When using b/w filters for landscapes with important shadows, do you add a “Hutchings” filter factor in addition to your filter’s suggested factor (or alternatively, in addition to your thru-the-filter metering)?

As I understand it, the Hutchings factor (after Gordon Hutchings: see Steve Simmons’ “Using the View Camera”) provides your filtered scene with some additional exposure – in addition to what you’ve already added due to the b/w filter you’re using.

The reason is because shadowed areas typically transmit a higher proportion of blue light, precisely the type of light that yellow, orange and red filters can take away. The Hutchings factor puts it back in.

This additional Hutchings factor can be significant. For example, you start with the filter’s suggested factor (or start with your thru-the-meter reading), and then, in addition:
  • Add an additional stop of exposure for filters #11 (light yellow-green), #16 (medium orange), and #21 (light red)
  • Add an additional 2 stops for filters #25 (medium red) and #29 (deep red).
  • It recommends no additional exposure for yellow or medium yellow filters.


For me, depending on film type and personal tests, this method has indeed saved some of my b/w shadowy landscapes, but at the (often prohibitive) cost of putting highlights at greater risk, requiring some N-1, or N-2, or compensation development.

Please share your ideas or experiences with Hutchings filter factors.

Might they work for you?