Camera Filters
Filters: Transparent optical devices which alter the quality of light passing through them. Usually a specific part of light is blocked.
Polarizing Filter: A transparent filter which allows light to pass in a single plane. Reflections are reduced and the sky darkens when the filter is rotated. In landscape photography, this filter will reduce glare, reduce contrast between land and sky, and intensify your picture.
UV Filter: A filter blocking ultraviolet light. Also used to protect a lens from becoming scratched.
Think of the colors red and green, which stand out against one another in color, but will produce similar tones in black and white- appearing as a single shade of gray with no separation. This separation in black and white can be controlled when taking the photograph by using a filter on the lens. Your choice of filter depends on what you want the final picture to look like. A red filter will lighten the red and darken the green; a green filter will darken the red and lighten the green. Be aware that the eye is attracted to lighter tones in a photograph. By using filters to control the separation relationship, you can control how the eye scans a photograph.
A filter darkens its complementary color the most. It lightens its own color, and darkens gradually the other colors in the wheel moving away from itself, toward the complementary color. Many photographers like an orange filter. It will darken a sky and keep detail in green foliage. It is a great outdoor filter.
Any colored filter holds back light. You will have to increase your film exposure.
Polarizing Filter: A transparent filter which allows light to pass in a single plane. Reflections are reduced and the sky darkens when the filter is rotated. In landscape photography, this filter will reduce glare, reduce contrast between land and sky, and intensify your picture.
UV Filter: A filter blocking ultraviolet light. Also used to protect a lens from becoming scratched.
Think of the colors red and green, which stand out against one another in color, but will produce similar tones in black and white- appearing as a single shade of gray with no separation. This separation in black and white can be controlled when taking the photograph by using a filter on the lens. Your choice of filter depends on what you want the final picture to look like. A red filter will lighten the red and darken the green; a green filter will darken the red and lighten the green. Be aware that the eye is attracted to lighter tones in a photograph. By using filters to control the separation relationship, you can control how the eye scans a photograph.
A filter darkens its complementary color the most. It lightens its own color, and darkens gradually the other colors in the wheel moving away from itself, toward the complementary color. Many photographers like an orange filter. It will darken a sky and keep detail in green foliage. It is a great outdoor filter.
Any colored filter holds back light. You will have to increase your film exposure.
Change the contrast on your print by using a darkroom filter. #0 filter produces a low contrast print. #3 1/2 produces a high contrast print. You will have to make a new test strip if using filters in the darkroom. The intensity of the light from the enlarger has been changed, so a new test strip is necessary.