The world of digital photography is not just a camera, lenses, flash and tripod. There’s others photographic accessories that you can use and that allow you to get impressive and spectacular photographs. One of these accessories is The filters.
If you are a photographer belonging to the SLR or EVIL world, or your compact camera allows you to screw accessories in front of the lens, in today’s article you will learn what filters are, what they are for and how these gadgets can help you obtain impressive photographs.
What are photo filters?
Photographic filters are accessories that are placed in front of the camera lens in order to modify the way light enters the camera and is captured by the sensor.
Something similar to putting on, for example, sunglasses.
Although it is true that in the midst of the digital age (where it seems that San Photoshop and San Lightroom can fix everything) filters are one of the photographic accessories that have fallen into disuse the most, the truth is that they are often irreplaceable.
If you are also not very fond of editing images, either due to ignorance or due to principles, filters can be very useful. From erasing reflections as if by magic, adjusting disparate exposures in the same image, darkening skies or simply protecting your computer, filters have many uses, often difficult to replace with an editing program with identical good results.
There are many types and uses of filters in photography that today can give you clear advantages when taking your shots compared to editing on the computer (post production). Later I will name them one by one.
Why use filters in photography?
The use or not of photographic filters at the time of capture will be a very personal decision that you will have to make. There are photographers who prefer to invest in them and there are others who, for mainly economic reasons, decide not to do so and then edit the photos on the computer. Both positions are respectable, valid and correct.
It is worth clarifying that, with its use, you will be able to obtain results that are not possible once the photograph has been taken, such as the use of a neutral density filter to lower the exposure levels when photographing a waterfall, or eliminate the reflections of a window to photograph what is behind it.
In addition, at the time of taking it, you will obtain a photograph that is very similar to the final one, saving you editing time on the computer. This has more to do with the traditional process of creating photographs, but it will require more knowledge from the team to take each shot so that you can obtain effects impossible to achieve through subsequent editing.
Please note that many prestigious photo contests do not allow photos that have been digitally edited on the computer to be submitted.
The real photographer works with light, not with the mouse
It is not the same merit to take an excellent photograph by using filters at the moment of taking it, obtaining an almost definitive image, than after a few clicks, to obtain something similar thanks to the computer, being able to try different combinations until obtaining the best one.
Filter Brands
Quality filters are not cheap at all, and getting one of them can make you have to pay a considerable amount of money, not to mention that they are fragile and easily deteriorate if you are not careful enough with them.
The vast majority of these quality filters are only available on request due to their high price. Here I have prepared a small list with the most prestigious brands for you to take into account:
Each brand has its advantages and disadvantages, but if you buy filters from any of the brands that I have just mentioned, you are sure to acquire a quality product.
How to use a filter?
There are different systems to be able to attach a filter in front of the lens of your camera, and it will depend on the type of camera, reflex, EVIL or compact, to which you want to add one.
Mainly the systems to be able to do it are two:
- Circulars: they consist of screwing in front of the objective lens, a circular filter of the same diameter as the lens. Their main advantage is that, because of the way they screw directly onto the lens, they not only protect the lens, but almost ensure that no vignetting or light gets in around the edges of the lens and ends up ruining the photo. The main disadvantage is that they are much less versatile to use than rectangular ones and, furthermore, you must have as many filters of the same type as the diameters of your lenses.
- Rectangular: They are rectangular glass filters of various sizes that are placed in front of your camera lens by means of a filter holder. Their main advantage is that they allow much greater versatility: if you want to degrade the sky using a gradient filter, you can choose at what height to place the horizon, which is impossible to do with a circular one. Its main disadvantage is the fragility of the lenses and that, as an extra mount is needed in front of the lens, in some cases they can generate vignetting or let stray or unwanted light enter through the sides of the lenses.
When to use photographic filters?
Not all photographs will require you to use a filter to take the shot, but there are certain photographs that will gain in quality, either aesthetically or technically, if you use one of these filters.
The use of filters is very common in landscape photography, where the shots are prepared with a lot of time in advance and where the aim is to obtain effects that, in many cases, are not perceptible by the human eye or are not actually produced by nature, such as a red sky.
Filter types
Here is a list of the filters most used by photographers today with their corresponding explanation and photographs as an example and inspiration:
polarizers
It is one of the most used filters since it fulfills two functions: on the one hand, it eliminates unwanted reflections from shiny surfaces such as water, glass, etc., and on the other hand, it helps to obtain more intense and more saturated colors, contrast the scenes, darken the blue of the sky, reduce haze, lighten clouds, etc.
I do not recommend its use in those scenes that in themselves are highly contrasted, since if you do so you will lose detail in the extreme tones, the lightest and the darkest, unless such an effect is what you are looking for.
Note that when using a polarizing filterits maximum effect is obtained when the light is lateral at 90°, this means that with the sun from the front or from behind, this filter will not have any effect.
If you like landscape photography, it is almost mandatory that you have one.
Neutral Density (ND)
These filters have no effect on the color of the scene, since their main use is to considerably reduce the amount of light that reaches the sensor. This type of filter is very useful when, in good lighting conditions, you want to make long exposures.
This means that, without changing the colors, you can take photos with large apertures and very slow shutter speeds, in situations where the photo would normally be completely overexposed.
I recommend that if you are going to get one of these filters, you buy at least one with 3 diaphragms, since to subtract less light, a polarizer will suffice or combining a polarizer with low ISO and well-closed diaphragms.
The most frequent neutral density filters are 6, 8 and 10 diaphragms and the most recommended are glass ones since gelatin tend to reduce the quality of photographs.
Keep in mind that by allowing less light to enter the sensor, the camera’s autofocus will most likely not work. I recommend that you manually focus the scene and then add the neutral density or ND filter to it.
Do you see how the water is more like a mist? That is because it has been worked at slow speeds and, thanks to that, the movement has been imprinted on the scene, giving us scenes like this one. We call it the silky effect of water (or clouds) and it is a widely used resource in landscape photography.
enhancer
The Enhancer filter is used to enhance the warm colors of the scenes, altering little or nothing the rest of the colors. It is a very specific filter and recommended only to portray autumn sunrises or sunsets, reinforcing the warmer tones.
It is commonly used in landscape photography to intensify the warmth of the scene. There are also intensifiers of blue or yellow tones although they are somewhat less common.
I do not recommend its use if the scene already has a fairly warm color temperature since it can exaggerate them too much.
neutral gradient
These types of filters are used to balance the different contrasts that occur in a scene. Darkens some areas of the photo and not others so you can get detail in both highlights and shadows. That is to say, it subtracts light in only one half of the scene, thus allowing the compensation of both parts of the photograph. And it does not alter the colors of the scene.
This type of filters, like the neutral density ones, have various numbers depending on the number of steps they compensate. For example, the most common are 0.3 ND (1 step), 0.6 ND (2 steps), 0.9 ND (3 steps). Also, the way they do the transition from one exposure to another can be hard or softthat is, it can go from one exposure to another immediately, or gradually.
Again, as with the neutral density or ND filters, I recommend that you do not purchase less than 3 diaphragms and, if possible, that the system of these be rectangular and mounted using a filter holder. In this way, you can place the gradients where you see fit.
Color gradient
With the same idea as neutral gradient filter, plus tint part of the image of the tone that we have chosen.
We have them clear to accentuate sunrises or sunsets or a certain part of the scene that we want to intensify, or cold tones, to “cool” certain parts of the scene. You usually find them in a pack. The possibilities with gradient filters are many, especially if you enjoy outdoor landscape photography.
mist effect
Effect filters are increasingly used by photographers, especially those who…