B&W filter comparison

[Xia_Ke]

So I'm stuck farting around the house with a stomach bug today but, really wanted to shoot something. Carla had some red roses in a vase and thought it would be fun to play with them and some filters to show the effects of different color filters. As you can see, a filter can make quite a bit of difference. These were shot with Neopan 400 and are straight negative scans.

NO FILTER:


GREEN FILTER:


YELLOW FILTER


RED FILTER

[Greg McCary]

I have used a red and also yellow, but just like here I really didn't see much difference. The red seemed to add a little more contrast but not much. Have you ever tried a polarizer outside?
You are really getting a handle on the B&W Aaron, great tones. I see improvement everytime you post. I can't wait until you start making contact prints. Nice work Aaron, What was the EXIF on these?LOL

[Xia_Ke]

Hi Greg Look close, there are some big differences. The most noticeable being the difference in the rose petals with the yellow and red filters. The walls behind are a green hue and you can see the difference in that and the rose stems with the green filters. There are also lots of other more subtle changes.

I don't have a polarizer yet for the Rolleicord. I haven't really had much of a need for one yet. The main place one would come in handy for me would be shooting at the beach but, I kind of like the glare off the water in B&W. I have been keeping an eye out though. If you see any Bayonet 1 Rolleipols, let me know

Here's a shot taken with Plus-X and a polarizer.

[jorger101]

Very nice shots. I love them!

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Jorge

[drg]

Nice roses there, Aaron.

I'm including a link (click on the thumbnail) below to a side by side of three succesive images on film scanned as one that were shot with Red(25), Yellow(1), and Green(13) filters. Classic moderate overcast sky and green corn field. We should do a series for reference on what different types of filtering do and how to even mix filters. Polarized color filters, and the warming/enhancing filters can give truly greater results than just the film alone. Film photographers, both b/w and color need to use a variety of filtering techniques to get the best results many times!

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks drg I actually remembered your comparison shots when I was posting this. Next couple times I go out shooting I'm going to try to do some comparison shots to see how filter usage affects different situations. I'm still trying to get used to which situations will work best with what filters and thought some others might benefit from the comparisons as well.

[Greg McCary]

Nice DRG. Thanks for posting. Is there any weather conditions that one would be more useful than others?

[drg]

Nice DRG. Thanks for posting. Is there any weather conditions that one would be more useful than others?

Weather isn't usually as important (unless its a stormy sky and then a polarizer can be especially handy) as is light and the color of the subject. You can see in all the examples here, both mine and Aarons, that the filters effect their complimentary colors the most.

Different film emulsions respond in varying intensity to different wavelengths (colors) and thus differently to filters. It can be quite gradual or a sharp difference.

Red filters are most often used to increase contrast.

Generally a filter will lighten its own color and darken its complimentary (opposite on a color wheel). Red filters darken blue as an example.

[jgredline]

Whoa, those roses are nice. I especially like the yellow filtered one...More money to spend....

[Xia_Ke]

Well, had planned on using a much more colorful subject but, after my first shot it started to rain. So I went under an overhang and shot this scene. This shows hows subtle the filter usage can be in flat, overcast light.

First off, here's the scene in color, straight from camera. Shot with a Canon G2


These were shot with Tri-X and developed in Kentmere K110 dil. B

NO FILTER


YELLOW FILTER


GREEN


ORANGE


RED


LINEAR POLARIZER


The differences are subtle and may best be viewed as a SLIDESHOW.

[Greg McCary]

Thanks for posting Aaron. This helps a bunch.

[LuvMyRedHead]

Aaron - thank you so much for these pictures. The roses really allow me to see what you've been talking about.

How do you do a negative scan?

[drg]

Aaron - thank you so much for these pictures. The roses really allow me to see what you've been talking about.

How do you do a negative scan?

To scan a negative you need either a dedicated film scanner or a flatbed that has an attachment or a drawer or a special insert in the lid.

The quality of the different type of scanning is a topic we've be talking about in some other posts here in the film forum. I'm mostly working on getting some scans of prints versus negatives to show variations in paper and differences in types of scanning quality.