Assessment of black and white images in the viewfinder

Merlin · 2006-06-07T21:06:33+00:00

Hallo, ich habe vor wieder in die analoge (sw) Fotografie einzusteigen. Gleich mit Labor ... B) Nun hat mich ein Bekannter darauf aufmerksam gemacht, da...

Merlin

Hello, I’m planning to get back into analogue (black-and-white) photography. Right from the start, with a darkroom... B) Now, a friend has pointed out to me that when taking photos with black-and-white film, you can (and should) control ‘the image’ using filters. When I asked how I could assess the effect of a filter through the viewfinder, he mentioned a “sepia disc”. But Google isn’t turning up anything useful. Does that ring a bell with any of you? Is there actually anything available to help assess the filter effect? :blink: Thanks in advance for your replies :lol: Kind regards, Martin

cfb_de

Hi there, Congratulations on your decision! It’s great fun!

Is there actually anything available to assess the filter’s effectiveness? :blink:

Short, hard answer: Yes and no. There aren’t any technical tools for that. But there’s something much better: ‘experience’. That kindly includes the lab work as well :-) Best regards, Franz

HansDerHase

The short, hard answer: yes and no. There aren’t any technical tools available. But there is something much better: ‘experience’. And that conveniently covers the lab work as well :-)

You can, however, ‘flatten’ the learning curve by simulating the filter effect using Photoshop or GIMP. There are plugins (Photoshop) and scripts (GIMP) available for this. Or you can do it manually using the Channel Mixer. For the latter, here’s some useful information: http://epaperpress.com/psphoto/ Under Black&White->Filters, you can try out a few filters with a click of the mouse and find out the settings for the Channel Mixer there too. SW Photoshop plugins are available, for example, here: http://www.photo-plugins.com/ http://www.thepluginsite.com/ Incidentally, these can also be ‘plugged’ into IrfanView ! SW GIMP scripts are available, for example, at the GIMP Registry: http://registry.gimp.org/ I’m not sure if it’s listed in the Registry, but SW-Labor.scm is an interesting script (you may need to search for it using a search engine).

Wolfgg

Hello Martin, Your friend probably meant that you can ‘remove’ the colours using a sepia filter and thus assess the effect of a subject in black and white, either by holding it up to your eye or placing it in front of the lens when looking through the viewfinder. I do something similar with an olive-coloured disc. Both methods work. A different matter is influencing the conversion to black and white using filters in front of the lens. For example: a yellow filter blocks most of the blue, making the sky darker, whilst the clouds stand out much more clearly (in a way that is more pleasing to the eye). Regards, Wolfgang

HansDerHase

Your friend probably meant that you can use a sepia filter to ‘remove’ the colours and thus assess the effect of a subject in black and white, either by holding it up to your eye or placing it in front of the lens when looking through the viewfinder.

In film photography, such filters are sometimes used professionally to better assess the lighting and dynamic range of a scene. They even have a rather nice name. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten it :(

Merlin

@cfb_de and HansDerHase Yes, experience is always the best teacher, of course, but unfortunately gaining experience in analogue photography costs money :( But the digital route looks very promising … thanks for the links. @Wolfgg What’s confusing me is that when I search for ‘sepia filter’, Google only brings up rodent and bird accessories, and for ‘olive filter’ it brings up nothing at all … and these filters certainly aren’t exactly cheap either :( Well, thanks anyway for the replies … Erm, could you also take photos with colour film and then apply the various filters in the lab? Then you’d at least have a few attempts … Kind regards, Martin

Wolfgg

Martin: You can easily make a filter like that yourself using any coloured film; it doesn’t need to look particularly high-quality. Even a strong yellow or green filter – or both layered on top of each other – renders the scene almost monochrome, leaving only shapes and contrasts. Unfortunately, you can’t replicate the filter effect in the darkroom, because photographic paper converts colours to black and white differently from film; papers with a fixed gradient are usually only blue-sensitive, whilst those with a variable gradient are also green-sensitive, and the gradient is controlled via the colour. Only by scanning the colour image as mentioned earlier and then experimenting with converting the colour channels to black and white on the PC will you get a feel for it. Regards, Wolfgang

Tim

Hi everyone, Here’s an example of such a filter: http://www.monochrom.com/cc/monoc/shop/rmi...artnum=00019540 Best regards, Tim II.

cfb_de

Hi there. Does that thing cost nearly fifty quid now? That’s mad, considering it’s rubbish for black-and-white stills. That’s why I didn’t mention it. For that money, you can get more film and development than you need to learn. Best regards, Franz

Wolfgg

The price seems to have been set with a Hollywood director’s annual income in mind. A bit over the top for us. Best regards, Wolfgang

william5

If you're in a pinch – and not just in this situation – an orange or light red filter can also help. Ultimately, the aim is to block out your perception of colour and assess the image in greyscale. Just give it a go by holding one of these filters up to your eye. Best wishes, Jens