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Using Yellow Filter


andym911

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This is one way to look at it but is kind of backwards. A filter can only absorb color. It cannot lighten anything. .

 

A green filter for instance lightens green tones as they are recorded in B&W. I don't think you have a grasp of how things work. I found this link for you

 

Using coloured filters with black & white film

 

Hope it is useful

 

Steve

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I don't think you have a grasp of how things work.

 

So I didn't explain it to your satisfaction I suppose. Can you understand how removing 1/3rd or more of the spectrum of light cannot "lighten up" anything? Why do you think one has to compensate for exposure when using filters? All they can do is remove light, not add it. In your example of using a green filter, much of the red and blue light will be filtered out. Thus when you increase exposure to compensate for the light the filter absorbs, the green objects will be reproduced lighter than if no filter had been used. If you do not compensate exposure for the filter, the green objects will be reproduced darker than if you had not used a filter as the subject and the filter are not pure green. The filter adds some neutral density that affects all colors too. For instance a #11 green filter will require 2 stops more exposure. A number 25 red filter will require 3 stops of compensation.

 

BTW the article you linked to is very simplistic and does not even try to explain the process. As I said, you get the basic application of using filters but your explanation of the process that a filter lightens colors is backwards even if the result is a subject of a given color looking lighter. That is not caused by the filter but by the increase in exposure and the proportional darkening of some of the other colors.

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I Hate Red. Just doesn't work. Unnatural.

 

Yellow? I never saw a difference with or without a Yellow filter.

 

For me, Green works best. A Must for portraits and people in general. Makes the lips go darker, the eyes stand out more.Skin tones look better. Green all the way.

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Isn't that Alan's point?

 

I actually think that everyone is agreeing with everyone else here.

 

In order to get a correct exposure, when using a coloured filter, it is necessary to increase the exposure to compensate. Typically one or two stops.

 

If the filter has the effect of darkening any colours that are not the filter colour, thereby making the filter colour parts of the subject APPEAR lighter, in comparison, and you have adjusted exposure to compensate for the filter affecting the exposure, then actually, the filtered colour subject is recorded as lighter than the other colours. Which is what you want.

 

Angels and pin-heads come to mind.

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As a small side note it might be interesting to know that different films have different spectral sensitivity distributions. The increasement factor can be found in the data sheet, or here for Kodak films:

KODAK: Lenses, Filters & Attachments - Daylight Filter Recommendations for B & W Photography

 

Another example of the usage of a yellow filter:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/landscape-travel/159817-mojave-desert.html

 

Stefan

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Increasing the exposure is necessary to compensate for the opacity of the filter. But the colour of the filter lightens the same colour, and darkens complimentary colours. This is basic schoolboy stuff..

 

This nonsense about increasing the exposure making the colour lighter is just wild mis-information. If you have two filters each with the same filter factor x2 say, one yellow and one blue, the yellow will darken the sky because blue is the complimentary of yellow. Now you take the same exposure with a blue filter and it will lighten the blue sky because it is filtering out the same colour.

 

Some people need to go back to basic's, I can't believe how such a fundamental function of filters is being so mangled, it is embarrassing.

 

Steve

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But the colour of the filter lightens the same colour, and darkens complimentary colours. This is basic schoolboy stuff.

No, it is not. It has been correctly explained several times now; so why do you insist in being wrong?

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No, it is not. It has been correctly explained several times now; so why do you insist in being wrong?

 

Well so many people say I'm wrong and I half started to think I was. So I thought, who would know if what I am saying is rubbish or not? I know, B&W who make filters would! So I copy a link from their web site below which says pretty well exactly what I have been saying.

 

B + W Filters - Filters for Digital and Analog Photography

 

So while you are all showing me how clever you are, go and tell B&W they are wrong as well. Like I said, you guys are embarrassing.

 

Steve

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Well I have never been anything but relaxed. Consider that exposure is caused by light hitting the film. White light contains a range of colors and the film is sensitive to all of these colors. How can a filter's color cause more light to hit the film and make anything lighter? They are called "filters" because they remove some light.

 

Find a white wall and paint half of it green. Will the green side look lighter?

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