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Thread: B&W Filter Selection

  1. #71

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    New York
    Posts
    2,673

    Re: B&W Filter Selection

    Quote Originally Posted by r.e. View Post
    I'd suggest that people take their time acquiring these filters for B&W, at least if they care about price. Since yesterday, I've been able to acquire three in 82mm. Prices including shipping:

    B+W F-Pro MRC Yellow #8: B&H, open box, $70 ($90 new)
    Hoya HMC Yellow-Green X0: eBay, new old stock, $36 ($70.35 new)
    Hoya HMC Green X1: eBay, new old stock, $29.50 ($57 new)
    I've decided to see how I get along with these before getting any deeper into B&W contrast filters. Based on internet examples and playing around in Capture One, I'm doubtful that I'd use a red #25, and I suspect that I might find orange #16 more useful than orange #22. I'm also wary of the exposure handicap with the stronger filters. Although makers have cut back on what they offer (for example, B+W no longer makes most of the B&W contrast filters shown in a B+W brochure that I have), it looks like these filters are easy to find second-hand at attractive prices. The market/demand for them is probably too small to make them worth counterfeiting.
    Last edited by r.e.; 12-Aug-2021 at 08:12.

  2. #72

    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    3,901

    Re: B&W Filter Selection

    Given up using B&W contrast altering filters for B&W decades ago. Decided they were not it as they alter the contrast rendition into B&W of the entire scene. They can be absolutely effective in some images made, overall they did not fit what the image goals were and became.

    That said, #25 red is strong and in some ways over bearing as it can darken a blue sky lots, at times too much. The #16 orange achieves similar with less dominance. Green can be used to lighten greenery, Yellow tends to be the overall contrast helper.

    Back in the color B&W filter days, initial set of filters were Tiffen series 9 with a Sinar in front of the lens holder. Series 9 filter was large enough to work with the majority of lenses used. No threading makes filter changes and set up easier. In time this gave way to 75mm Sinar polymer filters, then a set of Sinar 103mm glass color filters.. Never liked the threaded in filters as they don't work on vintage lenses like Kodak Ektar, Dagor and etc... With the passage of time, the only filters used these days for B&W, polarizer and neutral density.

    Should pass these on to another home where they can be used again.


    Bernice


    Quote Originally Posted by r.e. View Post
    I've decided to see how I get along with these before getting any deeper into B&W contrast filters. Based on internet examples and playing around in Capture One, I'm doubtful that I'd use a red #25, and I suspect that I might find orange #16 more useful than orange #22. I'm also wary of the exposure handicap with the stronger filters. Although makers have cut back on what they offer (for example, B+W no longer makes most of the B&W contrast filters shown in a B+W brochure that I have), it looks like these filters are easy to find second-hand at attractive prices. The market/demand for them is probably too small to make them worth counterfeiting.

  3. #73
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,338

    Re: B&W Filter Selection

    Bernice - pan film with its depressed green sensitivity automatically gives a false rendition or feel for the natural gray scale. And films differs between one another in blue and red sensitivity too, so there is nothing tonality neutral about any black and white shot just because you don't use contrast filters. I don't use them every shot. But it all depends. I even used 29 filters for Bergger 200 to take advantage of its exceptionally long straight line. A 25 is wimpy compared to that, but is what I generally carry as my deepest filter in that direction of the color wheel. What people call a blue sky is one region would be called smog in another. And skies aren't as blue as they used to be.

    The road going right past our place climbed very rapidly and topped out over 10,000 feet, and the peaks in the background were in the 13,000 and 14,000 ft range. When my older brother got involved in stock photography he took a color shot up there and entered it into a juried nature photography contest in LA. They accused him of tinting the sky excessively blue and evicted him from the competition. Well, there was no trick filter evidence, it was just a chromogenic rather than DT print, and Photoshop didn't exist yet. How could he fake that? But apparently, those LA judges, who had probably never even been in the mountains, presumed that "blue" sky equates to brown grime.

    In terms of "overbearing" in a black and white shot, it just depends on the exposure. I routinely take exposures using a 25 red which are fully buoyant in the shadow as well through the entire scale. That's what thoughtful exposure and development allows one to do. Years ago, another fellow into mountain photography condemned me for even carrying a red, because it would block out the shadows at high altitude. Well, maybe in his workflow or method printing it would, but not in mine. These filters are all just tools, and as such, what works quite well for one person might not work as well for another. Fortunately, we have a wide choice of films, filters, and developers, etc. But unfortunately, apparently a number of worn-out stereotypes too. And all those filter brand brochures are based on stereotypes. That's fine in an entry level-sense, but hardly the end of the story.

  4. #74

    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Posts
    254

    Re: B&W Filter Selection

    I forgot what I originally posted this thread about....

    I find it crazy talk that people would not use contrast filters on B&W film. I've never been able to manipulate my B&W images in post without their help. In fact, the right filter on the right image makes post editing a snap. That post editing is the part of the image taking process I like the least. Well save carrying a 30 pound backpack up a hill kinda sucks, but other than that, I prefer a workflow that is light on Photoshop.
    Anything in life worth having is worth sharing.

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