1 The Director of Photography – an overview

Camera filters 129
85C Half the correction of the straight 85 – often used
when interior is lit to the same colour balance, so
that any exterior, say through a window, appears
slightly cold.
All these filters also come with a neutral density built into them. For
the 85 these are available as 85BN3, 85BN6 and 85BN9. Each unit of 3
stands for a density of 0.3, which exactly halves the light passing through
the filter. Therefore, an 85BN3 reduces the exposure by an extra stop
in addition to the two-thirds of a stop correction needed for the
straight 85. Likewise, the 85BN6 reduces the exposure by two stops
and the 85BN9 by three stops, again in addition to the straight 85.
Skin tone warmer
A Tiffen 812 is very effective in warming up skin tone while having a
negligible effect on the other colours in the scene. This is particularly
useful for a close-up on a cold day.
Sepia, coral, colour effects, etc.
Just as you would expect from their names, these filters lend an overall
colour tint to the scene. Sepia and coral do to the film roughly what
you will see in the viewfinder, but some of the more esoteric filters, say
tobacco, whisky, suede, etc., can come out on film a little differently
than they look to the naked eye. Coloured filters often absorb quite a
lot of light to perform their trick. If you intend to use the heavier filters
I strongly recommend you shoot a test under identical lighting before
commencing your principal photography – this is not to say that they
cannot be very effective, it is just rather surprising to find exactly what
they do sometimes.
Graduated filters
Grads, as they are always known, are usually coloured or neutral density
filters. They are used to colour, or darken, one part of a scene without
affecting the rest of the scene.
If, for instance, you were using a neutral density grad to attenuate a
sky that was too bright, then you would need a filter taller than the
actual frame size so that you would have enough to slide up and down
in order to place the edge of the grad accurately on the skyline. If your
standard filter size was 4 in. � 4 in., then you would order your grads
in 4 in. � 6 in.A 0.6 (i.e. two stops) neutral density grad is probably the
most useful – I always carry one. Grads can be ordered with either a
‘hard’ or a ‘soft’ edge. I find soft-edged grads are usually the more successful.
They are usually supplied where the maximum density of the
filter is either 0.3, 0.6 or 0.9. The lighter one would, for instance, be
referred to as a point three ND grad.
Coloured grads are used less often than simple ND grads. I carry a
full set of coral grads and a few blue grads.With these I can turn almost
any time of day into early morning or sunset, with both effects available
in a cool or warm version. The joy of using them is that what you see