Green filters: not popular?

[Olaf_ZG]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Standard I have yellow, orange, red and ND filters for the monochrom. Most used is orange though, or a ND.

For the woods I thought a green filter would be good, however, I can’t get them. B+W don’t have them, and although Hoya had them, somehow it is on backorder. Was looking for a 46 and 55mm.

Why did they disappear?

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[pippy]

1 hour ago, Olaf_ZG said:

...For the woods I thought a green filter would be good...

I thought so too but found out that, rather surprisingly, they don't have anywhere near as much of an effect - in terms of lightening foliage - as I had imagined might be the case. From memory I tested frames shot using Red, Orange, Yellow and Green against a 'control' frame where the lens was used bare. The biggest difference, as expected, was the frame shot with the Red; a bit less with the orange, but there was really not much of a difference between any of the rest.

My 'target' foliage, however, were trees whose leaves which were a dark shade of green. Perhaps were the foliage to have been of a paler tone the results might have been different?

I don't think I kept the results once I had seen them (although I'll have a look) but if I get a bit of spare time (and the rain stops!) I'll try to do another test.

Green filters were popular amongst portraitists shooting in monochrome as the use of such a filter renders skin-tones - especially cheeks and lips - in a more naturalistic manner.

Philip.

Edited August 5, 2023 by pippy

[pippy]

OK; here's a rapidly rattled-off series posted as very low res so as to get them in one post(!). Weather was rubbish - it was raining - and there was no direct sun.

First pairing - as a 'control' - is 'Bare' shot on the Monochrom along with one frame showing the same scene in colour shot on the M-D Typ-262;

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

The rest are pairs of images shot in order of coulours of the visible spectrum alongside the same control image as seen above left. Filters used were standard Leitz Red, Orange, Yellow, Green and, lastly, Blue. In all cases left-hand image is the 'control'. No reworking has been done and metering was as camera said was 'correct'.

Red;

 

Orange;

 

Yellow;

 

Green;

 

Blue;

Philip.

Edited August 5, 2023 by pippy

[jaapv]

Yes, and IR (pass) filters will turn foliage white.

[Olaf_ZG]

@pippythanks for this, it looks orange will have a more contrasty impact ( which i prefer) then green.

[pippy]

59 minutes ago, Olaf_ZG said:

@pippythanks for this, it looks orange will have a more contrasty impact ( which i prefer) then green.

Glad it was of some help.

When using an orange filter with non-APO lenses longer than 28mm you might find it useful to back-off with the focus ring slightly (i.e. slightly front-focus) - especially if you intend to use apertures at the wider end of things. Even with a 28 there is some focus discrepancy as light at this wavelength does not focus exactly on the sensor-plane. With a Yellow this discrepancy is almost unimportant.

A little bit of trial-and-error could end up being time spent wisely.

Some of my older lenses - mostly non-Leitz - have an IR mark and that IS useful when using a Red filter. Setting the indicated f/distance half-way between 'correct' and IR seems to work very well. My '53 50mm f1.5 Summarit is (I believe) the 'newest' Leitz lens I own which has such an index mark. It's such a pity I don't own a 41mm Red filter!............

Philip.

Edited August 5, 2023 by pippy

[pippy]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Just to illustrate one more thing before I send these snaps to the Great Recycling Bin in the Sky...

Here are three pairs of images using the Red and Blue Filter pics posted above. As had been seen earlier the greatest changes in the SOOC files could be noticed, understandably, at either end of the 'Filter Spectrum'. Playing around for just a few seconds, however, can change the situation dramatically.

Red Filter to the Left; Blue Filter to the Right.

Top Pair are As Shot. Middle pair are when DNG was set to Auto Correct at the processing-out stage in Photoshop. Lower pair were these auto-corrected images tweaked a little bit further in Ps;

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Now; all this was just a bit of fun but it does show that with hardly any effort it is possible to approximate the look of any of these filters by judicious use of the 'Tools At Hand'. At the same time using these tools to adjust tones/contrast/etc. works well here because the whole of the subject matter is Foliage'; were there to be any other elements included in the picture - a beautiful Blue Sky for example (I should be so lucky) things would be VERY different...

Philip.

Edited August 5, 2023 by pippy

[madNbad]

6 hours ago, Olaf_ZG said:

Standard I have yellow, orange, red and ND filters for the monochrom. Most used is orange though, or a ND.

For the woods I thought a green filter would be good, however, I can’t get them. B+W don’t have them, and although Hoya had them, somehow it is on backorder. Was looking for a 46 and 55mm.

Why did they disappear?

When large format B&W film was the dominant media for portraiture, green filters were often used because they worked well with caucasian skin. The shift to smaller formats, the rise of digital photography and a more diverse population sitting for portraits left the green filter on the shelf. As sales declined, fewer manufactures offered them. Leica still offers them and Tiffen has them in limited sizes.  

[Pyrogallol]

Plenty of green filters for sale here

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3671980.m570.l1313&_nkw=leica+green+filter&_sacat=0

[LocalHero1953]

I assume all these test shots are of the full frame, of just green foliage and grey sky. I wonder how much difference we might see in a picture that includes, as well as foliage, one or more of blue sky with clouds, built environment, skin tones? Or, for the OP, a woodland scene with tree trunks and branches? We might see more of a relative difference in tones with a green filter.

[Pyrogallol]

21 hours ago, Olaf_ZG said:

Standard I have yellow, orange, red and ND filters for the monochrom. Most used is orange though, or a ND.

For the woods I thought a green filter would be good, however, I can’t get them. B+W don’t have them, and although Hoya had them, somehow it is on backorder. Was looking for a 46 and 55mm.

Why did they disappear?

I didn’t notice that you were looking for 46mm and 55mm

try this search

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=green+filter+46mm+55+mm&_sacat=625&LH_TitleDesc=0

[pippy]

2 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I assume all these test shots are of the full frame, of just green foliage and grey sky. I wonder how much difference we might see in a picture that includes, as well as foliage, one or more of blue sky with clouds, built environment, skin tones? Or, for the OP, a woodland scene with tree trunks and branches?...

Yes; I did try to make the point regarding blue skies at the end of post #7. As was stated earlier the images posted were taken with the sole intention of showing the effect on foliage because Olaf mentioned specifically the idea of using a Green filter in woodland.

I don't think there would be much of a change on either trunks or branches using any of these filters as the vast majority of such things are, in general, usually a mixture of greys and browns. Perhaps the trunk of a Sequoia / Redwood or somesuch tree shot on bright sunny day using either a Red or Green filter might change a bit more than the usual fare but apart from that sort of scenario? I can't, in all honesty, imagine there would be so great a difference as to be noteworthy. I could, of course, be completely mistaken!

Urban scenes and skin tones, clearly, are a different matter entirely.

Philip.

Edited August 6, 2023 by pippy

[Keith (M)]

One could always cycle through the neutral, red, orange, etc etc filters in SEP2 to see the effects on any type of scene.  (A test colour shot, just to simulate the effects).

Edited August 6, 2023 by Keith (M)

[pippy]

6 hours ago, Keith (M) said:

One could always cycle through the neutral, red, orange, etc etc filters in SEP2...

...but only if one knows what SEP2 is in the first place....

Philip.

 

[ramarren]

I use a green filter as almost standard issue on my M10-M: it gives an improved tonal scale to my eye across the board. I only go to orange (or red, or blue, or yellow) for specific effects. 

I posted some of my testing using an Xrite Color Checker some time ago. Here are renderings of the color swatches with all my filter options, lined up against the M10-M native rendering:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

And here are the graphs of those values:

An orange filter has the effect on most scenes of increasing contrast and reducing tones, a green has the effect of gently introducing more tones which enables more post processing options to differentiate tonal values. Note: I always capture only raw image data; I've not spent any time at all studying what the JPEG output of the camera might be. 

I have orange and green filters in four different size types to match my lenses: 39, 40.5, 55, and series VII. A couple of those required a special order, but none were what I consider to be difficult to find.

G

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by ramarren

[sarav]

On 8/5/2023 at 1:29 PM, Olaf_ZG said:

Standard I have yellow, orange, red and ND filters for the monochrom. Most used is orange though, or a ND.

For the woods I thought a green filter would be good, however, I can’t get them. B+W don’t have them, and although Hoya had them, somehow it is on backorder. Was looking for a 46 and 55mm.

Why did they disappear?

You can buy leica ones

[a.noctilux]

I happend to own in A36 size one of Leitz green filter, here real life use ( trying to be creative here ! not a test),

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/359803-monochrom-1-shots-post-them-here/?do=findComment&comment=3928830

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/360551-monochrome-246-images-post-them-here/?do=findComment&comment=3738469

 

[a.noctilux]

Another with green filter in Lanzarote landscape

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

seen here

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Olaf_ZG]

16 hours ago, sarav said:

You can buy leica ones

They are rather overpriced, so I pass.

[jaapv]

On 8/15/2023 at 3:25 PM, Olaf_ZG said:

They are rather overpriced, so I pass.

https://tiffen.com/products/green-11-filter