I had been given an old Studio View Camera of unknown provenance.  A rather nice wood and brass affair. It may be a Korona or some Kodak Studio Camera. Nothing to mend except from some cracks in the bellows lining.  All I needed was a lens and some 4X5 film holders, and I could do the “soft” experiment.

I never thought that it would happen soon.  But it did, thanks to Comrade Bing himself.  Last Saturday, after the Rangefnder Filipinas meeting, someone suggested to “play” with the large view cameras in attendance… there were three around.  Not at all unusual…  Out came Comrade Bing’s Polaroid holder, some outdated Polaroid BW instant film, and I hastily made a cardboard “lens board” and taped my trusty old magnifying glass…

There was no shutter! ISO 400 film (but being outdated, may actually be closer to EI 160-200) would have made exposures impossible in brighter light.   But it was indoors at night.  Not too bright fluorescent lighting.  So little opaque card (left over from the lensboard) held over the lens served as the shutter.  1-4 sec exposures were just right.

Flap shutter in front, covering the lens, as Direk Uro unsheaths a Polaroid sheet  prior to exposure.
Maan, at the back, checking if any prestidigitation is involved…

And the First Result.  JefJac is coërced to become the first Victim/Model for the experiment.  This is how it came out:

The Original, his Copy, and the Camera.

Next two victims:  Drea and Comrade Bing.  Comrade Bing is intentionally bokeh-fied…what better way is there to demonstrate the softened abilities of an ordinary hand loupe than to bokeh-fy the inquirer himself????

Bing & Drea, to the left, posing for the camera.
Focused lens on Drea.  Note card ‘shutter’ covering the lens, ready to be unflapped for exposure.

Even Direk Uro was made to sit for one Polaroid softee…

Four Polaroids…four photos shot.

**Thanks to Cent Rubin for the behind-the-scenes photos.

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A filter is called such because it selects (“filters”) components of light, and either absorbs them or transmits them.  For instance, a yellow filter will absorb blue and transmit green and red light.  That is also the reason why it looks yellow.  A filter will absorb its complementary colour and transmit everything else.

Filters are/were commonly used in BW to achieve some contrast in the grey rendering of objects in colour. A panchromatic (all colour sensitive) BW film will render a red object and a green object -if they are of the same luminance- as equal shades of grey.  Using a red filter will let all the reflected red light in and block blues and greens- thus contrast separation is achieved by rendering the red object as light grey and the greens as dark grey in the monochrome picture.

To illustrate this principle, take a look at the following pictures:

1. The Original Scene as Seen in Colour:

2. Shot on BW, Without any Filter: Grey-rendering of hues (note the reds and the blues)

3. Through a Yellow Filter:  Yellow filters have sometimes been called “Cloud Filters”
 

4. Through an Orange Filter:  Contrast between coloured objects, particularly blue/green and red/orange is more pronounced.

5. Through a Deep Red Filter:  More dramatic skies, -darkened blue skies- darkened greens.

6. Through a Blue Filter: Mimicks the effect of the old colour-blind plates from the XIX century.

Note: Skies will darken only when they are truly clear and blue.  Hazy skies, cloudy and grey weather will not show the effect well.

Red and Orange, as well as Deep Yellow Filters will often render skins pallid and sometimes give a ghostly, drained-of-blood appearance to people and portraits.

Green filters are used to achieve a healthy, tanned look (green darkens reds) with people subjects outdoors. A green filter will also darken skies.

Related Posts:

• What Lens Hood to Use for Industar or Jupiter Lenses?
• HOW NOT TO DESTROY YOUR FED AND ZORKI (A Basic Primer)
• (Extreme!) Closeups with a Rangefinder Camera
• Entering from the Bottom: Loading a Leica Properly. (also for FED, Zorki, and Canon RF cameras)