Warming and cooling filters

Hi, I am about to get some filters. To be used with slide film.

 

 

I am confident about the 80A. Is a 81A more useful than a 81B? Is a 82C

required? I would think the 81 series would be useful for a bit of warmth and

the 82, to cast some cool for the scene, or do I need the 82C when I have a 80A?

 

 

For now I think I don't need a 85 as of yet.

Lastly, I have seen works by Joe Cornish and he places the grad filter diagonal

depending on the scene while Cokin's instructions is that place it flat or you

will get uneven lighting ... what way is it?

 

Thanks.

I use both 81A and 81B. It really depends on how much warming you want to do. For example I would not generally use the 81B on snow, its too bold, but in other sceens it seems to be the better choice. I don't use the other filters you have noted. I usually only use 80 series when I can't use a flash inside and I have daylight film in the camera.

I like to use an 81A for all my outdoor photos. I use it in place of a skylight, or UV. It warms the photo without going too far. For me, the effect is more pronounced in color slide film as opposed to color neg, but that may be because WYSIWYG with slide whereas the processors "color correct" for neg film.

I generally use those filters for effects. I use the 80A and dial in exposure compensation to be dark, to make the end picture look like a night scene. I use the 80B for snow scenes, as it really makes the snow look blue and it's just incredible.

 

An 81 series filters, I use the 81A to "warm" up the landscapes, people, and shadows. However, when it's overcast (which is very blue) the 81A is a little weak to warm the scene enough and that's when I switch to an 81B. I also use the 81B or 81A or both for sunsets to really emphasize the colors.

 

I have an FL-D filter which compensates for flourescent lighting, I really like using it during sunsets with boring lighting as they look amazing!

 

Grads, you just use them however you can whether that be diagonal, straight, or more than one. Do NOT get round screw-in grad filters. Get yourself a Cokin-P holder and get square grads you can slide up/down. I don't actually use the filters much to try to compensate for indoor lighting I use a flash instead. It's hard to take a hand-held picture indoors taking advantage of only available light. I end up having to use a tripod and filters, I'd rather just use my flash and a VR lens and then there's no need a tripod nor color correcting filter (as the flash overpowers available light and it's white).

 

If your after pictures like Joe Cornish with his landscapes, looking at them I see he often goes heavy on the 'warming' preferring the 81B over the 81A, he does have some that look to use an 81A, and alas some don't appear to have any filters. Interesting I see he also uses the FL-D trick, the images where they have a "pinkish/magenta" cast is very similar to the result I get taking sunrises/sunsets with an FL-D filter. I can see his MOST used filters are grads, mine as well. I don't recommend you get yourself goofy grads like blue, orange, etc. get yourself a 1, 2, and 3 stop grad. Make sure they're rectangular, and are Cokin P filter system sized (and get the Cokin P filter holder). If you use wide-angles then aim for the soft grads. If you use telephoto's go for the hard grads. You can also adjust the "transition" by adjusting your lenses aperture F22 compresses the transition, F2.8 softens it. I do see what you mean by him using them diagonally, he tends to have the light coming in on the left and uses them diagonally to force your eye towards the left. I do see he used a blue in one of his photo's but many of his use regular ND grads. I'd start there first, it's the only way to get a sunset picture with film AND get detail in the ground. His scream Singh-Ray grads to me, bang for buck I'd go for the Hi-Tech ND grad filters and get a 1 and 2 stop then possibly a 3 stop.

For outdoor shots I recommend them with slide film. I use B+W filters, the KR 1.5 and KR 3.0. The KR 1.5 is like a skylight filter, pretty close to a 81A and the KR 3.0 is close to the 81C. They remove excessive UV and blue cast from the light. At high elevations, like over 8000 feet, I add the KR 3.0 because there is more UV in the light. I also use it in lieu of a polarizer to heighten skies in that I get an even effect across the sky with wide angle lenses. More info here from the filter handbook for B+W:

http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/handbook/pdf/B+WHandbook16_23.pdf

 

Joe Smith