which filter would you use?

[jetcode]

BW LF landscape, it's a late afternoon, clouds in the sky, you want to increase the contrast of the clouds but the subject is red and is being visualized as zone 5 or so

How would you proceed?

[jb7]

Polarizer?

[jb7]

uh-oh-
clouds in a blue sky?
90º to the sun?

yellow might help too-

[Scott Kathe]

BW LF landscape, it's a late afternoon, clouds in the sky, you want to increase the contrast of the clouds but the subject is red and is being visualized as zone 5 or so

How would you proceed?

Well I wouldn't do the red filter-did that when I was starting out and the red building came out all wrong but the sky looked good. When I used a yellow filter the building looked good but the sky didn't. I think your best bet would be the polarizer as long as the sun was in the correct position and you aren't using a wide angle lens.

If the subject is low in the image maybe a graduated filter would work for you.

[Ole Tjugen]

Maybe try a yellow-green?

It's also surprising how often a green colour-separation filter does the trick...

[Ron Marshall]

Wratten #12 (deep yellow) and a polariser, or Wratten # 11 (yellow-green, XO).

[Ben Chase]

I'd try the polarizer first, and then maybe an ND filter, but I think the results would be better with the polarizer if you're at a right angle to the sun.

[Preston]

Joe, are there trees in your prospective frame? How do you want them rendered? A filter that darkens blue will render the trees lower in value because they will have a high blue component. Also, since you do not want to render the red building at a value greater than (say) Zone V, a red or yellow filter will not be a good choice. So, either an ND Grad, as Scott recommended, or the Wratten 11, as Ole and Ron suggest, may be your best bet.

Unless you are using a compensating developer such as pyro, you will likely have to do some corrections during printing to keep the highest values in check.

Let us know what you decide, and what your results are. Better yet, post a pic.

-PB

[jetcode]

here is the actual image

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...9&postcount=46

The bridge is red for the most part, and I used a red filter. The light was nearly behind me to my right side as it sank in the west and I was shooting southeast. I doubled the density of the bridge in the print.

Lots of good answers to the question and increases my filter vocabulary, #12 is one of my favorite filters but I can't get find it in the Hi Tech system that I am aware of.

[Scott Kathe]

Nice image and I see the problem-can you bump up the contrast a bit? That might help.

Scott