Chapter Six

Using a Few Filters

Up to now you have learned that using the correct type and speed of film can greatly enhance the image quality of your finished picture. Because you planned, composed, and focused the correct lens for each photo situation you feel confident you have done everything you could to please your instructor. Well, there is always more you can do as you will learn in the advanced chapters, but let's not get carried away at this time. With today's computers (both home and service bureau types) and the sophistication of photofinishing equipment you can save yourself some extra brain cells by letting technology handle some of the technical aspects of your photography. We know that we have talked technology down a bit because we want you to apply yourself and learn somewhat the hard way, but only for forming a good foundation on which to base your learning routine. We also want your work to stand tall against the lazy work you are bound to see exhibited by other photographers. We want you to KNOW what you are doing instead of having technology save your posterior. But all that technology has to offer is not a shortcut or a lower quality approach to a successful photograph. Your experienced local photofinisher can save you a lot of work and increase your enjoyment of photography by simply observing and making a few educated decisions and pressing a few buttons or turning a few knobs to compensate for your photographic shortcomings. However, you must tell your photofinisher what you have done and what you want each and every time you drop off your film for printing. Most every trained photofinisher, both custom and 1-hour, is also probably a proficient and experienced photographer. Without the knowledge of photography to which you currently aspire the professional photofinisher would be nothing
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but a button pusher. The photofinishers knowledge of chemistry, physics, color, exposure, lighting, composition, distortion, and lenses can help to correct your exposure or composition mistakes most every time. That same professional photofinisher can even correct for those extremely difficult situations that originally called for the use of FILTERS! Do not be afraid of using filters; you will only need to own a few. We will present several types and their uses, but you will find that owning a very basic three will get you through most situations. First, let's talk about what the photofinisher can do to help. Most of today's cameras have a built-in flash (next lesson). Some cameras do not give you a choice of when and when not to use the flash while other cameras provide several types of flash control. In this chapter on Filters we want to talk about NOT using the built-in flash. Does the term artificial or existing light mean anything to you? Let's imagine Aunt Sally's 85th birthday celebration. Everyone is in the living room sitting around enjoying the gathering, all the lights are on and, of course, you are there with your camera ready to record auntie's every expression as she opens her birthday gifts. Here is a moment, and effect, we would not dare shatter by mistakenly using a flash. We want that warm family atmosphere to carry over into our photograph. You bring your camera up to your eye, focus, check the composition and decide that there is enough light in the scene to make a good exposure! Great! Take the shot! And continue shooting! The next day you get your photos back from the photofinisher and you find disappointment. All those pictures you thought had enough light now have a weird yellow cast to them, and there is no detail in the shadowy areas of each picture. You say to yourself, Self! You should have used your flash after all! Well, Self, there are other options with results far better than using your flash and losing the mood. Here we go...
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No flash; no kidding! You already know there was enough light for good exposures; your pictures show that much. But the color! Yuk! Three things you could have done, two before and one after you exposed that roll of film. The two before: Attach an 80B Filter to the front of your lens to help color correct the scene's incandescent light source (regular house light bulbs) before their yellowish light gets to your film. Or use a faster film (ISO 400) more specifically designed for indoor use in home lighting conditions. The 80B Filter is deep blue in color and can be very difficult to see and focus through when the existing light is dim. Because of its dark color the 80B filter will also make your camera choose a slower exposure that could result in camera shake. If you found that ISO 100 film indicated a good exposure without using the 80B filter, ISO 200 film would help compensate for the loss of light and exposure speed caused by adding the 80B filter. Most manufacturers of ISO 400 and 800 films know you will probably want to use these speed films in low-light situations such as auntie's birthday party so they design them to more effectively color balance for this yellow cast. If you feel you must use slow ISO film for these occasions, you will want to invest in a tripod and an 80B filter. The one after: Regardless of the ISO film you used at the party tell the photofinisher you took some indoor pictures using only room lamps for lighting and to please correct for the yellow coloration. All the photofinisher has to do is press the correct button on their printing machine and that yellow colorcast is all but gone from your pictures. And you did not have to attach, much less buy, that 80B filter or use a faster film, or tell everyone, Wait! I have to go get my filter and then explain why. So, you do not need to buy the 80B filter unless you want to avoid the possible errors at the photofinisher or you want all your negatives color corrected before you have them printed. Technology; is it not grand!?!

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However, if you are using slide film for the party you had better have several filters in your arsenal because once you have yellow slides, you have YELLOW SLIDES!!! There are no buttons to push except JB's Fool button. Indoor lighting from regular lamp light bulbs is called incandescent lighting. It is very yellow and will cause your film to expose differently from that light source we call Daylight. Most of your slower ISO films are manufactured to give you a good color rendition of your scene based on the color of light the Sun provides. Color of light, color of light...Huh? Without getting too technical, all light has color and each color is referred to in K (Degrees Kelvin). The incandescent lighting in Aunt Sally's party had a color temperature of around 3400 K. Outdoor average daylight has a color temperature of around 5600 K. The lower the number in a color temperature the warmer (more towards yellow and red) the color will tend to appear. With experience you will begin to recognize light as your film will see it. Because the ISO 100 and 200 films we use are manufactured and color balanced for daylight color temperature use, the yellow color cast of the incandescent lamps record as yellow on our film. In the Color Wheel to the left the opposite color of Yellow is Blue; we say Yellow's complimentary (opposite) color is Blue. We needed a blue filter (80B) to cancel the extra yellow light from the incandescent bulbs in order to balance the scene's color for the daylight balanced film. Let's take a break and talk about color for a minute. These six basic colors make up the Photographic Color Wheel. They are named, clockwise: Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, and Magenta. We do not speak of purples, pinks, and mauve; we use the six colors by name in reference to color balancing the light in our scene. Red and Cyan are opposites Green and Magenta are opposites Blue and Yellow are opposites
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In our example at Aunt Sally's Party we used daylight balanced ISO 100 film and exposed it with an incandescent light source. Our ISO 100 film saw yellow light and gave us yellow pictures. Hmmm Seems only natural. Using a blue filter would have cancelled all that extra yellow light and made our picture's color balance correct for the daylight balanced ISO 100 film. So far I am okay with this; how about you? So, we can probably use a different colored filter with our lens to correct for most any odd colored light source to match the ISO film we are trying to use? Most of the time, yes. However, we will not get into this technical area until the Advanced lessons on Filters. Most of the time you will have only cyan light discoloring your film. Cyan is sky blue and will affect your film regardless of its ISO rating; the Cyan colorcast will usually be the most evident during your daylight shooting hours and conditions. The three filters you might want to have in your arsenal to counteract the effects of daylight are the UV (ultraviolet), the 1B (skylight), and the PL (Polarizer ). The UV filter will be the one the photo sales person recommends you leave on your lens at all times. Sometimes called a Haze filter, the UV filter does just that; it helps to remove haze in your landscape scenes to improve lost contrast and definition between closely resembled colors. Here we have added the UV filter to compensate for this very hazy early morning photo. The UV Filter also restored some lost contrast and color saturation. If there is no need to use the filter on your scene you can leave the UV on; with care it will not hurt your picture; we will talk more about that in a moment. The UV filter acts like a lens protector, and you should see those lens protectors act! We recommend you own this filter if you find
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Without UV filter

With UV filter

yourself always needing to remove haze from your scene, as in the photo examples above. It also protects your lens from fingerprints and multiple cleanings that can wear away your lens' front multi-coating. There have been near disasters where a lens jumped right out of the camera bag and landed on its front element, and the only damage suffered was to the filter. We simply pried the smashed and dented filter from the lens and kept on shooting. Er, uh, I mean that is probably what THEY did. Not us. What? ME drop a LENS?!? I feel verbally assaulted. After all, YOU were not there! Were you?!?

Again, slide film has less exposure latitude and needs all the help it can get for color correction. You are going to want a filter on your lens if you are shooting slide film. Shooting slide film will require that you pay much closer attention to how you use filters and the particular filters effect on your processed film. There are more varieties of slide film available designed for different lighting conditions than there are color negative films. Pay close attention to your lighting and use the correct slide film designed for that particular light source and color temperature. The 1B (skylight) filter seems (to us) a better all-around filter to use, especially if you are shooting only color negative film. It has a very slight reddish cast that can make a tremendous difference in helping to cancel the high K color temperature of daylight at high noon on a sunny day. A sunny day with a clear sky can produce color temperatures of up to 10,000 K. Your daylight balanced film is designed to be used in color temperatures of between 5,500 ~ 6,000 K. Slide film users beware and take note! The 1B skylight filter can certainly help in these very bright situations. Without 1B filter With 1B filter
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The 1B filter will also help cancel the bluish color you will see when photographing a subject in open shade or under heavy overcast conditions as in the photo taken in Hawaii (previous page). Open shade is shade that has no direct covering from the sky; like the shade of a building, not shade under an awning or porch. The 1B will also help color balance the skin tone of your human subject when they are under the shade of a tree on a sunny day; the 1B will absorb the greenish cast the leaves can reflect onto your subject. In any lighting situation the 1B will create a warmer (redder) effect. Some like it hot. And then we have the PL (Polarizing ) filter. The PL works just like your Polarized sunglasses; it eliminates glare and flare, but not snares or weird stares. Reflections from non-metallic shiny surfaces such as water and windows can be minimized by the adjustable rotation of the PL filter. If you are using an SLR camera you can rotate the PL until you see the desired effect while you are composing your scene. Photographers using Rangefinder and Viewfinder cameras will have to use the imprinted marker on the PL filter to aid them in using it. To do so simply hold your thumb and index finger like you are making a toy makebelieve gun. Aim your index finger at your subject and then at the same time rotate your thumb, pointing it at the sun. Now turn your PL filter's imprinted mark to the same direction as your thumb. You will see the greatest Polarizing effect when your thumb is required to point about 90 degrees in relation to your index finger. The lesser the angle your thumb is to your index finger (like shooting a picture of a person backlit
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Without Polarizer filter

With Polarizer filter

by a sunset) the lesser effect the PL filter will have on your scene. Also, the more you must rotate your hand left and right the lesser effect the PL filter will have. Even those of you with SLR's should try this toy gun routine to get the feel of how the PL filter can be used. Using a PL filter, colors in your scene will be more vivid as in the right-hand photo example; their brightness, color, and contrast in the entire scene is improved. For cameras with TTL (through-the-lens) light exposure meters (check your owner's manual if you are uncertain), the PL-CIR (circular) Polarizing filter is a must. These cameras with TTL exposure meters use an internal mirror that slightly polarizes the incoming light to do its exposure magic, which might result in exposure errors if a regular PL filter is used.

So, we use an 80B for indoors and incandescent lamps, a UV for haze, a 1B for open shade, and a PL or PL-CIR for the reflective outdoors. I know this is four, but we only use three. You pick your own. We left a question unanswered about using a filter on the lens at all times. The more glass you put between your subject and your film increases the chance of lowering the image quality of your finished image. If you do not need a filter; if you are not going to drop your lens; if your lens is clean and there are no birds flying directly overhead; if there is no reflective lake or window; if you do not need it, DO NOT USE IT! That exception is that most of the better-known name brand lens makers also make filters designed specifically for their lenses. These filters are made under the same conditions and to the same standards their lens' counterparts are designed and assembled. Some photographers will say that certain independent manufacturers make filters that perform just as well as the ones specifically made for your lens. While that may be so, we feel more confident in knowing we try our hardest to make every picture we take as good as it can be. By matching our filters to our lenses we do not have to worry about
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any mismatch in color, fit, quality, and coatings. The only drawbacks to this exception are availability and price. You might have to wait for your lens manufacturers filters to be ordered, and you might have to save a little more money in order to afford them. Most people will never be able to tell the difference in their finished images while other photographers can assure their paying customers that they are using only the best for their clients. You get to choose because it is your money and your picture!

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