Yellow or UV filter depending on the weather

Billy Axeman said:

A photo I wanted to show earlier but it didn't show up, which is now resolved.
HP5+ with yellow filter Y48.

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Nice clouds! Good use of a yellow filter.

Svenedin said:

Nice clouds! Good use of a yellow filter.

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Thanks. It's a bit grainy though even for 35mm, I fear it's a bit overdeveloped ...

I re-read your post #17 and I agree more than I initially did. It is a fact that much of the UV light is passing through clouds, about 50% on average I think. So that could explain why contrast is enhanced even when no clear sky is visible.

Svenedin said:

It’s more like the habit of keeping a UV filter on the lens at all times for protection. For me, landscapes are my thing so a yellow filter is useful to me far more often than not. I am not a fan of blank, white skies -sometimes unavoidable.

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Actually, a yellow filter lives on my Fuji W 300mm, but it comes off with the lens cap for most of my work. There is the practical side of it. Using a view camera, putting on or removing a filter takes almost no time relative the total amount of time it takes to make a photograph. With roll film it is the opposite, and what do you do with the filter (which pocket is it in...)? Much easier leaving it on I suppose.

I am not a fan of overly dark skies and I appreciate atmospheric distance. I stopped using a yellow filter with TMax films. Seemed like a yellow filter with Tri-X, Pan-X, etc corrected the film so that it recorded the sky pretty much like our (my) eyes see it. TMax does that without filters, so the yellow has more effect than I like now. And I have development control of each negative, so I can control the sky values that way. Over-all, I usually do not have sky in my images, but in Death Valley, one often does not have a lot of choice! Below is about as dark as I go! Spring, Death Valley. Platinum/palladium print, 8x10

Billy Axeman said:

Thanks. It's a bit grainy though even for 35mm, I fear it's a bit overdeveloped ...

I re-read your post #17 and I agree more than I initially did. It is a fact that much of the UV light is passing through clouds, about 50% on average I think. So that could explain why contrast is enhanced even when no clear sky is visible.

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It doesn't look grainy to me.

What I meant was you do not need fluffy white clouds in a blue to sky to make good use of a yellow filter. If the clouds are illuminated by the sun shining through a gap in the clouds you can get a dramatic effect. My picture of the tower in post #17 illustrates this (there is no trickery in that photo, it is a straight negative scan and nothing else). In that photo the sun is shining onto those clouds (not through them). You can tell the direction of the light from the shadows on the tower.

Vaughn said:

....I am not a fan of overly dark skies and I appreciate atmospheric distance. I stopped using a yellow filter with TMax films. Seemed like a yellow filter with Tri-X, Pan-X, etc corrected the film so that it recorded the sky pretty much like our (my) eyes see it. TMax does that without filters, so the yellow has more effect than I like now. And I have development control of each negative, so I can control the sky values that way. Over-all, I usually do not have sky in my images, but in Death Valley, one often does not have a lot of choice! Below is about as dark as I go! Spring, Death Valley. Platinum/palladium print, 8x10

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That's an interesting point. I do a lot of architecture in a classic style; I like to have a very clean image without any distraction (even avoiding people and cars etc.). So sometimes I wonder if it isn't better to have a plain sky. Clouds are a random phenomenon and they don't always fit in the picture.

Billy Axeman said:

That's an interesting point. I do a lot of architecture in a classic style; I like to have a very clean image without any distraction (even avoiding people and cars etc.). So sometimes I wonder if it isn't better to have a plain sky. Clouds are a random phenomenon and they don't always fit in the picture.

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I also try to avoid people and cars in photos. They spoil them!

Sometimes clouds add to architectural photos and sometimes they detract.

For example, the clouds are useful here:


But would be really annoying here (though the yellow filter has darkened the sky so that statue stands out:


but this has a white sky and I find it boring:

It depends a lot one ones personal aims, preferences, professional needs, and such. A dark sky is more dramatic, I must admit. I enjoy experiencing and using the light reflected off the landscape -- and attempt to express that experience to the viewer. Generally, that means that I do not wish to significantly reduce the luminosity of the source of light for the landscape (the sky).

I noticed this cloud only after the film was developed

Billy Axeman said:

I noticed this cloud only after the film was developed

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I like it. It looks like you waited patiently for the cloud to be just in the right place!

Vaughn said:

It depends a lot one ones personal aims, preferences, professional needs, and such. A dark sky is more dramatic, I must admit. I enjoy experiencing and using the light reflected off the landscape -- and attempt to express that experience to the viewer. Generally, that means that I do not wish to significantly reduce the luminosity of the source of light for the landscape (the sky).

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I like the way you are careful how much your darken the sky. Yellow works for me but I do have reservations about the use of orange and red filters. You mentioned not using a yellow filter with TMax. I do use a yellow with TMax and I don't find it darkens the sky too much (photo of minesweeper above is TMax 400 with a yellow filter).