Filters!

Fact:  In the digital era, many people have begun to move away from filters because they feel they can replicate the results in photoshop.  

Truth:  Certain filters still have a huge place in digital photography; heres why.

Circular Polarizers:  circular polarizer filters will remove the channel of light from an image which causes reflections in water/glass and other reflective surfaces.  You will want a circular polarizer if you want to be able to shoot a photo of a lake and see into the water, instead of seeing the sky’s reflection.
Neutral density filters:  ND filters Filter the amount of light that can reach your sensor.  During the day, lets say you want to take a photo of a waterfall with an extended exposure.  Your maximum aperture is 20,  the shutter speed required at  an aperture of 20  still causes a blow out of your highlights.   What do you do?  You put a neutral density filter on your lens, and reduce the F stop of your lens.  You can use a filter with 1, 2 or 3 F stops   and you can combine them to achieve  1 – 9 extra f stops quickly and easily.

If you add f stops to your image freely, you can then capture your image with a proper exposure while getting the extended shutter speed that you desired.  Another great feature is that you can use neutral density filters to slow a shutter speed but keep an aperture wider.  This means you can use depth of field control  and still get extended exposures! 

UV filters;  UV filters dont change the image much but they do protect the front element of your lenses.  Its easier and less costly to replace a $50 B+W  UV filter then to send in a $1,200 dollar Canon lens to have its front element repaired or replaced  due to damage…