Stepping into the world of creative photography, I often found myself wishing for a way to inject more drama and mood directly into my shots, right there in the camera. Relying solely on post-processing felt like a compromise, especially when dealing with landscapes that just needed that extra push or wanting to experiment with classic black and white effects. Not solving this problem meant either spending more time in front of a computer or missing out on specific visual expressions entirely.
Thinking about adding a camera filter to your gear bag usually means you’ve hit a point where you want more control over light and colour than software alone provides. Filters are tools that modify light before it hits your sensor (or film), offering effects that can be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate perfectly in editing. They solve problems like managing glare, controlling exposure in bright light, enhancing colours, or creating specific artistic looks. The ideal buyer for a physical filter is a photographer who enjoys the technical process of image-making, wants to achieve a certain look in-camera, or shoots genres like landscape, portraiture, or black and white where filter effects are particularly valuable. However, if you’re a casual shooter who prefers minimal gear and relies entirely on automatic settings and phone apps for editing, buying dedicated filters might be an unnecessary expense and complication. For those users, built-in camera features or simple editing presets might suffice. Before purchasing a filter, consider its intended use (what effect are you chasing?), the thread size required for your lens (measured in millimeters, like 77mm), the quality of the glass and coatings (cheap filters can degrade image quality), and whether the effect is one you couldn’t easily achieve otherwise.
- Dark blue filter
- Accentuates haze and fog
- Used for dye transfer and contrast effect
Introducing the Tiffen 77mm 47 Blue Filter
Allow me to introduce you to a rather unique tool in the photographer’s arsenal: the Tiffen 77mm 47 Filter (Blue). This isn’t your everyday UV protector or polarizer; it’s a specific dark blue filter designed primarily to manipulate colour and contrast, especially useful for creating striking black and white images or injecting a particular mood into colour shots. Tiffen promises to deliver specific control over tonal separation and atmosphere, particularly accentuating haze and fog, while also serving traditional purposes like use in dye transfer printing. When you purchase this filter, you typically receive the filter itself, often in a protective case. Compared to more common filters, the #47 blue is niche. It’s not a market leader in the way a Circular Polarizer or ND filter might be, but within the realm of colour contrast filters, Tiffen is a reputable and widely used brand, known for offering good quality at accessible prices. This specific Tiffen filter is definitely for the photographer looking to explore specific, dramatic visual effects, experiment deeply with tonal control in black and white, or create moody atmospheric scenes. It’s likely not for someone seeking general landscape enhancement or basic light control.
Here’s a quick rundown of its pros and cons:
Pros:
* Creates dramatic tonal separation in black and white photography.
* Effective for enhancing contrast and darkening red/yellow/green elements.
* Specifically designed to accentuate haze and fog for atmospheric effects.
* Made with optical glass and multi-coating for good image quality.
* A relatively affordable way to achieve a specific creative effect.
Cons:
* Highly specific and not versatile for all types of photography.
* Significantly alters colour rendition, making it unsuitable for naturalistic colour work or portraits.
* Requires careful handling as it is not water resistant.
* Potential for quality control issues (dust/smudges) upon arrival, based on user feedback.
- Includes #6, #13, & #25 Contrast Filters
- 【58mm Color Filter Kit】 This kit includes 9 pieces 58mm color filters (red, orange, blue, yellow, green, brown, purple, pink, and gray filter), 2 filter pouches, and a cleaning cloth
Exploring its Capabilities and Advantages
Diving deeper into what makes the Tiffen 77mm 47 Filter (Blue) a fascinating tool means understanding its core function and the effects it produces. This is where the filter truly shines for those who understand its purpose and limitations.
The Power of the #47 Blue Colour:
At its heart, this is a Wratten #47 blue filter. In the world of filters, particularly for black and white photography, numbers often correspond to specific colour properties and the light they block. A #47 blue filter is quite dark blue, and its primary effect is to block red, orange, and yellow light while allowing blue and violet light to pass through. In black and white photography, this translates to a dramatic increase in contrast between elements of different colours. Red and yellow objects, which would normally appear relatively bright in a standard conversion, are significantly darkened. Blue objects, most notably clear blue skies, are brightened or maintained in their brightness relative to other colours. The benefit here is unparalleled control over tonal separation. You can make bright red flowers almost black against a grey background, or turn a sunny sky into a near-white expanse above dark landscapes. This level of control is difficult to replicate precisely with simple sliders in editing software; a physical filter interacts with the light at the source.
Accentuation of Haze and Fog:
The description specifically mentions this filter accentuating haze and fog. This is a slightly counter-intuitive effect compared to filters that cut through haze (like UV or polarizing filters). However, haze often has a bluish cast due to Rayleigh scattering of light. A dark blue filter can work to enhance the visibility of this bluish atmosphere by darkening the non-blue elements in the scene, making the haze itself more prominent or dramatic. Think of it less as piercing through the atmospheric effect and more about enhancing its visual presence. This feature is fantastic for creating moody, atmospheric landscapes where the goal is to convey depth and distance through visible haze, rather than eliminate it. If you want to capture a scene with a sense of mystery or distance provided by atmospheric conditions, this filter helps push that look further.
Enhancing Contrast for Black and White:
While mentioned above, the contrast enhancement in black and white deserves its own focus because it’s arguably the most common historical use for a filter like the #47 blue. Imagine a landscape with a vibrant green forest under a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Without a filter, converting this to black and white might result in the sky and clouds having similar grey tones, and the forest floor also appearing relatively flat. Adding a blue filter, specifically the #47, dramatically changes this. The blue sky is rendered much brighter, almost white, and the green foliage becomes significantly darker. The white clouds stand out starkly against the bright sky. This creates a very high-contrast image with distinct tonal separation between sky, clouds, and land. For photographers who love graphic, high-contrast black and white images, especially landscapes or architectural shots where clear skies are desired, this filter is invaluable. It provides a look that is characteristic of classic black and white photography techniques.
Optical Glass and Multi-Coating:
While not the flashiest features, the material and coating of the Tiffen 77mm 47 Filter (Blue) are crucial for image quality. Using optical glass ensures that the filter itself doesn’t introduce distortions or reduce sharpness. Cheaper filters made from resin can sometimes slightly soften the image. Tiffen’s use of multi-coating on this filter is also important. Multi-coatings reduce reflections on the filter surfaces. This is vital because adding any extra layer of glass in front of your lens increases the potential for internal reflections, flares, and ghosting, which can degrade contrast and create unwanted artifacts in your images, especially when shooting towards light sources. The multi-coating helps minimize these issues, ensuring that while the filter dramatically alters the colour, it doesn’t negatively impact the overall clarity and contrast of the light that *is* allowed to pass.
The 77mm Thread Size:
For many photographers, 77mm is a common filter thread size for professional-grade lenses, including many standard zooms and primes. This makes a 77mm filter a versatile addition to a kit, potentially usable on multiple lenses. If your lens has a different thread size, you would need a step-up or step-down ring to use this filter, which is possible but can sometimes introduce vignetting or handling issues depending on the lens. For owners of 77mm lenses, however, this Tiffen filter screws directly on, making it a convenient addition.
My Experience Over Time:
Having used this filter for a while, I can say it’s not one you’ll have on your lens constantly. Its effect is too strong and specific for everyday shooting. However, when I plan a shoot specifically to capture dramatic skies or convert images to black and white with strong tonal separation, this is the filter I reach for. It has allowed me to create looks that are distinctly different from what I can achieve purely through digital editing. I’ve found it particularly effective on bright, sunny days with clear blue skies, transforming them into ethereal white or near-white backdrops in black and white conversions, making darker elements like trees or buildings stand out dramatically. It requires some experimentation and understanding of how different colours will translate into different tones when filtered by blue. It’s a tool for deliberate, creative choices, not a convenience filter. Based on other users’ experiences, it is worth checking the glass carefully upon arrival for dust or smudges, a minor quality control point to be aware of, but generally, the optical quality once clean is good.
Integration into Workflow:
Using a filter like this fundamentally changes how you approach exposure and white balance, especially in colour. You’ll need to account for the significant amount of light it blocks (it’s a dense filter) and the strong colour cast. For black and white shooting, I often set my camera’s picture style to monochrome while shooting RAW, allowing me to see the filtered B&W preview while retaining the full colour information in the RAW file. This lets me visualize the filter’s effect on tones but also gives me the flexibility to adjust the conversion later if needed. The unique colour shifts it produces in colour photos – making reds/yellows appear very dark or even goldish – can be interesting for experimental work but generally aren’t suitable for natural colour rendition.
User Impressions
Having looked around to see what others think, many users seem quite pleased with the creative potential offered by this specific Tiffen filter. Several reviewers highlighted its effectiveness for achieving vibrant blue skies or unique colour shifts, particularly noting how it transforms foliage into warm yellow/gold tones and makes people’s skin appear quite yellow in colour images – a distinct effect that some found useful for blending figures into certain landscape types. The filter’s ability to create strong contrast in black and white was also frequently praised. However, a recurring point raised by some users was a concern about the condition of the filter or its packaging upon delivery, with mentions of dust, smudges, or cracked cases, suggesting potential inconsistencies in packaging or handling from the vendor side, though the filter element itself was generally reported to perform as expected once cleaned.
Wrapping Up
In summary, if you’re a photographer feeling limited by standard digital editing tools and craving a specific, dramatic creative effect, particularly for black and white conversion or atmospheric landscape shots, the Tiffen 77mm 47 Filter (Blue) is certainly worth considering. It provides a unique level of control over tonal contrast that’s characteristic of traditional filter use. While it’s a niche tool and won’t be suitable for every photo, for its intended purpose – creating high-contrast black and white, accentuating haze, and producing striking colour shifts – it performs admirably. Don’t miss out on adding this distinct creative possibility to your kit. To explore this filter further and see if it’s the right fit for your creative vision, click here to check it out.
Last update on 2025-07-14 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API