the Orange filter (when you need it, you really need it). I could do without the rest.

GeorgK · Feb 15, 2007

Use mid-yellow to give a more "natural" impression of blue sky - without filter, blue sky always looks too bright in SW-prints. I would not call this an effect filter, but more a restoration of the natural looks.

Orange, if the sky is only pale-blue, to seperate the clouds. But be careful, it can also make dry, yellowish grass very bright. With really blue sky, this filter is often too strong. In most landscape pictures, "sky" means in fact "horizon", which can be quite hazy even on a bright day; here, the orange filter also can help.

Red is too strong for my taste. This is really for "impact" pictures.

But even with this filters, you still will have to "burn" the sky a little bit in most prints.

Georg

David Henderson · Feb 15, 2007

Most of my b&w work is unfiltered. I may occasionally use a polariser or a grad, though nowhere near as often as I do with colour reversal film. If I'm going to use a colour filter to darken the sky or bring out clouds, then for me I'd rather use filters whose effect I can clearly see. So I do make some use of B+W 090 red and 041 orange.

Matthew Gorringe · Feb 16, 2007

A no.13 yellow-green filter is a great filter to have, much more useful when there's foliage about than a no.12 and just as effective in increasing contrast and darkening skies.

A no.23 orange would make a nice compliment and will give almost as much contrast effect as a no.29 without such a large loss of speed.

A no.29 deep red becomes useful when you want to reduce haze in landscapes and/or for use with extended red sensitive films.

It's really all personal opinon but I think one mild (no.8, 12 or 13) and one dramatic (23, 25, 29) is a good way to go.

m_liddell · Feb 16, 2007

I find I use a b&w yellow/orange filter a lot and red very occasionally (it is pretty strong!). I've found yellow is a bit too subtle for my tastes, the yellow/orange is just right.

Sirius Glass · Feb 16, 2007

After reading all the posts I was able to purchase a #15 and #25 to bring out the clouds and darken the sky. The reason I did not list a polarizing filter is that these filters are for a C330 TLR and while using polarizing filters for my Nikon SLR produces great results, using polarizing filters on a C330 is a PITA.

The filters are 49mm and I brought a 49 to 46 mm stepdown filter adapter so that I could cover all the lenses.

Thank you for you help.

... Now to go out and burn some serious film ...

Steve

Bryce Parker · Feb 16, 2007

I've spent a fair amount of time trying to sort through this subject.
I use a light yellow filter most of the time (K2 I think) and it usually gives "realistic" results, overcoming B+W film's oversensitivity to blue light. I habitually use FP4, by the way.
I also carry O2 and yellow-green, and skylight filters, and use them sometimes.
The Orange filter gives me some latitude to get a little tone out of blue sky when exposing for the shaded side of a subject. I find the effect overpowering when exposing for the sunlit side of a subject, though.
The yellow-green filter may be replacing the yellow for me, here's why. Its effect on sky tones is almost the same as the yellow, but it lightens deep green colored foliage. Many times I feel the yellow filter tends to render evergreen trees too dark, they look sinister.
On overcast days I often use the clear filter for a little extra speed and since gray skies render about the same regardless of filter color.
One more observation- longer lenses tend to "need" stronger filtration than wide ones. Using the orange filter on very short lenses will usually give very dramatic effects, not my taste, so I never use that with lenses that give a perspective wider than 28mm or 35mm equivalent.
One last note- I cut my medium format teeth with a Mamiya c330 and 55, 80, and 135mm lenses. I found that using a hood is imperative to avoid flare problems, especially with the 55mm. I scrapped my step up rings (nearly all my gear uses 49mm too) and bought 46mm ones and factory hoods. I feel it was worth the expense and extra stuff to carry around.
I hope this proves useful.

Sirius Glass · Feb 16, 2007

Bryce Parker said:
I've spent a fair amount of time trying to sort through this subject.
I use a light yellow filter most of the time (K2 I think) and it usually gives "realistic" results, overcoming B+W film's oversensitivity to blue light. I habitually use ...
On overcast days I often use the clear filter for a little extra speed and since gray skies render about the same regardless of filter color.
One more observation- longer lenses tend to "need" stronger filtration than wide ones. Using the orange filter on very short lenses will usually give very dramatic effects, not my taste, so I never use that with lenses that give a perspective wider than 28mm or 35mm equivalent.
One last note- I cut my medium format teeth with a Mamiya c330 and 55, 80, and 135mm lenses. I found that using a hood is imperative to avoid flare problems, especially with the 55mm. I scrapped my step up rings (nearly all my gear uses 49mm too) and bought 46mm ones and factory hoods. I feel it was worth the expense and extra stuff to carry around.
I hope this proves useful.

Thank you for your recommendations. I had not thought about the difference in filtering wide angle versus telephoto lenses.

Steve

Scott Peters · Feb 16, 2007

Another thought....purchase the largest filters size possible for all of your filters and get step down reducing lens adapters to mate with your smaller/st lenses. I have 82mm filters with adapters to fit all 4 lenses.....

Robert T. McCarthy · Feb 17, 2007

I suppose that Steve's question should be fine-tuned a bit.
For example, when taking a portrait of a young person of northern European decent I used to use my yellow green filter with APX-100 developed in X-tol for the best skin tones ever. When taking photos of Red Heads with freckles, I would use an orange filter to reduce the freckles especially when that child or person has recently spent the day in the sun. The Red filter has a tendency to make a womans lips pale and those with freckles, the freckles are more pronounced.

The landscape photographer loves the orange and red filters when using smaller formats to create the illusion of more contrast with as little development increase as possible.

I personally would like to here how each of us use their filters, and the effects he or she is looking for.

Tom Duffy · Feb 17, 2007

Orange-red, Yellow-green and a polarizer cover all my bases. I use the YG more than the OR. It lightens foliage, darkens skies naturally, darkens brickwork, and adds a little drama to fire engines and Gulf gasoline signs .

PatTrent · Feb 20, 2007

Stever said:
Which filters do you recommend for bringing out the clouds and darkening the sky? I am planning on buying two filters - which ones? :confused:
#6, K1
#8, K2
#9
#11
#12
#13
#15, G
#21
#23A
#24
#25
#25A
#29

Please advise.

Steve

I vote for either the #8/K2 yellow or #11 green (if foliage is important). Anything stronger gives skies an unnatural (to my taste) darkness. I like my skies to have some light in them, and only use a filter to emphasize white clouds. If there are no clouds, I don't filter B&W film at all, because yellow and orange filters work against you for shadow detail.

resummerfield · Feb 20, 2007

Bryce Parker said:
......longer lenses tend to "need" stronger filtration than wide ones......

Excellent observation. I think haze or atmospheric pollution has a lot to do with it. I used to live on the East Coast, and summer haze and pollution was very noticeable, with visibilities often around 3 miles. I needed a #15 or stronger to render the skies as I like them. Now I live in Alaska, and the skies are much more clear and blue, with visibilities often over 100 miles. Now a #8 works just fine.

Bill Dobbs · Feb 24, 2007

Whether I use a red, orange, or yellow depends a lot on conditions. For example, if the sky is deep blue to start with I usually select a dark yellow filter to emphasize the contrast between sky and clouds. As the darkness of the blue decreases I use increasingly darker filters, from orange to deep red for the thinnest of blue sky.
Overall, I'd recommend the #21 and #25. I use the #25 the most.

Which filters do you recommend?

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