fetzler Loc: North West PA

I would definitely shoot in color and use RAW files. If you do this, you can use software to simulate filters (red, orange green etc.) Software often has presets for this. You also simulate different types of films by using the RGB channel mixer. Tri-X for instance has rather low red sensitivity. Obviously, you can also then simulate blue sensitive and orthochromatic film. If i was really interested in the blue channel only i still might is a blue filter, however.(B&W copy work or photo restoration)

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

There are many different opinions on this topic. If you want to end up with black and white prints, set your camera to shoot both raw and jpeg. Then set the camera's mode to monochrome. Now when you look through the viewfinder (on an Olympus em1 MkII) you will see the image in black and white. On Nikons you will see a black and white image on the LCD. That allows you to evaluate the tones in the scene in monochrome instead of trying to guess how a colour conversion to black and white will work out. Of course, when it comes to producing the final image for printing you can work with your raw file and use conversion software such as NIK Silver Effects.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The thing I like about post conversion rather than physical filters is that you can change it afterwards. If you make the conversion to look like it was shot with a red filter, and decide that is too much, you could dial it back to an orange or yellow filter.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

USING COLORED FILTERS TAKING BLACK AND WHITE:
Here is an avenue less traveled. Years ago, I somehow, some reason ... bought colored filters.. blue, red, green and perhaps a few more. and so stumbled across a You Tube presentation discussing why use color filters in B&W digital photography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vgVtkZRYb0

And here it is in Black and white.. that is to say written for those of you who are literate:
https://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/using-coloured-filters-in-black-and-white-photography

User ID

And ..... ?

Just checked both links. Serve no purpose.


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rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

The video is interesting but seems like an awful lot of work, some of which is very technically involved. Perhaps I'll experiment a bit tomorrow.
--Bob

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Really? Seems to me that they contained a lot of very useful information.
--Bob

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

A B&W JPEG uses an arbitrary method to do the conversion and it may not be quite what you want in the end.

Your raw image is in color regardless so you might as well see the initial image in color on the LCD to be sure that the exposure is close enough.

When you do the conversion on your computer, start with the color version as recorded in the raw file so you will have access to the full range of brightness in case you need to recover highlight or shadow detail.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you choose to record B&W jpegs, then you will probably need to get a nice collection of B&W filters - yellow, green, orange, red, blue, etc - for contrast control while shooting. If you shoot color, preferably raw, you can have very precise control over those "filter effects" in post processing, plus there are at least 7 basic ways to convert from color to B&W.

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-black-and-white-photoshop-conversion-techniques--photo-488

The biggest impact of using colored filters is the light transmission losses. Better to get the full amount of light to the sensor, then adjusting in post processing.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Color filters work (and may be necessary) for B&W film but they are not a good idea with digital unless you are lucky enough to have a Leica Monochrom.

There are different strengths of filter for each color. Light yellow, medium yellow, deep yellow, yellow-green, light red, deep red, etc. Even with film, it's hard to work out the effect of each one since each film can have a different response to different colors.

Your digital camera already has a red, green and blue filter over the sensor - the Bayer array. Putting a color filter ahead of that simply introduces a neutral density filter to each of those basic colors that affect red, green and blue differently.

Each color filter reduces the overall amount of light reaching the film or sensor. To offset that you need to use a filter factor that tells you how much exposure to add for each color such as 1 stop for yellow, two for orange and three for red. You may need to work out the actual filter factors by trial and error with a normal scene, a gray card or a color checker. You can't trust your camera's meter to work this out for you.

So the bottom line is still, get the best possible JPEG using no additional filters and then do the B&W conversion on your computer starting from the raw file.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I just lost 29:52 minutes of my life - never to be recovered. Gone. Forever. What he says at the :45 and 27:15 points says it all. You can watch this and avoid the rest of the video. This guy admits that he has never really tested the alternative of just using post processing and compared it to the shot with filter method, and invites others to do the tests and get back to him. My interest would be the resolution loss, as one respondent noted, due to the bayer array and demosaicing. I suspect that a camera without a filter may do better. And there are light transmission considerations that he does not address. He could have done much better with fewer words spoken at less than a "I-just-drank-a-six-pack-of-red-bull" pace. Based on this video, I am going to go right now to my local camera store and get my complete set of really cheap, probably uncoated filters to put on my $1000-$2000 lenses. Makes total sense - NOT!!!!!!

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Red Bull? My impression was less generous.

juanbalv Loc: Los Angeles / Hawthorne

KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

Monochrome means "one color" or shades of one color. Just another way to refer to a "Black & White".

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Well, experiments are done and I'll state that the video is bullshit. As Gene put it, time spent with no return on investment.

The second link has some very useful information for using filters with black and white film.
--Bob