How To Best Use Camera Lenses Filters
Camera lens filters can serve different purposes in digital photography. They can be indispensable for capturing scenery in extremely hard lighting weather condition, they can enhance colors and reduce reflections or can but protect lenses. Filters are widely used in photography and cinematography and while some merely use filters in rare situations, others rely on filters for their everyday work.
If yous'd similar to learn about filters in a video format, we've created one of the almost comprehensive tutorials about filters anywhere on Youtube, which you can run across below:
So, what makes filters then useful? It actually depends on the type of photography you do.
For case, mural photographers heavily rely on various filters, while street and portrait photographers rarely get to use them. Since digital photography is all almost the quality and intensity of low-cal, lens filters are often necessary to change the calorie-free before it enters the lens. Many photographers think that some of the congenital-in tools in Lightroom and Photoshop tin can simulate filter beliefs, making filters redundant in the digital age. As I volition demonstrate below, some filters, in fact, can never be simulated in software and some actually assist in getting fifty-fifty ameliorate results during post-processing. In this commodity, I will talk about the different types of lens filters available, what they do, when and how to use them.
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What are Filters and Why Should You Use Them?
Why do yous wear sunglasses? Because forth with other benefits, they help you see better in intense light, protect your eyes from harmful UV rays/current of air/dust and reduce glare. Filters besides serve a similar purpose – they tin assist reduce reflections, protect your lenses from potential damage, fully or partially reduce the corporeality of calorie-free that enters the lens and even enhance colors. At the same fourth dimension, filters tin can actually hurt photographs if they are not properly used. A good illustration would be wearing sunglasses in a dark room. Therefore, non but do you need to know what filters to use, but you lot also demand to know how to use them and in which situations. There are many unlike kinds of filters out there – from cheap UV filters to very expensive filters worth several hundred dollars, which tin can make the process of choosing the right filter type rather challenging.
Let's get through the different types of filters that are bachelor today.
Overview of Types of Lens Filters
Here is a list of typical lens filters you lot tin can purchase today, along with descriptions of their purposes:
| Lens Filter | Photography Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| UV/Clear/Haze Filter | Whatever | Protects the front end element of a lens from dust, clay, moisture and potential scratches. Loftier quality UV filters can exist permanently mounted on lenses with a minimum impact on paradigm quality. |
| Polarizing Filter | Whatever | Filters out polarized low-cal, dramatically reducing reflections, enhancing colors and increasing dissimilarity. Tin can be used for any type of photography. Polarizing filters are typically circular, assuasive for easy control of the outcome of polarization. |
| Neutral Density (ND) Filter | Landscape, Flash Photography | Reduces the amount of calorie-free entering the lens, thus decreasing camera shutter speed. Useful for situations where motion blur needs to be created (rivers, waterfalls, moving people) or large apertures must exist used with flash to avoid overexposure. |
| Hard-Border Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter | Landscape Photography | Hard-border GND filters are primarily used in loftier contrast situations, where the sky is much brighter than the foreground and the horizon is apartment. These filters are always rectangular (giving the ability to move them in all directions) and are typically used with filter holders. |
| Soft-Border Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter | Mural Photography | Soft-edge GND filters are as well used in high contrast situations, just where the horizon is non necessarily flat. The soft edge allows for smoother transitions, making the use of a filter less evident. Soft-edge GND filters are likewise rectangular and are normally used with filter holders. |
| Contrary Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter | Mural Photography | The reverse GND is a specialized filter used by mural photographers when shooting against the sunday while it is setting close to the horizon. While a regular GND filter gradually transitions from night to clear towards the eye, a contrary GND filter transitions from dark to less night from the center to the border. |
| Colour/Warming/Cooling Filter | Any | Corrects colors, resulting in a change in photographic camera white residue. Some color filters tin decrease colors, blocking one type of color and allowing other colors through. These types of filters are popular for flick. They are rarely used in digital photography, since their effects tin be easily practical in post-processing. |
| Close-Up Filter | Macro Photography | Also known as "diopter," a close-upwardly filter allows a lens to focus closer on subjects. These filters are but used for macro photography. |
| Special Effects Filter | Whatsoever | There are a few different types of special effects filters. Star filters make brilliant objects look star-like; softening/diffusion filters create a "dreamy" look used for portraits, multivision filters create multiple copies of a subject; infrared filters block infrared and pass visible light; bokeh filters have a certain shape cutting in the middle of the filter that makes bokeh highlights have the same shape, etc. |
Types of Lens Filters
Lens filters come in different shapes and forms, every bit shown below. The virtually popular lens filters are circular, screw-on filters. Those mount straight onto the filter thread in front of a lens. They come in different sizes, depending on the lens filter thread. The standard and the about common size of screw-on filters for professional lenses is 77mm.
Types of Lens Filters:
- Circular spiral-on filters – most mutual type that mounts directly on the lens filter thread. Examples of circular screw-on filters include UV/Articulate/Brume filters, circular polarizers, neutral density and colour filters. Circular filters also come in different thicknesses – some are thick that tin potentially add together vignetting, while others are ultra-thin to diminish vignetting, but make it impossible to put a lens cap.
- Square filters – a popular option for landscape and other photography. A filter holder directly attaches to the lens filter thread and can hold one or more filters. The most popular sizes are 3×3 and four×iv. Can be stacked together in certain situations, which can negatively bear on prototype quality and add reflections.
- Rectangular filters – some other pop choice, primarily amongst landscape photographers. Mounted merely like square filters via a filter holder system. Because information technology is impractical for graduated neutral density filters to be round (due to different sizes of high-contrast areas and limerick), rectangular filters are the master choice for mural photography. Different square filters, they have more room to movement upward and down. The near popular size is 4×6, although larger and smaller filter sizes are likewise available.
- Driblet-in filters – these filters are used inside long telephoto lenses, due to the large size of the front end lens element. Merely articulate and polarizing filters are used for drop-in filters.
Lens Filters Explained in Detail
Let me go through each filter type in detail and show the effects they produce in pictures (where applicable). Information technology is oft too difficult to understand what each filter does and decide on whether y'all demand it or not, so I hope the below information volition get in easier for yous to decide whether you lot want a particular blazon of filter or not.
UV/Clear/Haze Filter
The purpose of a UV / Clear / Haze filters today is to simply protect the forepart chemical element of a lens. In the past, these filters were used to block UV from hitting the moving-picture show. All digital camera sensors have a UV/IR filter in front of the sensor, so there is no more demand to apply UV filters on DSLRs. Many photographers utilise these types of filters for protection, because it is easier and cheaper to supervene upon a filter than to attempt to repair a scratched or broken lens chemical element. I personally prefer to keep a clear filter on my lenses at all times, because they are easier to clean.
One thing yous have to brand sure earlier you lot buy a clear filter, is that y'all purchase loftier-quality glass with the special multi-resistant blanket (MRC). The worst affair you can do is mount a depression-quality filter in forepart of an expensive lens. Not but volition information technology hurt paradigm quality, simply it will also add nasty reflections, ghosts, and flares to your images. I personally prefer B+W F-Pro MRC filters (they are not cheap), only you can also buy other great alternatives from Tiffen, Hoya, and other manufacturers.
Should you apply a clear filter permanently on your lenses? This question brings upwardly heated debates between photographers. Many believe that adding a piece of glass in front of lenses simply hurts images and does very little to protect them, while others like me keep them for peace of mind and easier cleaning. Some lenses with threaded front elements like the Nikon 50mm f/ane.4G can be painful to make clean, so a clear filter would make lens maintenance less cumbersome.
To avoid vignetting and other problems, UV filters should never be stacked with other filters.
Polarizing Filter
At that place are 2 types of polarizing filters – linear and circular. Linear polarizers should not be used on DSLR cameras, considering they can issue in metering errors. Round polarizers, on the other hand, are perfect for DSLRs and do non cause whatever metering issues due to their construction. Circular polarizing filters are essentially linear polarizers, with a second glass chemical element attached to their back that circularly polarizes the light, giving accurate exposure results when the lite hits the light meter. When the two elements are aligned at the right handle and orientation from the sun, the captured image could have more saturated colors, bluer skies, fewer reflections, and higher overall dissimilarity. Polarizing filters can also reduce haze, which is very useful for landscape photographers.
I never exit my home without a polarizing filter. When photographing landscapes, I ofttimes use a polarizing filter to spice up the colors, darken the heaven and reduce haze. Polarizing filters are a must when photographing waterfalls or other wet scenery with vegetation.
In that location are a couple of potential problems that y'all need to empathize when using a polarizing filter:
- In that location is a minimum and a maximum outcome of polarization, depending on the filter alignment. You should rotate the filter every time you compose for all-time results. Have a wait at this case of minimum and maximum outcome of polarization:
NIKON D700 + 24-70mm f/two.eight @ 26mm, ISO 200, 1/640, f/8.0 - The effect of polarization changes relative to the lord's day. The maximum outcome of polarization is achieved when the lens is pointed 90 degrees from the lord's day (in any direction). A simple trick is to class a pistol with your alphabetize and pollex fingers, then point your index finger at the lord's day. Keep pointing at the sunday and rotate your mitt clockwise and counter-clockwise. The maximum effect of polarization volition exist where your thumb points in any direction.
- Avoid using a polarizing filter on ultra wide-angle lenses. You lot might end up with a partially night heaven that volition be tough to fix in postal service-processing. Hither is an example of what happens when using a polarizer on a broad-angle lens:
- In some cases the maximum effect of polarization can upshot in an unnatural-looking dark blue sky as shown below:
- There is a loss of approximately 2 stops of light when using polarizing filters, so yous should watch your shutter speed when shooting with a polarizer mitt-held. Singh-Ray polarizing filters are improve than others in this regard and but lose effectually 1 stop of light.
- Polarizing filters are typically thicker than regular filters and therefore can upshot in unwanted vignetting.
To avoid vignetting, polarizing filters should not exist stacked with other filters. Due to light loss, you should also apply a polarizing filter only when needed. In some high-dissimilarity situations, information technology might be necessary to stack a polarizing filter with a neutral density filter (see beneath).
Neutral Density (ND) Filter
The purpose of neutral density filters is to reduce the amount of light that gets to the camera and thus decrease the shutter speed and increment exposure time. These types of filters are particularly useful in daytime, because of the affluence of light that cannot exist significantly reduced by stopping downwardly the lens aperture and decreasing ISO. For example, if you are photographing a waterfall and your starting point is ISO 100, f/2.eight, 1/2000 that results in skillful exposure, stopping down the lens to f/22 volition simply slow downwardly the shutter speed to i/30 of a second. This would be too fast to create a "foggy" look for the falling water. By using an 8 finish neutral density filter, you could slow down the shutter speed all the style to 2 seconds while keeping lens aperture at f/11 instead of f/22 (using apertures across f/eleven-f/16 in normal lenses decreases image quality due to diffraction).
Neutral density filters are too useful for wink photography. If you were photographing a model at one/250 of a 2d at f/ii.8 on a bright sunny solar day with flash to create a dramatic effect, you would virtually likely cease upwardly with an overexposed subject field. You lot cannot increment the shutter speed because flash sync speed limits you to 1/250 max, so your simply option is to end down the lens aperture to a larger number. Let's say that number is f/11. But then what if you want to isolate your subject from the groundwork and still take nice bokeh? Without using loftier-speed sync, your simply option is to use a neutral density filter to reduce the corporeality of calorie-free that makes information technology to the camera.
Neutral density filters can be both round and rectangular. There are no benefits to having a rectangular neutral density filter, and then it is best to buy a circular ND filter for size and portability benefits.
Information technology is sometimes necessary to stack neutral density filters to decrease the shutter speed even more than. Endeavour non to stack ND filters with wide-bending lenses to avoid vignetting.
Neutral Density (ND) vs Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter
The difference between neutral density and graduated neutral density filters is that the latter is half clear. Because the size of the sky versus the foreground can change depending on the limerick, most GND filters are made in a rectangular shape. Therefore, these filters must be either used with a filter holder organisation, or must be held by paw in front of a lens. The advantage of using a filter holder is that you tin can stack multiple filters and y'all do not have to worry about alignment issues. The disadvantage of using a filter holder is that information technology tin can add vignetting, so you have to be careful when using wide-angle lenses with focal lengths beneath 35mm.
The epitome above is Lee's filter holder that tin can stack up to four filters at a time. I personally apply this filter system for my landscape photography work and I accept it with me everywhere I get. When using the filter holder on a full-frame body with my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G, I try to use focal lengths of 28mm and above to avert vignetting. If y'all mount this filter holder on a polarizing filter, you lot might end up with vignetting even at 35mm and above.
Hard-Edge Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter
Hard-border graduated neutral density filters can be very useful in loftier-contrast situations, where the sky is very bright compared to the foreground and the horizon is flat (due to hard transition from dark to articulate). While photographing, the hard edge in the heart is aligned with the horizon. The heaven is so darkened depending on the intensity of the filter. A ii or three-stop hard-edge GND filter is often sufficient to balance the shot.
Annotation that the horizon is straight and therefore the filter border and transition are not visible in the prototype.
The problem with hard-edge GND filters is that the horizon is rarely apartment (specially where I live), and then soft-edge GND filters are often more useful. Be careful when stacking hard-edge GND filters in loftier contrast situations – both filters should be properly aligned to avoid nasty transitions.
Soft-Border Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter
Compared to hard-edge GND filters, soft-edge graduated neutral density filters gradually transition from night to clear, assuasive photographers to use these filters when photographing a non-flat horizon. While mountains, hills and other objects above the horizon can exist problematic for hard-edge GND filters, soft-edge GND filters work much ameliorate in those situations instead, due to the gradual transition. I apply soft-edge GND filters for my landscape photography work a lot and find them more useful than hard-edge GND filters.
NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.viii @ 38mm, ISO 200, 1/vi, f/8.0
Reverse Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter
Opposite graduated neutral density filters are relatively new. When compared to regular hard/soft-edge GND filters, they are dark at the horizon (hard-edge) and gradually soften towards the height. Reverse GND filters are very useful for sunset shots when you shoot confronting the dominicus and it is near the horizon. A mutual problem with such sunsets is that the dominicus is much brighter than the heaven. If you use a difficult-edge GND filter, the sky might go too dark and if you apply a soft-edge GND filter, the sun will exist overexposed. The solution is to use a reverse GND filter, which balances the sun and the sky in the frame, resulting in a more counterbalanced exposure.
Stacking contrary GND filters is sometimes necessary in high-contrast and other rare situations.
Color/Warming/Cooling Filter
Colour / Warming / Cooling filters are generally used to alter photographic camera white balance. At that place are two types of color filters – color correction and color subtraction. The onetime is used for correcting white balance, while the latter is used for absorbing one color while letting other colors through. These filters were quite pop for picture show, merely are rarely used for digital photography, since color effects and white balance changes can exist hands accomplished in post-processing software like Lightroom and Photoshop. I personally do not use any color filters. Stacking color filters is also acceptable.
Close-Up Filter
Shut-up filters are generally called close-up lenses, because they are more than lenses than filters. They adhere to lenses only like filters, which is why I am listing them every bit filters. Shut-upward lenses are primarily used for macro photography to be able to become closer to the subject, decreasing the minimum focus distance of the lens. Close-up lenses are a cheap fashion to convert your normal lens to a macro lens, although they do negatively touch prototype quality. For the best results, it is recommended to utilize a macro lens instead. Stacking close-up filters is adequate, although prototype quality is hurt even more.
Special Effects Filter
Special effects filters can produce some absurd effects, but since virtually effects can be hands produced in Photoshop, these filters pretty much lost their popularity. Digital photographers rarely comport these filters and I personally practice not use them either. The star filter tin be hands created in Photoshop through a couple of steps using the "Motion Blur" filter, softening glow can also be easily washed through a couple of steps with the "Gaussian Mistiness" filter and most other filters tin can also be washed in Photoshop. The simply filter that cannot be reproduced in Photoshop is a bokeh filter considering the highlights cannot be hands changed through post-processing techniques.
Here is a 2 minute "star effect" that I created in Photoshop using very simple technique with the Motion Blur filter:
Filter Material – Glass vs Resin Filters
Filters can be made from glass, plastic, resin, polyester and polycarbonate cloth. Glass filters are typically of the highest quality, but are very expensive and tend to easily break, specially of square or rectangular type. Plastic and resin filters are much cheaper than glass and practice not easily break – they are the top choice for graduated neutral density filters. Polyester filters are much thinner than glass or resin and are of very high quality, just are prone to scratches and hence non very applied on the field. Polycarbonate filters are very tough, scratch-resistant and are a good alternative to plastic/resin filters. For all-time results, I recommend using glass vs resin filters.
Step-Upwards / Step-Down Rings
Because filters can exist expensive, information technology is much cheaper to buy a unmarried standard filter (for case 77mm) and buy stride-up rings for lenses that have smaller filter threads. Pace-down rings tin cause vignetting and other problems, and then always attempt to use step-up rings instead. You can purchase step-up rings for both round and foursquare filter holder systems in diverse sizes.
Source: https://photographylife.com/lens-filters-explained
Posted by: keetontheut1965.blogspot.com
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