Beginner Cokin square filters

[SarahMarie]

When I bought my used camera, it came with all sorts of bits and bobs that I put to one side. I have quite a lot of Cokin filters with a square holder thing that goes on the front of the lens that haven't been touched since the day I got them with the camera! I looked at them last night and they all have various, different numbers on them.

Question is, how do I know which ones are useful? Would there be any specific ones that I should look to see if I have? I've seen the ND filter mentioned a few times?

 

[alfbranch]

When I bought my used camera, it came with all sorts of bits and bobs that I put to one side. I have quite a lot of Cokin filters with a square holder thing that goes on the front of the lens that haven't been touched since the day I got them with the camera! I looked at them last night and they all have various, different numbers on them.

Question is, how do I know which ones are useful? Would there be any specific ones that I should look to see if I have? I've seen the ND filter mentioned a few times?

Well that depends on what type of photos you take.

For Landscapes Nd and ND grad filters are useful. The ND filters give longer exposures and the grads balance the exposure beteween the sky and land

 

[john.margetts]

I have a number of Cokin filters that I have used once because they are not really worth the bother. The Graduated Neutral Density gets the most use (but not that much, mainly with my Bronica film camera) followed by a pale yellow (again, only useful with film). I would try each filter just to get an idea as to what they actually do - you will then know if they are if any use to you.

 

[russellsnr]

Agree with Alf. ND filter/s, GND filters and a polariser filter, I found that any other fancy named filters that are supposed to do this and that to an image don't do either they ruin the image and most of what they can do can bedone in post.
Have a look at https://www.cokin-filters.com/ to see what each filter does.
Russ