Old bricks

<p>I love old bricks. I like the kind of photo below, but I wonder if adding a colored filter would enhance the nuances inter- and intra- bricks. I see two solutions: a light red filter, or a light blue filter. My first choice would be the blue one, to play on darker hues. Any advice? My standard films are Tmax 100 and 400.<br /> Unfortunately for a blue solution, It seems that good quality blue filters are no longer marketed. <br />Thanks in advance</p><div></div>

<p>I have a cyan filter. It took 6 months to get it, over 3 years ago...Cokin were having problems then. I love it. It would make the reds darken significantly.</p>

<p>Look at the McDonalds sign on the red brick building....</p>

<p><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3800/10414051885_7c5dd18ea6_z_d.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>It makes those details pop....</p>

<p>Blue color correction filters are still available, which may have some applications for b&w photography. Check ebay, Amazon and other online resellers. These are usually unsold new/old stock. Filter manufacturers were still making 'em even when there was less demand. I've even seen cartons of unsold new/old stock filters at local camera shows, gun shows, flea markets, etc. I bought a couple of new/old stock blue color correction filters at a discount, mostly for the type of situation you've described.</p>

<p>Don't rule out gels. The theater crowd are useful here.</p>

Or maybe a green filter. Still a lot of them on the market.

<p>Thank you for your answers. Green seems a good idea to me, mabe a ~medium green will be equivalent to a light blue. And the yellow component could be useful too with pre-industrial clay (like on the photo above) when it was sometimes not quite pure. Hence the small differences in hue on this wall that cannot be seen of this photo.</p>

<p>A good way to test potential filters at a shop is to bring along a small digital camera that is set for black & white (with auto white balance turned off). Try different filters in front of lens to get an idea of desired effect. Or take a color image and open it in photo editing software. Separate the image into its red, green, and blue channels. You will see a black & white image that shows the approximate effect of each color filter on black & white. The late Monte Zucker used this technique for some of his portraits after he switched to digital.</p>

<p>Sure I could have the answer with a color image and the help of a post-processing software (I use PSPX6). But all those digital tricks overload my operating system, too many colors. Beyond 255 grey hues I crash, but one can get a lot from that.</p>

<p>Try Picasa to evaluate the effects of b&w "contrast" filters on color scenes. Picasa is very low resource, runs on many older PCs, and includes a very good b&w filter mode.</p>

<p>With some of my own brick wall scenes there's a huge difference between blue and green filters, depending whether the bricks are more red or orange. Time of day is also a factor, as the color temperature of light varies throughout the day.</p>

thank you Lex, well by operating system I meant my own biological one... I understand that for complex colors, there is

no a priori solution, only to try a set of different filters with the real thing. Hélio pan has a green shpmc filter, which to me

looks like a good first choice, and a yellow- green, one, which looks like a good choice for no choice...

<p>If you want things to show up more, ease up on the density. The prints appear dark (at least on my monitor) and a bit contrasty... Develop your film a bit less and lighten the print and I think much would be revealed...</p>

<p>Lenny on my monitor and on paper there is details even in the shadows. The original scan is at 4000ppi, 16 bits gray scale. Then reduced at 360 dpi for printing. And I am using 36 exposures film, so unless there is a potential masterpiece, I have to process films with a ~consensus protocol. I rely on pre-(filters, exposure) and post-processing (histogram) for fine tunig each photo. This one was 2 stops underexposed, no histogram adjustment.</p>

<p>I just shot these red bricks with a digital camera, then emphasized each red green and blue channels. Here is the composite result. The blue channel (filter) resulted in the darkest red tones. Green, slightly less so. </p><div></div>

<p>And what's not shown here is each frame is not optimized for brightness / contrast. My guess is the red channel has more image detail. Moreover if it is done before the light hit's the lens, there is a greater chance to capture even more detail because that exposure is correct for the film / sensor. </p>

<p>David you did a great job, thanks a lot. And Peter is right, unexpectedly for me, the red channel is better to show subtle differences, even more after playing with the histogram. Below is the red channel with the following modifications: in/out 78/51, 136/111, 199/196.</p><div></div>

<p>Could you report this back to my wife? I am never right at home....lol</p>

<p>Je compatis<br>

Going back to David's channels, blue is really bad. Initially darkening red would have been my first choice . Green might be acceptable, maybe because there might be some yellow mixed with some red regions. </p>