Mono film for portraits

[Kev M]

I've recently shot some portraits on Neopan400 and the skin tones have come out a bit more grey than I was expecting (not having shot many portraits before). I don't think it's under exposure but perhaps a local contrast thing or perhaps a film type thing. I was reading something about how different B&W films react to different colours and wondered if perhaps there is a better B&W film for portrait work (the proviso is 120 and ISO400).

Alternatively does anyone use coloured filters when shooting portraits and if so what colour filter is best?

 

[TheBigYin]

I believe that an orange filter can help in some cases - good for losing freckles, and maybe lightening the effect of "tanning salon tango"... then again, i'm not a people photographer, so I may be talking through my hat :shrug:

 

[Knikki]

Well there is always a red filter you could use, which would lighten the skin slightly.

However I have a friend who shoots everything using a Pentax 6x7 using FP4 including portraits. What he does is rate the film at 80iso instead of 125iso and adjust his dev time accordingly and when doing portraits gets some really nice tones in the face.

If you have a some Neopan 400 in stock then I would rate it at 200iso instead and alter your development time.

I normally use Delta 400 and rate it at 200 and I am finding that I am getting a much better range of tones than when set at 400.

 

[colpepper]

Portraits usually respond to all the light you can muster and then some. Contrast is unflattering, at least in studio style portraits and the grey you describe sounds like lack of light, maybe in the shadows.
Any filter of roughly skin colour will lighten that tone and darken the opposite. Avoid blue, obviously, or your subject will end up like a bowl of blackcurrent yoghurt.

 

[joxby]

yeah, I'm gonna say FP4 for the slow choice.
I never liked neopan 400, it always looked muddy with my usual developer, I never tried it with anything else cos I just didn't shoot it after that.
Delta 400 is more my bag, or Tri-X 400 if I need the speed.
Tbh, 400 is a bit fast.....Delta 100/fp4125/even panF 50.
They say Fomapan 100 is cute for portraits but I've never shot it.