I will never forget getting my very first rolls of black and white film back from the lab. I had spent the whole week carrying my dad's old manual SLR around, convinced I was about to produce some moody, timeless masterpieces. I bought a roll of classic black and white film, metered everything perfectly, and waited for the magic.

When the scans finally hit my inbox, I was genuinely pretty disappointed. Instead of punchy, dramatic shadows and brilliant highlights, almost every single photo was just a mushy, flat sea of gray. The sky wasn't moody; it was blank white. The trees were the same shade of gray as the buildings next to them. It didn't look like classic cinema. It just looked dull.

It took a bit of reading and talking to older photographers to realize I was missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. If you want those rich, high-contrast, cinematic black and white images, you can't just rely on the film stock alone. You need to manipulate the light before it ever hits the film. And the absolute best way to do that is by using colored glass over your lens—specifically, red and orange filters.

Why Contrast Filters Matter for Black and White Film

To understand why colored filters are so important, we have to talk about how black and white film sees the world. Our eyes do a great job of separating objects based on color. For instance, if you are looking at a bright red apple sitting in bright green grass, your brain clearly sees two distinct objects because of their contrasting colors.

Black and white film doesn't care about color; it only cares about brightness. Because that red apple and that green grass reflect roughly the same amount of actual light, black and white film records them as the exact same dull shade of gray. Without color to separate them, they just blend into each other.

Contrast filters fix this by acting basically as a bouncer at the door of your lens. A filter will let light of its own color safely pass through while blocking light from opposite colors on the color wheel. A red filter lets red light in, making red objects appear bright white on your negative, while it ruthlessly blocks blue and green light, turning those objects dark gray or even pitch black. This is how you achieve that dramatic separation.

The Orange Filter: Your Everyday Secret Weapon

If you are mostly shooting street photography, everyday life, or general travel, the orange filter is probably going to be your best friend. It offers a noticeable, satisfying step up in contrast without making your photos look completely unnatural or bizarre.

When you put an orange filter over your lens, it gently absorbs blue and green light. The immediate effect is that blue skies get noticeably darker. Instead of a washed-out white sky, you get a rich, medium-to-dark gray. Because the sky is darker, any white clouds suddenly pop out in brilliant contrast. This is the easiest way to give your landscapes and street shots that classic mid-century look.

The orange filter is also surprisingly kind to human subjects. Because it lets warm tones pass through, it actually smooths out skin imperfections. Blemishes, freckles, and uneven skin tones rely partly on reds and warm colors, so the filter renders them lighter, giving people a very flattering, slightly glowing look. It is universally considered a great "leave it on the lens" option for walking around on a sunny day.

The Red Filter: Pure Cinematic Drama

If the orange filter is a polite request for more contrast, the red filter is a loud, unapologetic demand for drama. This is the filter you grab when you want your photos to look like a moody noir film or a brooding fine art landscape. A strong red filter (like a traditional Red 25A) takes the effects of the orange filter and dials them up to eleven.

Because the red filter heavily blocks blue light, a clear blue sky will render almost pitch black on your film. Bright white clouds will aggressively stand out against this dark background, creating an incredible, stormy atmosphere even on a perfectly sunny Tuesday afternoon. It also turns green foliage quite dark, making light-colored stone buildings or light foreground subjects jump right out of the frame.

There are some downsides to the red filter's absolute power, though. I do not recommend it for typical portraits. Because it severely lightens warm tones, human skin can look unnervingly pale and ghostly, and lips almost magically disappear. What makes it amazing for architecture and dramatic scenery usually makes it look deeply weird on human faces. Save the red filter for landscapes, abstract geometry, and cityscapes where you want shadows to look dark and the sky to look threatening.

Dealing with Light Loss (The Filter Factor)

Here is where things get a little technical, but I promise it is easy once you get the hang of it. Because you are putting colored glass in front of your lens, you are naturally blocking a certain amount of light from reaching the film. You have to compensate for this, otherwise, your photos will be severely underexposed.

Every filter has something called a "filter factor," which just tells you how many stops of light you are losing. An average orange filter usually loses about 1.5 to 2 stops of light. A dark red filter will easily lose 3 full stops of light.

How you handle this depends entirely on the camera you are shooting with:

• Cameras with TTL (Through-The-Lens) Metering: If you shoot an SLR like a Canon AE-1, a Nikon FM2, or pretty much any camera that measures light directly through the main lens, you have it easy. Just screw the filter onto the front of the lens. The camera's internal light meter will see the light through the colored glass and automatically calculate the right exposure. Just shoot as normal!
• Rangefinders and Manual Metering: If you shoot a rangefinder where the light meter is on the body of the camera, or if you are using an external handheld light meter, you have to do the math yourself. If your handheld meter says your exposure should be f/8 at 1/250th of a second, and you put a red filter (which loses 3 stops) on your lens, you need to open your aperture by three stops (to f/2.8) or slow your shutter speed down by three stops (to 1/30th) to get the correct exposure.

Because you are losing so much light, red and orange filters are much easier to use outside on bright, sunny days, or when shooting faster films like ISO 400. Trying to use a dark red filter indoors or heavily shaded areas often leads to shutter speeds that are way too slow to handhold.

Pushing Your Film for Even More Grit

If you really want to embrace the heavy, gritty, high-contrast black and white aesthetic, try pairing a colored filter with film pushing. I love shooting a versatile film like Ilford HP5+ or Kodak Tri-X 400, slapping a red filter on the lens, and then rating and developing the film at ISO 1600. The red filter handles the sky and the overall tonal separation, while the push processing adds beautiful, clumpy grain and crushes the shadows even further. The result is pure, unadulterated mood.

The next time you load a roll of black and white film into your camera, don't just shoot it naked. Pick up a piece of colored glass and start experimenting with how you interpret the light. It completely changed how I look at black and white photography, and I am willing to bet it'll do the same for you.

Gearing Up Your Lens

If you're ready to start playing with contrast and want to give your flat photos some serious punch, getting your hands on some colored filters is the easiest and most affordable way to upgrade your kit. You just need to know the thread width of your specific lens (it's usually printed on the front ring, like 49mm or 52mm) so they screw on perfectly. We always try to keep a solid rotation of vintage and reliable glass in the shop. You can browse what's currently available and find an orange filter for everyday contrast, or step into the drama and grab a red filter for those high-impact cinematic skies. Throw one in your camera bag and watch your black and white frames come to life.