A common beginner mistake is to think this is just about darkening blue sky for sake of better clouds. But how is your choice of filter going to affect other things in the same scene? Go to the Southwest where there is a lot of brick-red Navajo sandstone and related soil color, use a yellow, orange, or red filter to darken the sky, and you'll get over-exposed bland paste-like rock tones.
Thanks! I've hiked into Boom Lake before, but that was a long time ago.
It probably depends on what effect you want. For me, a K2 gave me somewhat minimal loss of light combined with darker, more contrasty skies and clouds. I just keep a K2 screwed onto any lens I own. If you were in lower light levels, the lighter Yellow filter might be better for focusing.
Unlike Rob, I never got on w/ an orange filter, especially if my subject was Black. It made my wife's skin color look very different than she actually looked like in person.
A common beginner mistake is to think this is just about darkening blue sky for sake of better clouds. But how is your choice of filter going to affect other things in the same scene? Go to the Southwest where there is a lot of brick-red Navajo sandstone and related soil color, use a yellow, orange, or red filter to darken the sky, and you'll get over-exposed bland paste-like rock tones. Same with brick buildings. Use a green filter instead, and you'll not only bring out the clouds in a blue sky, but deepen the brick hues. If you simply look through a given color of contrast filter, you can get a general impression of the result, even though pan films see things somewhat differently than our eyes do.
Just a few days ago I went down to our shoreline, and had to remove my routine deep orange filter and replace it with a medium green one. Why? Not only was there a blue sky with some interesting clouds in it, but blue salt marsh pools in the foreground reflecting all that. And all around them was a lot of low salt-marsh foliage, turned red in autumn. If I had used an orange filter, everything surrounding the pools would have been rendered nearly as light as the pools themselves. All the drama in the scene I wanted would have been ruined.
The secret was the green filter instead. The blue of the sky and those reflective pool was somewhat darkened, allowing clouds and cloud reflections more opportunity to show, while the red foliage itself was dramatically darkened, making the pools themselves, and their details, far more apparent.
Learn to think and see like film, and not just along the lines of some filter advertisement.
I am hand-metering with older SLRs.
Rule of thumb to compensate for filter light absorption?
You really should figure out you own filter factor combined with each type of film you use. Start with the stated factor (sometimes expressed in stops, sometimes as filter factors, which are not stops) and the ISO you have determined for each film. Set up a tripod and shoot the same scene, bracketing by 1/2-1/3 stop over and under. Then examine the results and use the factor that gives you the effect you expect and want for that filter. Easiest done with 35mm, lots of exposures per roll. This method is also recommended with TTL metering, as some photocells react differently to different wavelengths of light.I am hand-metering with older SLRs.
Rule of thumb to compensate for filter light absorption?
Well, a friendly neighbor gave me an 85A orange-y filter.
Yellow filter will lighten yellow and darken blue and violet. Effect increases according to grade, so #8 has light effect, #12, more, and #15 the most of the yellows.
Which you want really varies according to both the effect you wand and the type of photography you do. They are not useful for portrait photography, neither are they practical for street photography, as they tend to darken shadows and increase contrast.
Yes, A medium yellow and a polarizer will+1
And add a polarizer in there too. These are the only two filters I use.
Even with brass filter rings, a filter wrench (or a set of them) is handy to keep in your bag. Really makes removing a stuck filter much easier.
Yes, A medium yellow and a polarizer will
cover most all of your needs.
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