Black and White Photography

lens instruction book or by bringing the lens to your camera store. Ideally, all

of your lenses (if you have more than one) will take the same filter size, so you

will only have to buy one set of filters. However, in practice, some lenses have

a larger or smaller front diameter than others; if you do own several different

lenses, you may have to buy more than one set of filters.

There are times when you might want to stack (combine) filters, but be careful.

Stacking glass filters can lead to reduced image quality, possibly less sharpness,

vignetting on the image’s edges, or other problems.

Filter Types

There are several filters made specifically for photographing in black-andwhite.

Most are used to affect the rendition of skies or to adjust subject contrast

within the image, while some have more specialized uses.

Lens-protecting filters. Lens-protecting filters (clear, UV, and skylight) are probably

the most common filters in use. The front of your lens is highly vulnerable

to physical damage from dirt, dust, fingerprints, moisture, and other elements.

To minimize damage, many photographers keep a clear filter on the front of all

their lenses at all times, figuring that it’s better to scratch or damage an inexpensive

filter than a costly lens. You can clean dirty filters the same way you

clean lenses: with clean, soft, lintless tissues or cloth and lens cleaning solution,

if necessary.

than the blue jeans. The filter also will partially block blue light, rendering the

jeans less dense in the negative and darker when printed. Using a blue filter in

this situation will produce the opposite effect. Either method will increase

contrast, making the color difference between the jeans and T-shirt clearer.

Following is a chart that illustrates the effect of various filters on a blackand-

white print: