Camera Talk

Are filters for black and white film used much any more? Working on some old negatives I came across a few frames from about 15 years ago that were taken on an Olympus Pen W; the old note said that a G filter was used. I had (and probably still have) a pretty complete set of filters of the drop-in style of Kodak Series 5; they work nicely on the smaller diameter lenses of HF cameras. I like the effects of the old filters and am sorry that I didn't use them more than I did. Here and there I've seen "click on" modifications that do something like filters, but they seem to affect the whole image more than glass filters did. Anyway, here's the example mentioned above: Union Depot in St. Paul, Olympus Pen W with 100 speed film developed in D-76 1:1 and scanned at home, sepia toned.

Nice photo.
Yes, I have yellow filters for some cameras, thee must useful, series V and series VI plus 32mm slip-on.
I use them normally when shooting anything but portraits.

Yes, filters are very useful for BW, especially film
I guess fdigital processing allows for the same ffect on color images, but not on film

G filter, do you mean green or the orange?

It was an orange filter that I used. The other two that I used quite a few times were green and yellow. The only ones I used for color film adapted slide film to lighting other than what it was manufactured for-- e.g. tungsten or daylight.

Once I used 85B for shooting tungsten im daylight, good outcome.

I have a lot of filters for B&W but only use a yellow, and very seldom. Laziness, nothing else. When I started 50 years ago, filters were a lot more common.

I always use filters (usually yellow) when shooting outdoors to avoid blowing out the sky. Indoors I usually leave them off because filters cut out quite a bit of light.

A Y2 filter corrects the tonal response of B&W panchromatic film to approximately match that of the human eye. The blue sensitivity of pan film is too high for a linear response. Orthochromatic film is a different story - it has little or no sensitivity to the red part of the spectrum.

My favorite filter is the Orange. Not as intense of an effect as with the red, but definitely stronger than with a yellow, and more natural looking in my opinion. But lately I haven't been using filters since it means I have to either calculate in my head what the factor is, or use a meter to scan the scene first.

PF