filters for fall foilage in b/w

[Herb Cunningham]

a scene I have worked on for two years now has a tree with fall foilage in front of a lake with pine trees across the lake. So the subject is yellow to orange foillage dark tree bark, with water and very green background.

It looks decent without any b/w filters, but I thought one of the guys might have some suggestions about how to separate the various colors. Oh, the sky is not a large part of the image, but maybe 25percent.

Don't have a clue of the effect of say a green filter on the orange/yellow foilage.

[Bill_1856]

Check out St. Ansel's article on shooting his Aspins ("60 Examples").

[Walter Calahan]

Yellow, orange and red filters will lighten the foliage.

A green filter will raise the contrast of the overall scene. Won't hurt your foliage images.

[Eric Rose]

try ortho film

[Alan Rabe]

I second Walter. The main problem is most of your objects will have the same reflectiveness, if thats a word. But the result is they all will be rendered at around the same shade of grey, quite dull. A green filter will seperate all your colors and create a more natural look in b&w.

[D. Bryant]

Check out St. Ansel's article on shooting his Aspins ("60 Examples").

The book was formerly titled "40 Examples". St. Ansel must have arose and added a score more.

Don Bryant

[Bill_1856]

The book was formerly titled "40 Examples". St. Ansel must have arose and added a score more.

Don Bryant

Sorry.... Actually in "40 Examples" he describes photographing his aspEns.

[Jim Michael]

Wouldn't the green filter tend to increase the separation between orange and yellow tonalities? My reasoning is green = blue + yellow so the yellow attenuation is low; orange is yellow + red so green would attenuate the magenta component.

Jim

[Sevo]

Wouldn't the green filter tend to increase the separation between orange and yellow tonalities? My reasoning is green = blue + yellow so the yellow attenuation is low; orange is yellow + red so green would attenuate the magenta component.

What we perceive as "green" is not blue+yellow, but merely anything which tickles the wideband blue and yellow sensitive receptors of the human eye, regardless of whether it is a mix of blue and yellow or narrowband true green. That is, narrow bandpassing green filters (such as used for technical applications) may block out blue and/or yellow - and a wide bandpassing green (at any rate perceived as such by a species with trichroic vision) filter must not neccessarily have a significant border between the bands of yellow and orange present in some particular foliage.

Sevo

[Jim Michael]

I suppose our perception is less important than the spectral response of the panchromatic film being used, but in any case for the application in question, "the effect of say a green filter on the orange/yellow foilage" do you not think the green filter (didn't mention which one, let's say a light green) would tend to increase the tonal separation between the yellow and orange leaves? I'm basing my reasoning strictly on the magenta attenuation of the green filter just as a yellow filter attenuates the blue in the sky.

Jim