[APML]: Color Film and Filters

[Jack Schmidling <arf@mc.net>]

Color Film and the Use of Nebular Filters

Contrary to popular opinion, one does not need access to a laboratory, 
fancy equipment or monochromatic light to be able to evaluate the 
effect that nebula filters have on color photos.  All one needs is a
camera, a roll of film, filters to test and a rose garden.  Actually,
I suspect all one needs in the filters but that is another story.

A rose garden is hard to come by this time of year but there is no
shortage of interesting  colored objects, nevertheless.  With the above
tools in hand, I toured the estate looking for likely subjects.  My 
first was the only trees that still had leaves on them, a stand of
oaks about a thousand feet North of the observatory.  These leaves have 
lost all their fall color and are just a dirty brown that will not 
change till they fall off sometime between now and Spring.

When viewed through the finder, the scene looked just like one would
expect.  I then placed a Lumicon Deep Sky filter in front of the lens
and voila! a trip, a month back in time, to the blazing colors of the
prettiest Fall we have had since moving out here.  Those dingy brown
leaves were now a radiant crimson red.

I next walked over to the pumpkin patch and much to my incredulous
delight, there they were, 6 dazzling red pumpkins.

On the way back to the manse, I was amazed to find that someone
had painted the yellow door of the chicken coop, a gala Halloween
orange.  

To document this interesting adventure, I composed a setting on a nice
white table... a pumpkin, a yellow can of WD40, and a red/orange 
impatiens in a bright red flower pot.

I took a few photos using PPF 400 film with and without the filter but
chose not to develop the film myself at the risk of being accused of
doctoring it.  As we only go to town once a week, it will be a while
before I can prove my point but I suspect what my eye sees is 
what the film will see, otherwise, what good is color film?

What my eye saw was a yellow can that looked like a pumpkin, a
pumpkin that looked like a giant tomato and a red-orange flower
that was a flaming, day-glow pink that I could not take my eyes
off.  Any moment, I expected Tinker Bell to alight on it.

So again I ask,  does pointing this filter up into the night sky
somehow validate all the phony colors?

js

-- 
Visit our WEB pages: 
Beer Stuff:  http://dezines.com/@your.service/jsp/
Astronomy:   http://user.mc.net/arf/