 Brandon Rude |
Filters for Portraits I'm going to be doing some outdoor black and white portraits and I want to use a filter that will soften the skin tones and hide the imperfections slightly. Should I use a light yellow filter or a red filter?
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John A. Lind |
Brandon, I recommend getting a roll of B&W, a yellow, green and red filter, and using a friend as a "victim" to try all three in the types of settings where you intend to do this work. Ensure you also shoot without any filters at all to provide a "baseline" for comparison. Record which filters were used for which frame numbers and compare things afterward. Red will reduce prominence of most skin blemishes greater than any of the others. However, it may also produce some unnatural gray tones in other things . . . most notably anything red or blue, including people's lips. Green will produce color separation between skin tone and sky, and skin tone and foliage. Whether or not it provides enough of what you're looking for in reducing prominence of skin blemishes is something you'll have to evaluate. If all you need is some modest to moderate effect, the yellow would likely be the safest in terms of shifting grayscale of other colors around. It can affect gray rendition blonde hair though.
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Maynard McKillen |
Dear Brandon: Have you considered using a soft focus filter? It will reduce contrast slightly, which is an aid to minimizing blemishes and wrinkles, and you can find filters with varying degrees of "softness" from major filter manufacturers like B+W, Heliopan, Tiffen, Hoya, Zeiss and Cokin.
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John A. Lind |
Some additional information about soft focus filters: Most will vary in effect with lens aperture. Some designs will also create soft halos around highlights (not necessarily a Bad Thing, simply an effect). The differences are a result of how the soft focus effect is created . . . the shape and pattern of the very minute ripples on the filter. My advice in selecting one is to go to a camera store and try several different brands and types on your lens. Aim at various objects in the store, and if you can, vary your lens aperture (using the stop-down or depth of field preview) to get an idea of how that changes the effect.
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Brandon Rude |
Thank you guys very much. I should probably just try out all the different filters and see which one produces the effect I'm looking for. Thanks again.
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Gregg Vieregge |
Go to the best source for filters. (www.lslindahl.com) They sell a Harrison filter #1 that works great. ($99) This is a professional vendor so don't expect anything but the very the industry has to offer.
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