Filter for Landscapes

Roy C

Roy C

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I have been shooting mainly birds and macro since I started out about 5 years ago and am now looking to have a crack at some landscapes. I will have to make do with my current Cameras (40D & 7D) and current lenses, 17-40 (just used for snaps up to now), 70-200/4 and 300/2.8.
I know virtually nothing about filters so If you could choose one filter to fit one of my current lenses which filter would that be. Thanks in advance.
 
Roy C said:
I have been shooting mainly birds and macro since I started out about 5 years ago and am now looking to have a crack at some landscapes. I will have to make do with my current Cameras (40D & 7D) and current lenses, 17-40 (just used for snaps up to now), 70-200/4 and 300/2.8.
I know virtually nothing about filters so If you could choose one filter to fit one of my current lenses which filter would that be. Thanks in advance.
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There's two filters i can think of that both work well on Landscape photography, but it depends on what you want to do? A good circular polariser filter , or a 10 stop filter. I have both, and to be honest, i tend to use my 10 stop filter a lot more at the moment.
 
wilko said:
There's two filters i can think of that both work well on Landscape photography, but it depends on what you want to do? A good circular polariser filter , or a 10 stop filter. I have both, and to be honest, i tend to use my 10 stop filter a lot more at the moment.
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Thanks Ian, it was some shots taken with a 10 stop filter that inspired me to give landscapes a go. Not really sure what I want to do but it would be rural/ sea scenes I guess. Is a 10 stop filter just used to blur water and give silky smooth look?
 
Roy C said:
Thanks Ian, it was some shots taken with a 10 stop filter that inspired me to give landscapes a go. Not really sure what I want to do but it would be rural/ sea scenes I guess. Is a 10 stop filter just used to blur water and give silky smooth look?
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The 10 stop filter as you have stated really is for capturing movement, so seascapes, waterfalls, etc always come out looking good. Cloud movement is always good to capture with a 10 stop filter as well. The thing is, with a 10stop filter, you are creating a shot that you will never see with the naked eye, so can look very surreal.
 
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Agree with Wilko. Get a nice polariser, like the Hoya HD, and a dark ND like the LightCraftWorkshop ND500 (cheapest and best I think, from Premier-Ink).

You might also get a grad (eg, two stops hard-cut ND grad) but personally I prefer the same kind of effect done with HDR technique (high dyncamic range) and it's free.

Stick them on your 17-40L - see what it can really do :)
 
Hi, IMO for landscape you only really need two types of filters to start out with, Poloriser got to be number one then GND filter/s, I have found that the 0.3 GND really does not do a great deal very hard to see the differance it makes on camera even with live view so I would suggest 0.6 & 0.9 Hard GND's to start (once you are happy in there use get the same in soft GND's). Again IMO go for either Hitech 100 X100mm or Lee 100X100 or100X150mm I no lee are more expensive but you only get what you pay for and that applies here if you buy cheaper filters (1) you may be dissapointed with the results and that is with ALL filters (2) will end up going for more quaility filters in the end anyway.
Hope it helps
Russ
 
Graduated neutral density filters are pretty much essential for landscapes.

UV & Polarizers help.
 
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Graduated Neutral Density filters will make the biggest difference. I personally like dark soft ones as they give a nice subtle change to the lightning. Polariser can be useful, but you have to be pointing the right way from the sun to get it's benefits. I carry one but haven't used it in 6 months at least, even in blue sky conditions.

As for who's filters, I have a selection - my ND filters are Cokin P, in a cheap ebay holder. I have Hoya and Tiffen filters alongside cheap ebay filters. I much prefer my ebay polariser to any of the pro ones, but my ebay NDs (not grads) do have a purple colour cast you need to be aware of.
 
Thanks for all the feedback on this one guys. A bit more to it then I first thought, I will sift through the recommendations.
 
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Digifrog said:
Graduated neutral density filters are pretty much essential for landscapes.
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Alan Clogwyn said:
Graduated Neutral Density filters will make the biggest difference. I personally like dark soft ones as they give a nice subtle change to the lightning. Polariser can be useful, but you have to be pointing the right way from the sun to get it's benefits. I carry one but haven't used it in 6 months at least, even in blue sky conditions.
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I have to totally agree with you guys, before you buy anything get some ND grads. You can't shoot landscapes with out them! Even a polariser can't help in most cases...

Cheers

Simon
 
HoppyUK said:
Agree with Wilko. Get a nice polariser, like the Hoya HD, and a dark ND like the LightCraftWorkshop ND500 (cheapest and best I think, from Premier-Ink).

You might also get a grad (eg, two stops hard-cut ND grad) but personally I prefer the same kind of effect done with HDR technique (high dyncamic range) and it's free.
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Agree with Hoppy here. Even though I'm very much a n00b. Modern landscape books Im reading, e.g Jim and Barbara Gerlachs, Digital landscape photography, they dont bother with Graduated filters anymore. Much better end results can be achieved in post processing by combing 2 or 3 images and masking etc. How many times is a landscape image ever flat? Not often, so you end up with darkened mountain tops or trees or whatever where the filter is over them.

A nice polariser (big enough to fit your largest filter size lens and use adapters to step down if necessary) and a 9 or 10 stop ND would be first stops for filters I reckon.
 
DorsetDude said:
Agree with Hoppy here. Even though I'm very much a n00b. Modern landscape books Im reading, e.g Jim and Barbara Gerlachs, Digital landscape photography, they dont bother with Graduated filters anymore. Much better end results can be achieved in post processing by combing 2 or 3 images and masking etc. How many times is a landscape image ever flat? Not often, so you end up with darkened mountain tops or trees or whatever where the filter is over them.

A nice polariser (big enough to fit your largest filter size lens and use adapters to step down if necessary) and a 9 or 10 stop ND would be first stops for filters I reckon.
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Haha yes! And while I agree with you absolutely, you have to be careful with comments like that ;) Some folks have a deep emotional attachment to grads, often harking back to film days when there was no option, but in my experience with most landscape photography HDR is better, sometimes dramtically better, and much more versatile.

But of course you need to post process, and there's no denying that getting it right in camera, and seeing the result pop up on the LCD, is a very satisfying way of working. And I hate post processing with the best of them :D

TBH, I don't see why you shouldn't have the best of all possible worlds and shoot both. Take the grad shot, and then just rattle off an HDR set. You can get very good results just by setting auto-bracketing at +/-2 stops and the camera will do it all in about a quarter of a second. There are people on here that shoot everything like that!

One or two new cameras have a built in HDR mode (eg Canon G12) which looks like a cool feature and is bound to find its way up to more enthusiast models. We're going to see more of this kind of thing, like Sony's sweep-panorma feature, and that works pretty well too.
 
I would echo what others have said and reccomend ND grads and a polariser. I use Cokin Z Pro which are probably easier to get hold of than Lees which most would reccomend for polariser I choose Heliopan.
 
I have been looking at those 10stop filters...fairly expensive for me atm. Is it possible to to just stack some cheap screw in ND filters on top of each other for the same effect? Obv its not going to be as good but I just wanted to try it out.
 
salmoally said:
I have been looking at those 10stop filters...fairly expensive for me atm. Is it possible to to just stack some cheap screw in ND filters on top of each other for the same effect? Obv its not going to be as good but I just wanted to try it out.
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For a cheap experiment, try welding glass - £2 off ebay. It's a bit of a faff, but it works.

There is a massive thread about it on here if you search.
 
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