Beach Sky - filter?

[meesh]

Hello! Im taking a b&w film photography class and i absolutely love it! Ive been going out to the beach and taking some shots of this memorial site there. I made a contact sheet for 2 of the rolls I shot. They came out pretty good. It was around noon and a few clouds in the sky. Some of the shadows look pretty harsh (from what I can see on the contact sheet) and I cant really go out there before 11 because they set up the site once a week and take it down before sunset. Im wondering if there's a filter that I could use to darken the sky, and hopefully if there's a few clouds on sunday, make them look really dramatic? Well thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

I would hope that they would teach you this in your B&W class. Color filters are often used to highlight or darken colors when shooting B&W film. I believe that a color filter will lighten things of it's own color and darken the opposite colors. So a red filter will brighten red and darken green. To darken blue skies, I believe the most popular are yellow, orange or red filters.

I'm sure you could find plenty of good info with a Google search for B&W film color filters.

 

[Garbz]

A polariser has the affect of bringing out clouds and works very well for colour cameras too. A black and white only solution is a dark red filter. Combine both and you can blacken the sky. Just remember that if you try to photograph something the same colour (not the same luminescence) it will also get darkened.

 

[The_Traveler]

It was around noon and a few clouds in the sky

If you can, don't shoot when the sun is hgh in the sky. Try to shoot early morning or in the hour before sunset. Low glancing light is what increases drama and creates beautiful modelling shadows.