Beginner Filters

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Please enlighten me as to when to use them. What types and why.

Silly question but I'm clueless.
 
It's a big subject. You could start by looking at the Cokin or Lee sites
 
There are many, many types of filters, only three of them really have practical effect on the image when shooting digital—others affected the image when shooting on film.

But first, a brief sentence about what filters are in general. They filter light. Some filter out light evenly for all colors (or at least try to), and some don't.
This is very brief. I'm sure someone here can give you a more detailed explanation, but hey, that's what Wikipedia is for I guess…

The three types of filters that are useful for digital:
  1. Neutral density: Darkens the entire image, ideally without any color cast. These are used mainly to enable long exposures without overexposing the image, and also to shoot at a wide aperture (to get a shallow depth of field) when the shutter speed is so high it isn't even selectable in the camera.
  2. Graduated neutral density: Like the regular ND filters, but they are dark on one side, and then gradually fade to clear. That's mostly used to balance the exposure between the sky and foreground in landscape photos, where the sky may be exposed correctly and the foreground is underexposed, or it's exposed correctly and the sky is overexposed.
  3. Polarizer: Eliminates reflections, which in turn darkens the sky, increases saturation and cuts through haze. If you wish to understand how to use it, or how it works, Google it.
There are also UV filters, which block out ultraviolet light, which is utterly useless in digital photography. Many people use these to protect the front element of the lens, but really, it takes quite a beating for scratches and dents to affect the image.
 
Cheers. Now I know what I want a polarizer and a Graduated ND filter.

Now do I have to buy filters for each Lens. My 18-55 kit lens and Sigma 55-200.
 
If using round or square filters. You can buy a filter/system to fit your lens with the largest diameter thread. Then use step down rings to fit it to other lenses. Just make sure it dose not course vignetting at your lenses widest angle of view.
 
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That's a pretty good explanation Ido! The only thing I would say is that for a beginner it might be clearer if you described a graduated ND filter as being dark at one end and clear at the other.

ND grads with a hard gradation (hard grads) change from dark to clear over a short distance, soft grads fade more gradually.

You will probably need to buy a polariser for each lens although if you're really short of cash you could buy a stepping up ring (s) to adapt the filter thread diameter(s) to the largest and just use one filter. However you may find this inconvenient.

I would suggest starting with a 2-stop hard ND grad filter. You are often advised to buy a "set" of filters, a holder, and a stepping ring for each lens. In my opinion all this extra gubbins is a distraction ; you can fairly easily hold the filter over the rim of the lens when you use it. It is usually easy to see where the gradation lies especially if its a hard grad.
 
also be aware, grads and polarizers only work properly with lenses whos front elements dont rotate when focusing. imagine for example you have a graduated ND filter and want to give the sky some depth of colur. If you have a lens where the front element rotates as you focus that filter is going to turn and your grad can end up at the side or the bottom ( or some other position other than at the top ) and its pretty much impossible to adjust it once youve focused.
same with a polarizing filter which is made up of to pieces of glass and one of which rotates around to give the polarized effect . as soon as you focus its going to lose the position you have set the filter in if your front element rotates. ( this is all based on screw in filters ).
your two kit lenses are most likely around 58mm filter size ( you would need to check ) but being kit lens theres a good chance they have a rotating front element when focusing so unless you plan to upgrade lenses then you are going to have problems.
actually just double checking even square filter systems like Cokin screw into the front of the lens so your going to have the same rotation issues.

ND filters are not rotation reliant and can work any way round ( the non grad ones ) so they are fine.
also UV filters ( pretty much redundant to use on most modern cameras now due to lenses coatings but very cheap and worth having just to protect the front element of your lens from dirt and dust ( easier to replace a £10 UV filter than a £200 lens ).

There are a whole other myriad of coloured filters, Starburst filters , warm up filters and more but for 99% of the time most people stick to NDs, polarizers and UV's

taken from Cokin website

There are over 140 filters to choose from in the range.
The most popular are:

  1. Polarizers - Designed to eliminate unwanted reflections and darken skies.
  2. Graduated - Add colour to a scene by using a Cokin graduated filter to enhance a dull sky, or use a Sunset filter to add warmth.
  3. Pastels and Diffusers - Ideal for portraits, still life and landscapes, to create a moody atmosphere and a softer effect.
  4. Warm-up Filters - Add warmth to a portrait shot, giving improved skin tones.
  5. Colour Filters - Colour correction filters are available, as are Neutral Density filters and filters specifically designed for use with black and white film.
  6. Optical effects - There is a wide range of filters available to add special effects to photographs, such as Starbursts, Multi-image, close-up, Rainbow, Double exposure etc
this page pretty much covers all the filters available

http://www.cokin.co.uk/pages/filters.htm

like i say though if you have rotating focus front element lenses it wll limit use of certain filters
 
Yeah I the sigma rotates at the front when focussing. Can't remember with the kit lens (Canon)
 
Dean, I doubt if anyone would recommend a screw-in grad filter due to the problem you have mentioned above. (Although my first one was........!) Using a polariser is slightly more difficult if you have a lens with rotating front elements but all one would have to do is remember to adjust it last. It's not really a problem.

As for quoting from the cokin website.....well they would want people to think that all those filters are "popular", wouldn't they? Truth is Ido has given a very useful summary of all the most useful ones. Most of the rest are just ****.
 
hence why i stated
There are a whole other myriad of coloured filters, Starburst filters , warm up filters and more but for 99% of the time most people stick to NDs, polarizers and UV's

stil soem people like to go down the whole "creative" route with filters and buy them by the bucket load to experiment with.

as for the screw in grads.. its all down the again as i said what lenses you have.. i had the canon STM lens as my stanard kit lens when i got my 60D and that doesnt have the rotating front element so is fine for all filters.
better to explain it all now rather than have the op think they can go out and get a grad or CPL only to wonder why the thing isnt doing as it should later simply because of a lens issue.

the cokin quote ..dont see anything wrong with them claiming to be popular filters though. the op asked what types and why and the cokin summarizes a few other types not mentioned.
 
Unless the OP is shooting film, then there's nothing to add to what Ido said.
 
Basically after a filter to stop getting over exposed skies when shooting during midday.
 
As a clueless relative noob, some useful info above for me too :)

This may be a daft Q, but that's never stopped me before....

Are all of the effects achievable with filters also achievable using Lightroom ? Or is it the case that a filter will give much better results regardless ?

I'm not asking for a tutorial on how to do it, I'm really asking about the necessity to buy filters ( for an impoverished snapper ) if the effects can be done post.

Ta
Jon
 
As a clueless relative noob, some useful info above for me too :)

This may be a daft Q, but that's never stopped me before....

Are all of the effects achievable with filters also achievable using Lightroom ? Or is it the case that a filter will give much better results regardless ?

I'm not asking for a tutorial on how to do it, I'm really asking about the necessity to buy filters ( for an impoverished snapper ) if the effects can be done post.

Ta
Jon
The short list above are basically stuff you can't fake in software.
Polarisers; only allow light to enter the lens from one direction, cutting reflections (they'll also deepen a blue sky which can be done in PP)

Neutral density filters, cut the amount of light getting to the sensor, great for blurring water or clouds (or crowds) also to balance flash with bright daylight. No way of doing this in PP.

Graduated neutral density, as above but for half the image, great for balancing bright skies with foreground interest, can be done with multiple exposures and PP but some prefer the filters.
 
Thanks Phil for the detailed reply too. I've got a canaries holiday coming up, and there will be blue sky, sea and landscapes aplenty to be snapped. It looks likes the polariser will be a must buy.
It's helpful to know, as a beginner, and as I'll only ever be an amateur, taking pics for my own pleasure, I have to be careful what I spend on. So I'm restricting myself to essentials ( camera, tripod, ext flash...so far)

Ta
Jon
 
Thanks Phil for the detailed reply too. I've got a canaries holiday coming up, and there will be blue sky, sea and landscapes aplenty to be snapped. It looks likes the polariser will be a must buy.
It's helpful to know, as a beginner, and as I'll only ever be an amateur, taking pics for my own pleasure, I have to be careful what I spend on. So I'm restricting myself to essentials ( camera, tripod, ext flash...so far)

Ta
Jon
I have a sub-$20 Tiffen circular polarizer, which works very, very well. It is never free lunch - there is a blue color cast, but it's easily correctable, as it's a slight white balance adjustment (I find that in daylight, Daylight white balance without the filter is similar to Cloudy white balance with filter, when WB is set in-camera. Shooting RAW, it's even less of a concern). It's a great filter in all other respects - handles flare well, and doesn't really degrade sharpness. It's a bargain.

Mine was so cheap because my lens's filter thread diameter is only 52mm. Prices certainly do go up the larger the filter thread diameter, capping at $72.01 for the 82mm diameter version.
 
If using a polarising filter with an extreme wide angle lens, just be aware that the effect of the filter depends on the angle of the sun; it therefore varies in effect across the sky and if your lens is wide enough, you will see the difference in the effect - which you may not want.
 
If using a polarising filter with an extreme wide angle lens, just be aware that the effect of the filter depends on the angle of the sun; it therefore varies in effect across the sky and if your lens is wide enough, you will see the difference in the effect - which you may not want.
True. 28mm equiv. is the widest I'd go (when shooting horizontally).
However, uneven polarization of the sky is fairly easily correctable with Nik Viveza, so any users (or potential buyers) of the the Nik Collection - don't be afraid to use a polarizing filter with a wide-angle lens when you want ot eliminate reflections.
 
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And finally, today I've bought a polarising filter :cool: Looking forward to experimenting with it, thanks for the advice all

:ty:
 
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