Exposure accuracy was extremely critical as there was no safety net as is the case with today's low con negs.

Your eye automatically makes the correction; the camera does not. A filter can correct the color so the eye and the camera see the scene in the same way. Without using one of these filters, your image will have a greenish tint if you’re shooting under fluorescent lighting. However, these filters won’t always produce the effect you expect. Another example is shooting with daylight film in the early morning shade. This situation has a higher color temperature than daylight, so the film would record the scene with a bluish tint to it. The photo below on the left is a waterfall shot in heavy shade. As mentioned above, the primary purpose of these filters is to protect the front element of the lens from damage. The two main filters in this category are the Sky (1A) and the Haze (UV) filters. Some companies will designate these filters differently. For example, if you are using a film that is balanced for daylight in tungsten light setting (indoor), it may create yellow tones to your image. To counter this, use a blue 8oA filter. This will neutralise the yellow to give balanced colour.

Most filters absorb light. They have a “filter factor” that tells how much exposure you must add for that particular filter. If your camera meters through the lens, it will automatically make the adjustment for you. Before we discuss the categories of filters, it’s important for us to understand why a photographer would choose to use filters in the first place. Some photographers believe that a scene should be shot without being altered in any way. Other photographers feel there are valid reasons for using filters. For example, B+W designates the 81 series as their KR filter series.) All of the light-balancing filters absorb some light. Remember, no correction is necessary if your camera has through-the-lens metering. The darken of the sky is caused by a yellow filter, which balances its exposure between the darker and lighter parts of the sky. Furthermore, by blotting out clouds, they create a more interesting sky. This type of filter produces warm, natural, pleasing flesh tones, similar to those produced by an orange filter, but at a slower pace. To use the triangle, select the color of the contrast filter. That color will always be lightened. The other colors touching that color will be lighter. Colors not touching the filter will be darker. For example, if you use a red filter, it will lighten red, yellow, & magenta (the colors TOUCHING red). A red filter will darken green, cyan, and blue (the colors NOT touching red).

I shot all images on a cloudy afternoon at the Engesohde cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in Hannover. I especially like the statues from the late 19th / early 20th century. These angels radiate dignity and sadness. It’s a special kind of pathos that got lost in the contemporary cemetery architecture. ( Dave English reported on similar statutes at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne.) However, having a filter means that you’ll be shooting at either a slower shutter speed or more wide open than you would without the filter. To complicate matters, if you use a hand-held meter, you’ll need to adjust manually for the filter factor.According to most ‘before’ and ‘after’ filter shots used for comparison testing, the majority of lens filters have no negative impact on image quality. Some critics argue that if you put a layer of glass in front of your lens, it will make your vision blurry. Lens Filters: To Use Or Not To Use? In conclusion, filters, as with most things in life, have their plusses and minuses. Hopefully my Camera filters explained guide is of some help. A single filter can’t adapt to that many conditions. There are some films that perform better under fluorescent lighting than others. Fuji’s Reala, a print film, is one of the better ones. (For another way of handling fluorescent lighting, try a CC40M.) Color Compensating Filters: There are about six different types of fluorescent lighting, and each one has a slightly different color temperature.