In black and white photography, colored filters are essential tools that allow photographers to manipulate how colors are rendered as shades of gray. Filters help control contrast, tonal separation, and creative emphasis in an image.

There are various types of Black & White filters, each producing a distinct visual effect. By selectively lightening or darkening specific colors, these filters allow photographers to achieve a wide range of expressive results, from subtle tonal shifts to dramatic, high-contrast scenes.

Here we will discuss the four most popular Black & White filters and their applications.

Monochrome photography, often referred to as black and white photography, is the art of creating images using only tones of gray ranging from deep blacks to bright whites. Without the influence of color, this visual medium emphasizes light, shadow, texture, form, and composition, offering a powerful and timeless form of artistic expression.

Ansel Adams was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, renowned for his majestic black and white images of the American wilderness.

Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid and inventor of instant photography, had deep respect for monochrome photography as a means to explore human perception.

Ansel Adams elevated monochrome photography as an expressive art form, while Edwin Land saw it as a scientific lens into human perception. Together, they shaped how we understand and experience black and white photography.

The "Go-To" filter for Outdoor Black and White Photography

The Yellow filter produces a subtle boost in tonal separation without extreme effects, resulting in natural skin tones, increasted contrast and haze reduction that's often desirable in architectural and landscape images.

According to Edwin Land, the yellow black and white filter acts as a neutral amplifier, helping images look "clearer" without calling attention to the effect.

For Ansel Adams, the Yellow filter was his default filter for outdoor photography. Yellow provides subtle, naturalistic tonal adjustments and was often used on the lens as a matter of habit. Ansel Adams would use a Yellow filter when he wanted the scene to look close to how the eye sees it, but with a bit more snap.

The Yellow filter also doubles as a IR 650nm filter, sometimes nicknamed “Yellow” or “Golden” IR filter due to the warm-toned results they produce.

Yellow filters are availble in the following thread sizes: 39mm, 43mm, 46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 60mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 86mm, 95mm, 105mm, 112mm.

The "Middle Ground" filter for contrast enhancement

Orange is a "middle-ground" black and white filter, a favorite of Ansel Adams due to its ability to create “rich tonal relationships”. It offers stronger effects than the yellow filter, ideal for natural-looking, yet expressive, contrast in the sky and a noticable 'pop' to plants and vegetation.

Orange black and white filters enhance the natural contrast without overtly adding any distortion to the image, giving black and white images more emotional clarity while staying grounded to reality.

The Orange filter also doubles as a IR 640nm filter which is often used as a midrange infrared option that balances color and contrast, offering subtle false-color effects with increased infrared presence and dramatic tonal control.

Orange filters are availble in the following thread sizes: 39mm, 43mm, 46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 60mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 86mm, 95mm, 105mm, 112mm.

The #1 Most Popular filter for Black and White Photography

Red filters are used for dramatic, high-contrast landscapes. They push tonal separation to the extreme, putting an emphasis on vision as interpretation, not replication. Red filters are very effective at reducing haze, replacing misty atmosphere with intense clarity.

In Land’s perceptual terms, a red filter manipulates the viewer’s internal model of what’s important in an image, forcing focus on luminance boundaries and shadows.

Ansel Adams used them selectively for powerful visual impact, especially in landscapes with a big sky presence.

“The red filter renders the blue sky as nearly black, which dramatizes the white clouds.” Ansel Adams

The Red filter also doubles as a IR 650nm filter for IR photography, where it's used as a high-contrast option that minimizes visible light and maximizes infrared effect. The results are bold, surreal images that are often rendered in striking black and white.

Red filters are availble in the following thread sizes: 39mm, 43mm, 46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 60mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 86mm, 95mm, 105mm, 112mm.

The "Botanical & Nature" filter

Green filters are ideal for botanical and nature photography. This is a more specialized filter that excels in rendering flowers, leaves and vegetation in brighter tones, helping to express texture in natural subjects. Darker green vegetation that would render in the shadows before, now will show through in vibrance and contrast.

The Green filter is also especially useful for black and white portraits, subtly increasing texture of freckles and skin tones, particularly in Caucasian skin.

Adams noted that green filters could be helpful but were “not essential for most of my work”, he preferred them in very specific contexts.

Green filters are not used in Infrared photography.

Green filters are availble in the following thread sizes: 39mm, 43mm, 46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 60mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 86mm, 95mm, 105mm, 112mm.

Edwin Land believed that black and white photography was not a lesser form of color, but a distinct and powerful artistic medium. To him, tone alone (without the influence of color) could carry deep emotional and cognitive meaning. The interplay of light and shadow in monochrome images, he argued, had the power to reveal truths that color might obscure.

Land often suggested that black and white images could feel more “true” or “authentic” than color. He was fascinated by how the human brain interprets reality, and believed that the absence of color allowed viewers to engage more deeply with an image, free from visual distractions.

“Black and white is abstraction, not imitation. It is an art form that distills reality to essentials.” Edwin Land

Ultimately, for Land, black and white photography was a visual language of immediacy and clarity, a way to explore human perception and express the essence of a moment.

Ansel Adams considered black and white photography the purest and most expressive form of the medium. By removing the element of color, he believed photographers could delve more deeply into the fundamentals of light, tone, form, and emotion. For Adams, monochrome imagery was a powerful, interpretive language that offered complete creative control.

“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” Ansel Adams

In his hands, black and white became a visual poetry. It stripped away distractions, reducing an image to its emotional and structural core, compelling the viewer to engage with light, texture, and shape on a more intimate level. He emphasized that photography was not a process of reproduction, but one of interpretation, a means of conveying not just what a subject looked like, but what it felt like.

Adams was also highly technical in his approach. He championed the use of colored filters, yellow, orange, red, and green as essential tools for controlling tonal values, enhancing contrast, and shaping mood. These filters allowed him to manipulate how different colors were rendered as shades of gray, further reinforcing the emotional intent behind each image.

As detailed in his seminal book 'The Negative', Adams viewed technique and artistry as inseparable. His mastery of the Zone System and his command over exposure, development, and printing allowed him to craft photographs with stunning tonal range and expressive depth.

"I go out into the world with my camera and come across something that excites me emotionally, spiritually or aesthetically. I see the image in my mind’s eye. I make the photograph and print it as the equivalent of what I saw and felt." Ansel Adams

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” Ansel Adams