SOME RANDOM DUDE

I have recently become interested in using colored lens filters for my film camera when using black and white film. Colored lenses can dramatically impact the grey tones and contrast when shooting in black and white - results you would otherwise not get from a “naked” lens. When shooting with film, I like to stay out of Photoshop as much as possible other than basic cleaning. Sure, I could increase the contrast of a photo with curves or levels, but why not do it the old-fashioned way instead. Let me tell you, the latter is much more fulfilling. Nonetheless, for those of you who do not have lens filters and/or would rather simulate it in Photoshop, these digital lens filter Photoshop actions will be the next best thing. Below I write about what colored lens filters do to black and white film and how Photoshop can roughly simulate it.

All of my idealistic philosophies go right out the window when talking about digital photography. When shooting in RAW format, the output is always in color, regardless of what color mode you have set your camera. Rational or not, I do not hold the same regard for the digital photographic process so I have no problem using Photoshop to simulate how colored lens filters interact with black and white film. I have noticed that merely desaturating a color image through Photoshop’s RAW format plugin makes the image quite flat. There are various methods to convert a color image to black and white. Putting most of these aside, I am concentrating on how to convert a color image to black and white that has been “tinted” by a colored lens filters. I make no claim that I am an expert in this technique - however, this attempt at simulating colored lens filters has worked well for me up to this point.

Recent versions of Photoshop added the handy “Photo Filter” feature which allows you to simulate how an image would be affected by a colored lens filter. Without this new feature, this process would be much trickier. You can essentially choose any color as a filter, however I have decided to stick with the standards - red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Each color has creates a different tonal property to black and white photography and each has its optimal environment to be used. This explanation of colored filters with black and white photography goes into all the details you need. The image viewer below allows you to see each color lens this digital filter process.

Click the links below to view the image with each filter applied:

I myself feel I have more control over an image outside of Photoshop’s RAW format plugin. All I do within that environment is to remove as much of the blown-out highlights as well as the underdeveloped areas of the photo with as minimal of property-tweaking as possible. I aim to keep the integrity of the original shot intact as much as I can. This is just a personal method however. If I intended a photo in particular to be in black and white, I will only begin moving it to black and white after I have made my minor adjustments within the RAW format plugin. As I stated earlier, I feel the basic desaturation method leaves my photos flat. I much rather use slightly more involved ways to convert to black and white that have given me better results.

After applying the Photo filters to the example image, the differences are obvious and you can begin to see how each filter would produce completely different tones of grey.

As is very apparent, the filters darken the image quite a bit since all tones are essentially multiplied by the color of the lens. To adjust for this, the levels need to be modified. Below is a fairly common histogram you would see after putting a color filter “on top” of your image. Note how the highlight input has been moved up to the general location of where the new histogram begins. This will ensure that your highlights will now be, well, highlights. I have noticed that with the method I have explained, that the blue and green filters end up making the image significantly more contrasty than a blue filter should in real life, I am still trying to figure out why that is the case.

After the levels are adjusted to the the filter into account, you will have a basic representation of what the photo would look if taken on black and white film with a colored lens filter. Of course, the real deal is always going to be better and, as I have said before, film in general still gives better results from my perspective. Still, this is a good alternative if you do not shoot with film.

Since this process is amazingly simple and repetitive, I have created a series of digital lens filter Photoshop actions to make everyone’s lives (including mine) easier. Enjoy and be productive.black and white, black and white photography, digital photography, lens filters, Photography, photoshop, photoshop actions, photoshop atn raw format