Are you a film photographer who just decided to focus on black and white photography? Among the techniques you’ll come across is using color filters over the lens to enhance the look of your monochrome snaps. You can use red, yellow, green, and orange filters, with red being the most commonly used to achieve bold effects. Today, let’s take a look at using the orange filter, which produces less dramatic results than the red but more pronounced than the yellow.
In the video above, Jason Kummerfeldt of grainydays shares his insights and results from shooting with a Nikon F2 loaded with Kodak T-Max 400 and an orange filter. Snapping away at locations with a variety of shooting conditions, colors, and contrast, he demonstrates the effect of this ilter in black and white film photography. For example, the blue skies get a gradual but pleasant darkening with this color filter. So if you’re not after the full black skies from the red filter, you’ll want to reach for the orange one instead. Kummerfeldt also noticed that red filters tend to create unnatural results, so he found that the orange filter strikes a nice balance between the red and the yellow.
Want to know more about using color filters for black and white film photography? California-based film developing lab The Darkroom has an in-depth guide you might want to check out.
So, what do you think of Jason Kummerfeldt’s results and observations? Do you think he used the orange filters satisfactorily in the scenes he photographed? Share your thoughts in the comments below and let’s start a discussion!
