Black and White Filters?

[pierce]

I'm sure that this has been asked a hundred times before but I can't find the topics, so maybe one of you nice people will copy, paste the answer to my question? Anyway, I want to do some black and white photography and I was wondering what filters i'd need (orange, yellow, red?) and why i'd use them?

 

[Brently]

b&w film.

 

[ksmattfish]

Check these posts:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ghlight=&sid=d3f4a61634e2468efd920481fe2da7ab

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7034&highlight=filters

Basically, colored filters let through the light that is the same color as the filter. They block all other colors of light somewhat, and block colors on the other side of the color wheel even more.

So if a red filter blocks 2 stops of light, it lets red in without blocking, making red appear lighter (about 2 stops) compared to most other colors. But it blocks cyan (and blue and green to a lesser amount) even more than most other colors, making it appear very dark tonally.

 

[pierce]

Thanks alot Matt, that's exactly what I wanted to know, cheers mate!