The filter is helpful when green is the predominate color in the scene and you want to create separation between each type of green. Blue skies will get lighter and have a similar tone to the clouds, leaves and trees will also be lighter. You will need to compensate for 1 1/2-stops of light loss when determining your exposure.Įssentially the opposite effect created by Red. Without the filter those types of plants will render the same gray tone and lack contrast. Yellow-green plants will become lighter and Blue-green plants will be darker. This is best used in forests, gardens, and situations where yellow-green to blue-green foliage needs separation from one another. This filter is a subtle way to help separate green tones from one another. Your camera’s built-in meter can typically compensate accurately with the filter attached. Because you only lose 1/2-stop of light it is easy to focus and compose. Great for outdoors, buildings, landscapes, and people. It is effective at filtering out the blue/violet/UV light that kills contrast and provides a nice balance of contrast between all colors without being too dramatic. This is the most popular filter for everyday shooting. You will need to compensate for 2-stops of light loss when determining your exposure. The filter is not as dark as the red filter and it is possible for most to focus and compose with the filter attached. It is also great on overcast days when trying to separate water, cloudy skies and foreground. This translates to lighter and more natural looking tones for blue skies. The orange filter helps separate each of the near colors but is less dramatic when shooting blue skies because the complementary color pushes into the deep blue range which is beyond the typical blue sky. This filter is more versatile and more popular for everyday landscape shooting because it is effective but much less contrasty than the 25A Red. You will need to compensate for 3-stops of light loss when determining your exposure. We recommend composing and focusing prior to attaching the filter. The filter can be difficult to see through depending on the lighting conditions.

The filter nearly eliminates all Blue UV haze resulting in crisp, sharp images of distant subjects like mountains.

A lot of landscape and architectural photographers will use this filter to create dramatic separation between blue skies, trees, clouds, and buildings. Since the filter is on the far left of the chart it provides very dramatic contrast changes. As we move further away on the color wavelength chart, density increases to near black as we get to green and beyond. The 25A Red filter will make reds a very light gray. The film was scanned on a flat bed scanner and each image was processed for exposure only and contrast was not manipulated. The color images were shot with a Sony A7R2 with a 50mm f1.8 lens. All black and white images were shot on Kodak Tri-X Pan film using a Canon F1 with a 50mm f1.4 lens. Use the information below to help chose the filter that is best for the situation. In turn, you could use a X1 Green filter to create the opposite look in which the rose will turn nearly black and the leaves will lighten. The filter will pass the red light which will render the rose a very light gray and block the green light (complimentary color) rendering the leaves much darker. For example, you are taking a picture of a red rose with green leaves (below) against a black background and you choose to put a 25A red filter on your lens. In the simplest terms a colored filter will pass its own color and block its complementary color. To effectively use B&W filters in the field you need to understand the concept of complementary colors and how it influences the way film records those colors as tones of gray. The sand, water, clouds and horizon will render about the same low contrast gray tone. Black and White filters are used to separate those colors to improve contrast at the time the image is recorded. To put that into context, just imagine a gray rainy day outside at the beach where the light is very flat no bright highlights and no deep shadows.

The only thing that separates those tones is the intensity of light being reflected off the surface of the subject shadows and highlights. In fact black and white film sees all visible colors of light as similar tones of gray. Panchromatic film does not see or record color the way our eyes and brain do.

Remove Haze - Block blue, violet, and/or UV light from the scene to improve detail and increase sharpness.

Artistic Creativity - In less than ideal conditions, B&W filters can still produce stunning images.

Improve Contrast - create separation between nearby colors that reflect similar gray tones.

Different filters for photos