I'm looking for filters to enhance my B&W images. Leica M with 35mm, 50mm, 90 mm. Doing B&W photography and wish to purchase about 3-4 filters to use with this camera/lens. Film Ilford HP5+. Which B&W filters do you recommend for various scenes (landscapes, portraits).

Thanks, Don

-- Don M (maldonadomd@excite.com), August 02, 2001

Answers

For B&W scenics, I find I use (in declining order of frequency), an orange 22 (2 stops) more often than a red 25 (3 stops) or a yellow 8 (1 stop). You'll probably want all three plus a green 11 or 13. The red and orange filters all darken blue sky and green foliage and lighten yellow to red subjects in the image to differing degrees. I find the yellow only very slightly darkens the sky and can very slightly darken or lighten foliage depending on its exact color. I use a green 11 for lightening foliage, or for portraiture IF the subject's skin is relatively free of red blemishes; this filter can make a little zit look like a big black mole on somebody! If you want a unique effect, an 80B (blue) filter will turn a sky almost white, while relatively darkening skin-tones, giving kind of an anti- infrared, look. For available-light situations I do not use any filter.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), August 02, 2001.

Yellow filters become more effective at darkening the sky in the deeper yellow shades. A K-3 equivalent (Kodak Wratten #9) is more effective than the usual K2 (wrateen #8)). A Wratten #12 (minus blue) darkens the sky still more. A #15 or #16, officially known as a deep yellow, actually has a distinctly orangy tint to the eye. The point being that there are degrees of filtration to choose from between the usual yellow, and orange. If you get a chance to see Ansel Adam's print of the Golden Gate in San Francisco (before the bridge of the same name was built), it will give you an idea of what you can do with a K3/Wratten 9.

Some restraint is needed when considering the use of a red filter, as they tend to give an obviously filtered look, with shadow areas rendered very dark. The result can be what they call in Hollywood day-for-night: a sequence shot in the daytime (for convenience), which passes for a nighttime shot.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), August 02, 2001.

Scroll down 15 lines here to "Filters (Max Wall, 2001-07-30)" for a plethora of answers to a very similar question as yours.

-- Cosmo Genovese (cosmo@rome.com), August 03, 2001.

Easy. Try a red first for maximum effect (kinda like a polariser with colour slides), then go for the subtler oranges and yellows. This will allow you to see the total range of tonal variations available. Printing is the key thing. Be prepared to go through quite a few sheets of paper before you get the ideal result, concentrating on getting the richest black tones. This is not easy, but is rewarding. Remember to add plus 1 1/2 to 2 full stops to your exposure.

-- David Killick (Dalex88@inet.net.nz), August 03, 2001.

. . . I might add, however, that when using filters it's important to meter carefully since over- or underexposing film with filters can easily negate the effect the filter provides. That's why it's best to experiment with all your filters with your equipment and film so that you know what the tolerable range is for those particular constants-- i.e., your various film, lens and filter combinations.

-- Cosmo Genovese (cosmo@rome.com), August 03, 2001.