Film for skin tone

[tomalophicon]

I agree with this. If you want to have special deep skin tones, use an ortho film (Ilford Ortho plus seems to be the best for this because of the relative high speed - 80 ISO.) Or use a more or less decent blue filter with normal film. Ortho films are relativly blind to red colours therefore they render skin teints which have an considerable red part in it darker than as expected when seen with the human eye. Blue filters also block red and make the mentioned teints darker.

Best,
Andreas

Does that mean Tungsten lighting will be the wrong light to use with this film?

[keithwms]

IIRC, tungsten light was used with ortho and blue-sensitive films in the early days of glamour photography. Take care when drawing conclusions though: much of what we see from that era was quite intricately retouched.

[rufusm]

I looked into Ortho film, thanks again Gerald, for portraiture as this would be worth trying. The examples I viewed certainly have a unique look to them. Unfortunately most are available in sheet film only. From what I have read, the ilford emulsion gives tones of grey as opposed to others that are more or less straight b&w. I shoot 35mm and MF and all I could find is Rollei in 35mm which appears to be 2 tone. I'm staying with my choice of film for now but ortho warrants some exploration on my part.

[piu58]

Or use a more or less decent blue filter with normal film. Ortho films are relativly blind to red colours therefore they render skin teints which have an considerable red part in it darker than as expected when seen with the human eye. Blue filters also block red and make the mentioned teints darker.

Best,
Andreas

A blue filter emphasizes impurities of the skin. I recommend a strong green filter.

[Daniel Haskins]

My favorite BW film for portraits would have to be the Efke/Adox 100. It is very very very grainy in 35mm. I've yet to try it in 120. Even with all the grain, it still has a look to it, that I like very much, in the skin tones and elsewhere.

I've tried Plus-x, Fuji 400, HP5, Kodak 400CN, some expired Superpan 200 from the 80's... I did not like the Plus-x or the Fuji 400 at all, thought it might have been the developer. Agfa Superpan 200 from the 80's is a great film for portraits too, though I'm not sure what it was really, or if you could still get it somewhere. I think it was imported here illegally.

Here are 5 shots, all on Adox/Efke 100 in 35mm:

[A49]

Does that mean Tungsten lighting will be the wrong light to use with this film?

It is not wrong if you take it´s effects into consideration. I think Tungsten light could emphasize the effects of an Ortho film, but I´m sure that it would decrease it´s film speed noticeable because the film can only use the blue / green part of the Tungsten spectrum which is smaller there as with flash-light or daylight.

Andreas

[Ektagraphic]

Plus-X is a really great film to use with portraits. The skin tones are great.

[Gerald C Koch]

A blue filter emphasizes impurities of the skin. I recommend a strong green filter.

I agree, a green filter is a better match for the effect of ortho film. I think a strong green filter would be too much. I would recommend a light green filter to start with. A blue filter would simulate an unsensitized emulsion which is not desired.

Of course for true ortho response one should use an anti-red (cyan filter). This passes light into the yellow portion of the spectrum.

[Nicole]

If you want to work with b&w film & filters on skin tones: try a yellow filter

[Thomas Bertilsson]

If you want to work with b&w film & filters on skin tones: try a yellow filter

I was thinking along those lines too, but didn't want to open my mouth, because I've never used filters when doing portraits. But yellow makes sense. Most skin blemishes are on the red side of the spectrum. A green filter would constitute the complimentary color of red, and would render such skin imperfections as dark. If the person you're photographing has fair skin, I would think that could cause trouble, unless you really enjoy to selectively bleach prints.
Yellow is closer to red and would, in my mind anyway, lighten those skin blemishes while leaving most of the other skin tones intact. It would, of course, alter how blue eyes look; it would darken them. I might try a yellow next time.