There is a really important diference if you are using film or is a digital photo. I will focus on Digital aspects but will give you an idea of what to expect with film.
The method I am using is simply using the primary channel of a colour RGB image.
Let me start with primary light colors RGB. As the skin has more red component the skin will look brighter when using a red filter (R) and the oposite hapens when using green (G) or blue (B) filters.
Panchromatic film is already taking into account more green in the light spectrum than red and blue, that are on the extremes of visible light spectrum, so the tendency will look more like the green sample(G)
But modern color profiles and conversion tools uses a more complex combinations than simple color filters as you can see on the sliders of a grayscale conversion.
In this case, the default conversion profile renders less contrasted results (P) with more gray tones and gives a result simmilar to the lightness component (From an HSL color model) (L).
blocking out colors in the background, making person seem brighter to make them pop, or something like that?
You normally use a color filter on film if you wanted to contrast something in the background, like the sky for a more dramatic one using red filters for example.
If you use color filter on a digital camera you drasticly reduce the amount of photons to produce an image, the amount of lightness levels and the posibility to play with the grayscale conversion.
There are some digital filters and software tools that help you event to simulate how classic b/w films reacted to light, so:
Simply shoot in RAW and in full color and play later with the conversions.
(Original photo: https://pixabay.com/en/redhead-hair-scarf-eyes-face-1828099/)
