Do colour filters have any role in B&W digital photography?

[MarkP]

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Do colour filters (yellow through to red, and green) for contrast manipulation have any role in B&W digital photography? I used colour filters often in B&W film photography but don't have any left since I sold my old Nikon film system.

 

For example, can you bring out the contrast in cloudy sky (esp. on an overcast day) as well in PP as using an orange-red filter on the lens? Pulling out the blue in PP will markedly darken the sky but at the expense of image quality as the blue drops out.

 

Perhaps this is an obvious question but advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Mark

[Red Dot Fever]

Do colour filters (yellow through to red, and green) for contrast manipulation have any role in B&W digital photography? I used colour filters often in B&W film photography but don't have any left since I sold my old Nikon film system.

 

For example, can you bring out the contrast in cloudy sky (esp. on an overcast day) as well in PP as using an orange-red filter on the lens? Pulling out the blue in PP will markedly darken the sky but at the expense of image quality as the blue drops out.

 

Perhaps this is an obvious question but advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Mark

 

Hi Mark

 

I was wondering this exact same thing just the other day.

 

I will await in anticipation for any replies.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[pico]

Processing color images in Photoshop using any of a few methods will do the same as color contrast filters for B&W. Of course, polarization filters cannot be replicated. The rest can.

 

In Photoshop you can follow the menu:

 

IMAGE > adjustments > Black & White

or

IMAGE > adjustments > Photo Filter

or

IMAGE > adjustments > Selective Color

or

use channel mixing

 

I'm sure there are other ways. Just don't take "desaturate". It does a lousy job.