First time for landscape photography... Do I need a filter ? If so which one ?

Orange_crunch

Orange_crunch

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Going to try some landscape photography for the first time at weekend :)
Do I need a filter ? If so which type ?
Also any tips or hints will be well received :)
 
No, composition is the main thing.
I never use them.
 
You don't need one as you can blend exposures in Photoshop, but in my view a graduated ND filter makes it a lot easier and less of a faff on to get it right first time. My PP abilities are pretty poor, which is my own fault and I find filters invaluable to getting it as close to what I see with the least effort. They are also essential if using slide film I think.

A second point is that a polariser is one filter that you can not replicate in Photoshop, but again you may not feel that you need one.
 
My advice is to get to know landscape photography thoroughly,then your needs and requirements will become self-evident as you gain experience. I shoot landscapes regularly and I have grads and a ten stopper but use them fairly infrequently. I would suggest that a circular polarizer will be most useful initially as its effect is difficult to reproduce in PP.
 
As this is going to be your first tries at landscapes just get out there and take some shots. Some will be good, some won't but you will learn from these.

Two of the most useful things I know for landscapes are

http://photoephemeris.com/ this shows the sunrise and sunset times and directions for anywhere on the Earth, and

an OS map of the area you are interested in - the 1:50000 maps have enough detail to let you see potentially good locations, especially when combined with the Photgrapher's Emphemeris.

Filter can come later.

Dave
 
Filters can be essential, especially to achieve certain results, e.g. long exposure effects, etc.

You're best bet, is to get out there and learn the basics, which will inform your decisions regarding exactly what you need.
 
Tringa said:
As this is going to be your first tries at landscapes just get out there and take some shots. Some will be good, some won't but you will learn from these.

Two of the most useful things I know for landscapes are

http://photoephemeris.com/ this shows the sunrise and sunset times and directions for anywhere on the Earth, and

an OS map of the area you are interested in - the 1:50000 maps have enough detail to let you see potentially good locations, especially when combined with the Photgrapher's Emphemeris.

Filter can come later.

Dave
Click to expand...

I agree with Dave
If you stick with it ND grads really help.
 
Hi,
I've been doing landscapes for about 6 months now and started as you are doing, with just a DSLR and that's the right way for sure, but once composition was learned and i started to be happy with the scenes I very quickly started to feel annoyed that I couldn't exposure for foreground and sky at the same time unless it was very cloudy and overcast. That led me directly to HDR, but I hated the results. Onto exposure blending in Photoshop. Hated that as I don't like photoshop... Then I bought a set of lee filters. Incredible. Can't imagine doing landscapes without them now. Polarisers are very useful of course and I love my heliopan but beware using them on sky with wide angles as you can end up with some colour problems that are incredibly hard to fix in PP.

if anyone's interested, I feel you could very easily start with just a .6grad and go from there, it's by far my most used filter even though I have the full set of 6 soft and hard as well as the lee big and little stoppers.

My advice is get out there and learn composition. All the filters in the world can't rectify a badly composed image. But once your happy with composition, the filters can bring a new element and DR to your images.
 
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Cpl, 4 stopper and 10 stopper is all you need. The 10 stopper is rarely required unless you after some light trail or want to loose people in the scene. 4 stopper is used to smooth out water. Cpl is essential should be on the front of your lens all the time.
 
The ten stopper is a wonderful bit of kit, and used correctly can make fantastic images. Best used on a partly clouded day with the wind blowing toward/away from you. When near water it creates the soft milky look with nice smooth tones.
Grad filters are my most valuable tool, and the bread and butter of landscape photography for me. The top half is darker allowing a natural balance between the bright skies and darker foregrounds. These come in hard and soft varieties and that describes the harshness of the center line. A set of .3, .6 and .9 grads will cover 95% of your needs.
CPL's do come in handy, if you want to cut reflections from water as well as to deepen the saturation in the sky/rainbows. I have one but rarely use it. They also stop 2 stops of light, so can be useful for slightly longer exposures.
ND filters can come in handy also, but if you have a full set of hard grads you can simply pull the grad down to cover the lens, thus creating a ND filter with no need for further expense. Comes in handy when shooting waterfalls etc.

My current filter set up includes the Lee 0.3/0.6/0.9 Hard and Soft edged grad filters, Lee Big Stopper, Lee Little Stopper and a CPL.

Best advise I can give you at the minute though is head out and start shooting. Learn how to compose images and make sure you enjoy shooting landscapes, it can be the most frustrating thing in the world one day, and the next it's a dream to do. Don't commit yourself to buying filters until you're sure it won't be a waste of money. If you need further advice feel free to PM me (y)
 
Whether you use filters or not one thing to note the worst weather is often the best to shoot in.

Knowing what time the sun comes up and goes down are more important too look at the photographer Ephemeris HERE for that. Frequent visits to the same location over a period of time can help understanding how light changes through the year.
 
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Some good advice already here that I can only echo.. get out with the camera, take some shots and you'll quickly find the problems you'll encounter, most commonly too much dynamic range.. only you can decide which route you prefer - filters or photoshop. There's lots of other filters that whilst not essential just give you so much more "artistic" opportunity, I wouldn't be without mine but you're best finding out for yourself

Simon
 
alfbranch said:
Whether you use filters or not one thing to note the worst weather is often the best to shoot in.

Knowing what time the sun comes up and goes down are more important too look at the photographer Ephemeris HERE for that. Frequent visits to the same location over a period of time can help understanding ehow light changes through the year.
Click to expand...


I have just purchased a similar app to the photographers ephemeris called Photopills. Has same info as TPE but a lot more features such as exposure calculation, hyperfocal table, time lapse, night.

Cost me £6.99 but very handy all in one source. I do have TPE as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Talk Photography Forums
 
markta said:
I have just purchased a similar app to the photographers ephemeris called Photopills. Has same info as TPE but a lot more features such as exposure calculation, hyperfocal table, time lapse, night.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, its awesome. Significantly better than TPE in my opinion.
 
No-one has mentioned not to use a CPL on a wide angle lens.

A quick google search will give you sunset and sunrise times.

A ND filter is handy if you have a bright sunny day (rare in the UK)
 
3 years without filters, only startied using them (a 10stop and grad) in January this year. Love having the filters, but don't feel I missed out too much without them for the past however months worth of shooting.

Some excellent work posted on these forums with all filters being added during post production.
 
Might be stating the obvious but i assume you already have a tripod? If you havnt i'd rather have one over a set of filters.

Having said that all the filter advice above is Great. Jakes Post recommending "A set of .3, .6 and .9 grads will cover 95% of your needs", is what i would start with. But you dont REALLY need them to start with, it depends on if you have:-
The spare cash, the desire to do a lot of landscape stuff (In which case i would say it was a good investment) or the means/knowledge to correct it in PS or LR. (lots of tutorials on Youtube).
Using a ND grad will save so much time rather than poncing about in PP especially if you have quite a few different images to process.

ooopppss that reminds me the set of filters i have i borrowed from a good friend i better go and buy my own!!!

You can still do a lot of work without the filters, just dont blow out the highlights in the sky, try i little under exposure rather than over that way you wont loose any detail in the clouds when you come to processing them.

Tip for locations.
Google your home location, then "Images" ... This should bring up lots of local images of your area and probably places of interest within striking distance.

My 2d
 
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