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; here’s 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.

Here is our original shot without a filter, taken at 1/320th of a second:

Here we have placed the circular polarizer onto the lens, we expose identically with 1/320th of a second shutter speed the same as above.

In order to compensate for the circular polarizers reduction of light, we must lengthen our exposure slightly. Here we cut the shutter speed from 1/320th to 1/160th.

B+W 77mm Circular Polarizer Kaessmann from BH Photo
From Adorama

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, 3, 6, 10 F stops and you can combine them to achieve 1 – 10+ 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! ND filters will allow you to expose a bright skyline against a darker ground to get a better exposure without under exposing the ground, and over exposing the sky.

Original exposure 1/320th:

UV filters:

UV filters don’t 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…