Good warming filter for GL2?

[Blake Haber]

Hi. I must admit it can get a little tedious white-balancing on my little blue card all the time to squeeze some warmth into my GL2. It works, but since you can't save WB you have to do it a lot.

So I'm starting to wonder if anyone can recommend a good little warming (yellow) filter, 58mm, that might sometimes help out in this regard?

Thanks,

Blake

[Barry Goyette]

Blake

You know there has been a few comments about not being able to hold white balance settings on the gl2 (I think I made one of them)...I've noticed the past few days that I set a warmer custom white balance on mine last week sometime and it's still holding every time I turn on the camera, whether I use the lock switch or the regular power switch. Is this not your case?

Standard warming filters come in two series.. 81 grades A-D, which is probably what you want (very popular with portrait photographers), or 85 A-d which is daylight to tungsten correction filter and will give a much larger shift (you can buy individual filters in the series). Tiffen markets an 812 filter that is popular (I think its about an 81b) and an Enhancing filter which they claim is like magic (but I think is essentially pink filter). Most of these filters will add as much red as yellow...they are orange in color, so you might need to tweak your color phase a little to the green to get it looking more yellow. One that won't would be a 5 or 10 yellow CC filter, but It may need a color phase tweak towards the red.

Last but not least would be a Warm Polarizer, which will increase saturation and warm your image slightly...and give you a little more ND outside....my personal favorite.

Barry

[Barry Goyette]

Blake

I just did some checking, and the 81 series seems to add more yellow than red...I think its a good choice for what you are looking for.

Barry

[Blake Haber]

Whoa.

I've used this thing extensively for a month and never noticed it kept the manual WB setting even with full shut-down! I HEARD or READ that it didn't somewhere and thus failed to observe the actuality! Amazing.

Thanks so much for the filter info. I've saved it to a file. I called Samy's and they said these sorts of 58mm filters tend to go for around $30 to$50. Does that seem right?

I really like the idea of the one with the ND in it, too. Do you know how much stoppage it offers? Like a 1/3 stop or something? Because I like to shoot with gain, max-open aperture and slow shutter, so I need tons of ND outside.

One thing I find to be true is that no matter how much I tweak the WB the Canon can not come near the PD150's ability to crank out yellows when you ask for it. It's the one thing I prefer about the PD150. I'd possibly buy a VX2000 if I weren't fixated on the look of Canon's 30p at slow shutter speeds. But I am. I can't get quite the same "damn, that looks like film" feeling out of the Sony.

b

[Blake Haber]

Barry,

Question.

If, for example, I go to bhphoto.com and do a product search for "58mm warming filters" I get a large list of similiar-seeming 81a/b type deals, and some polarizer-type deals as well, with a price range from the $40s to the $180s. How do I make a logical decision here, looking for deeper/richer yellows and more general warmth without a real noticeable orangeiness?

Thanks for your help,

b

[Barry Goyette]

Blacke

If you have a good photo store nearby, these filters are pretty common. I would go take a look at them in person, since you haven't seen one before...Take one out of the case and hold it in front of your eye, then pull it away...this gives you an idea of its effect.

That said, The 81 series is pretty subtle, designed to enhance warm colors without causing an obvious shift, with the 81c being more strong than the 81a. The warm polarizers use some sort of an 81 filter in combo with the polarizer, so they are essentially the same in terms of color. The 85s will give you a pretty strong shift...similar to shooting with daylight WB indoors at night....definitely orange.


Here's a link to a page with some comparisons

http://www.photofilter.com/warming_filters.htm

Not a real good example, but it does show some of the differences. Problem is when you start by shooting in "cool" light... ie.. most of the time except for 1 hour after sunup and 1 hour before sun down AND you don't shoot something with a predominance of red and/or yellow...the effect of these filters is neglegible. I've been a still photographer for 20 years, and I don't bother shooting much on location except during "magic hour" if I want good saturated warm tones. These filters can help things some, but they'll never be a substitute for shooting it right in the first place.

Barry

[Frank Granovski]

I like the Cokin 81A, 81B and Sunsoft. I have a link for where to order at: www.dvfreak.com - Cokin's screw in filters are not brought into North America at this time, but will be soon. They are inexpensive but very good.

[Barry Goyette]

Blake

Sorry, didn't see your earlier post. The yellows are the Gl2's soft spot, although for some reason it does excellent greens...it also produces the most natural red tone, partly due to it's lower saturation in the reds.

The warm polarizer will set you back about .5 ND (1 2/3 stops), enough to get your daylight exposures (with the in camer ND on) to about f4. If you've never used a polarizer, it is probably the most important filter I own...while I understand the science of it, once you start playing around with it, you'll believe in magic...great for increasing saturation and pulling reflections out of foliage, skin and other semi shiny stuff.

Filter prices vary quite a bit, and I think there is more hype than quality to the more expensive brands (although I have to admit I'm a b+w man...no use takin chances!). $30 to $50 sounds like a decent range...I found some hoya's for around $20 by searching google.

Barry