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Anyone ever try a skylight filter with an MM?


A miller

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I just picked one up (B+W KR 1.5) and plan to give it a whirl. Even if it doesn't do anything (good), it will come in handy with my color film workflow.

 

I was theorizing in my little brain that it could help lighten skin tones for street shooting and give a slight pop to faces in slightly under-exposed situations (or high contrast scene in which faces are in the shadows).

 

Any thoughts are welcome!

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I just picked one up (B+W KR 1.5) and plan to give it a whirl. Even if it doesn't do anything (good), it will come in handy with my color film workflow.

 

I was theorizing in my little brain that it could help lighten skin tones for street shooting and give a slight pop to faces in slightly under-exposed situations (or high contrast scene in which faces are in the shadows).

 

Any thoughts are welcome!

 

I did on a few occasions with two different lenses and any difference was no noticeable to me. Of,the pics I tested them on there was a propensity for ghosting and a little flare or light reflection between the filter and fron element.

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very interesting. Thanks for the reply.

Were your subjects mostly people or places/things?

 

Both.

 

I shot maybe 2 dozen photos with and without.

For landscape and architectural it seemed to warm the image a bit.

On shots with people......not portraits tho........I could see no advantage.

I don't know if they are available in different strengths or not.

Edited by jdlaing
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It really depends on what you are shooting doesn't it? You may have noticed that MM files are a bit flat, if you want to increase contrast prior to pp best to try a medium red filter.

However I can really only speak for landscape work. That being said I can't think of any particular reason for using a skylight filter.

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I was theorizing in my little brain that it could help lighten skin tones for street shooting and give a slight pop to faces in slightly under-exposed situations (or high contrast scene in which faces are in the shadows).

 

Any thoughts are welcome!

 

I think it would have a negligible effect at best, barely perceptible.

 

If not using an orange or red filter lightening skin tones and adding 'pop' is something that can be done in post processing with the software supplied for the job. In SFX put a control point over the shadowy face, adjust the brightness a fraction and use the 'amplify whites' slider, maybe also add a bit of 'structure'. Doing it selectively is quick and easy and obviates the problems of filters painting everything with the same light, which with street signs can cause issues with say a Coca Cola sign looking an odd tone relative to the others.

 

Steve

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Something stronger, like a 20 point Magenta CC filter, might make more of a difference than a skylight filter, which barely has any light filtration (not enough to noticeably alter exposure metering).

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Many thanks to all who have responded.

 

I also have been using medium yellow, orange and red filters on the MM, although more the yellow for street shooting.

 

brightening faces and altering tons can obviously be done in PP. However, often I don't have time to perfect exposure and in variably I sometime get results that are underexposed in areas of the image that I want propoerly exposed (particularly on sunny high contrast days in NYC where the people who are the focal point in the image are in the shadows). Brightening faces can obviously be done in these instances, also it does at some point degrade quality, much more so than with film.

 

Yellow is best so far in this situation although in cases in which my spur of the moment shot is over-exposed, the yellow tends to over-expose anything bright, which pops more than I want.

 

To answer the question, there are indeed different intensities of skylight. I am trying the traditional lighter version as I can always use it for shooting color film with pleasing results.

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