filters! what i should and shouldn't have?

[Zach]

hey guys I don't know much about camera filters like what's good for what, what kinds there are, etc... etc...

so I need your help in this area, what filters should I have for my Canon T5??? and what should I stay away from.

Thanks for any help!

Zachary.

[Kayaker72]

Hi Zach,

First question, what do you want to shoot with your filters?

A quick rundown:

• Circular Polarizing Filter (CPL) can be used as both a neutral density filter (1-1.7 stops) but is most commonly used to minimize polarized light which can deepen blue skies, saturate colors and reduce things like glare from water.
• Solid ND filters. 2-4 stop solid ND filters are commonly used to photograph with a shallow dof (wide apertures) in bright conditions. Think outdoor portrait photography. 6-10 stop solid ND filters are commonly used to blur water in waterfalls, at the base of pools, or to blur away moving objects/people.
• Graduated ND filters are used to minimize the dynamic range of a scene by shading a portion of the frame but leaving the other portion unaffected. Anything with a sky, especially sunrises/sunsets you can put the shaded portion of a graduated ND filter over the sky to shade it back and leave the land unshaded in order to get proper exposure.
• Tinted filters can change the color of a scene. I know people that shoot with warmer up filters and love them. These, as the name implies, adjust the color temperature of a scene toward the warmer side.
• Singh-ray sells CPLs that have a blue-gold tint to them.

So there is a wide variety depending upon what you want to do. It has been argued that many of these features can now be done in post. For example, blur water of a waterfall, simply take many photos of the waterfall and stack them. Graduated ND can be accomplished with a tool in LR, etc.

Personally, I enjoy getting these images in camera. And it could be my post processing skills, but I tend to not like the grad ND filter in LR if I push it past ~1 stop, whereas I enjoy 2-3 stops with my optical ND filters. Also, post can't fix blown out highlights or too dark of shadows.

So, it depends upon what you want to do with filters. I tend to like Lee, Singh-Ray and B+W for brands. Most of my screw in filters are B+W (one Singh-Ray), and my grad ND filters are Lee, Singh Ray and Cokin.

Hope that helps.
Brant

[conropl]

Zach:

Brant gave a good run down of the filters out there and there uses. One he missed is not really going to help you photos, but is more intended to protect your lens... and that is the UV filter. There is a lot of debate over there usefulness, but they do protect you front element from get bumped, smudged, or sand blasted in heavy wind. I would rather clean my UV filter than have to scratch coatings on my front element by rubbing it.

From what I remember from some your posts, you have posted several sunrise/sunset shots that are well exposed for the nice colors in the sky, but the rest of the picture is a silhouette. Silhouettes are OK for some specific applications, but it does make for a rather flat scene with no real depth. If you like these types of shots and want to take them to the next level, I would think the the Grad ND would benefit you very well. The Grad ND really helps get landscapes out from the flat world of silhouettes and starts adding depth by bringing in detail, color, and reflections to the foreground of the scene.

The filters I use (in order of most used to least) are:

1. Grad ND Filters - 1, 2, and 3 stop, reverse, hard edge (I use the 3 stop almost exclusively).
2. CPL - As Brant said, it can be a used as a light ND filter also (1-2 stops). But it really shines at bringing out sky, leaf, and flower colors by removing glare that hides the colors. It is also great for bring out (revealing) the detail in wet surfaces - without it you get a lot of hot spots. I noticed a lot of your early post were flowers... the CPL will help with those as well.
3. ND - Helps get longer exposures. Long exposures make magical things happen in landscapes... smooths out water, blurs clouds, streak clouds, smooths out waterfalls (water is rather chaotic w/o it) and yet all the stationary objects are really sharp and detailed.

Pat

[jrw]

Agree with what has been said already. Can not overlook the really soft gradations possible only with a soft edge ND grad. The dark to light in the clouds for the included image could only be captured with the soft edge. Also had a CPL on to gain as much cloud pop as I could get in the capture. Anything I can do at the time of capture to get closer to the image I want to print is that much less time spent processing and also serves to reduce image degradation that occurs with heavy handed operations in post.

[Zach]

Hi Zach,

First question, what do you want to shoot with your filters?

A quick rundown:

• Circular Polarizing Filter (CPL) can be used as both a neutral density filter (1-1.7 stops) but is most commonly used to minimize polarized light which can deepen blue skies, saturate colors and reduce things like glare from water.
• Solid ND filters. 2-4 stop solid ND filters are commonly used to photograph with a shallow dof (wide apertures) in bright conditions. Think outdoor portrait photography. 6-10 stop solid ND filters are commonly used to blur water in waterfalls, at the base of pools, or to blur away moving objects/people.
• Graduated ND filters are used to minimize the dynamic range of a scene by shading a portion of the frame but leaving the other portion unaffected. Anything with a sky, especially sunrises/sunsets you can put the shaded portion of a graduated ND filter over the sky to shade it back and leave the land unshaded in order to get proper exposure.
• Tinted filters can change the color of a scene. I know people that shoot with warmer up filters and love them. These, as the name implies, adjust the color temperature of a scene toward the warmer side.
• Singh-ray sells CPLs that have a blue-gold tint to them.

So there is a wide variety depending upon what you want to do. It has been argued that many of these features can now be done in post. For example, blur water of a waterfall, simply take many photos of the waterfall and stack them. Graduated ND can be accomplished with a tool in LR, etc.

Personally, I enjoy getting these images in camera. And it could be my post processing skills, but I tend to not like the grad ND filter in LR if I push it past ~1 stop, whereas I enjoy 2-3 stops with my optical ND filters. Also, post can't fix blown out highlights or too dark of shadows.

So, it depends upon what you want to do with filters. I tend to like Lee, Singh-Ray and B+W for brands. Most of my screw in filters are B+W (one Singh-Ray), and my grad ND filters are Lee, Singh Ray and Cokin.

Hope that helps.
Brant

thanks for the rundown Brant, as Pat said I take a LOT! of sunset/sunrise photos and it sounds like I should get a Grad ND filter and at least a UV filter as well.

thanks for the tip jrw, love that pic

[Kayaker72]

If sunsets is the goal I would look at grad ND filters and reverse Grad ND filters. The reverse grad is darker in the middle, where the sun would be in a sunset and tapers off up toward the sky.

[peety3]

Brant gave a good run down of the filters out there and there uses. One he missed is not really going to help you photos, but is more intended to protect your lens... and that is the UV filter. There is a lot of debate over there usefulness, but they do protect you front element from get bumped, smudged, or sand blasted in heavy wind. I would rather clean my UV filter than have to scratch coatings on my front element by rubbing it.

I'll fill in the missing counterpoint: the debate should also point out that the UV filter impacts the quality of your shots. Every air-glass interface is an opportunity for reflection, distortion, and "loss" of light. Lens makers go to great lengths to figure out the ideal shape of every element, so putting a piece of flat glass in front of those perfect shapes might not be the wisest choice.

Two key data points I feel compelled to contribute:
1) Visit http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011...th-bad-filters to see the effect of 50 filters stacked, then to see the effect of 5 bad filters vs. 5 good filters vs. no filter.
2) I can't seem to dig it up with a quick search, but lensrentals.com ran the numbers and determined that the cost of repairing lenses with drop damage costs less than putting a (premium) filter on every lens.

Obviously, I'm anti-UV filter in general, though I do slap them on every lens whenever I go sailing with my dad. I don't want the water spray on the front element. I'd do the same if I shot at the desert.