Lens filters

[andy_guest]

I know nothing about lens filters but I am sure that some of my pictures in http://www.pbase.com/andy_guest/gallery may well have benefitted from certain lens filters that may of improve certain colours. Can anyone suugest any lens filters which they have tried and would recommend and what did it improve. I assume people still use lens filters to achieve certain results or am I completely out of touch and it's all done by software. I would appreciate hearing you views if you can spare the time as it would help improve a keen photography.

Cheers

Andy

[sthuman]

For the most part with digital there are only a few types of filters that are worth using. Perhaps most useful is a polarizing filter. It can be very useful for cutting reflections. Take for instance your Bubbling Mud shot. It would have cut the reflections off the mud and given more detail in that area. Sometimes you may not want to cut reflections, but it's nice to have that option. And sometimes you may not think there are reflections effecting a shot, when there really are. In that case it can be very useful for bringing out a lot more color. A good example would be a forest of trees. The leaves may be shiny and not give a lot of color off, but using a pol filter may bring that color out. A lot of autumn color shots benefit greatly from it. A polarizer can also make the sky mor blue in some cases, and can really make clouds pop.

Another useful filter is a graduated neutral density filter. If you have a bright sky and darker foreground you either get too dark foreground of blown out sky. A Grad ND would tame the sky so you could expose brighter on the foreground and get more detail there without overexposing the sky.

A regular ND filter is also useful. It can slow your shutter speed when you want to blur water. But it can also help increase contrast in somewhat flat mid day light. So it's useful for more than just slowing your shutter for waterfalls.

I hope this helps a little?

Steve T

[andy_guest]

Hi Steve,

Many thanks for taking the trouble in replying, your advice was very useful exactly what I was after. If more people give advice it cuts down the learning curve time for the up coming Photographers like myself.
A minute spent typing something out can mean so much to people who want to learn, once again thank you.

Andy

[dougj]

The following thread on filters is worth the read, it's rather long with some helpful information and suggestions.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=29592761