Cokin Creative Filters?

[Lyncca]

Has anyone played with these? I saw a guy at Deviant Art that used the red and orange a lot on his stuff and it was beautiful.

Also, what else is needed to use this? I know you need an adapter for your lens size. Is that it?

They are cheap and seem like a fun option for creating different looks, but I figured someone here has had experience with them and would know!

http://www.adorama.com/CKA375.html

 

[Big Mike]

I have a few of them.

You buy a 'holder' and then you need an adaptor that matches the lens threads that you want to attach it to. The holder usually have three or four slots, so you can stack them if you want. They filters are square or rectangle, so that you can slide them in the holder.

Really, most of them are obsolete because you can very easily replicate the effects with software...and when you do it with software, it's infinitely more adjustable.

The ones that are still fairly helpful with digital are the split or graduated filters...they are darker on one side than on the other. This way you can darken the brighter part of a scene which allows you to capture a scene without loosing as much detail to shadow or blown highlights.
The problem with this, is that the split or grad is always a straight line...but a real horizon is usually not so flat. And it's still possible to create the same effects with Photoshop.

They are fun to play with (and great when shooting film) but I haven't used mine in years.

 

[Jon0807]

I used to use these with film but as Mike said, with today's software you can accomplish pretty much anything these filters can and with much more control. Only filters I use or would use now are polarizers, neutral density, graduated nd filters, and infrared.

 

[ThomThomsk]

I mostly agree, but on the other hand Big Mike, some of the ND grads have a pretty gentle split between grey and clear and I can't think of any other way to deal with a 2 stop or greater difference between sky and foreground except blending different exposures in Photoshop.

One other important filter that you can't replicate in software is a polariser, so in my Cokin kit I have one of those, this 3 filter ND grad set and an 81B warm-up filter. If I shot digital I'd forget the last one. I will buy a set of plain NDs because I'd like to experiment with really slow shutter speeds, but most of the dozens of other filters available are not at all essential and some of them are downright cheesy, in a '70s kind of way. Starburst? Rainbow? Hmm...

By the way Lyncca, Cokin make an A series, P series and a Z-Pro series of filters. I can't think of a good reason to buy the smaller A series.

 

[Lyncca]

Thanks guys, I think yall pretty much answered why they are so cheap (outdated)!

I have most of the filters you named as useful except for the neutral density and the infrared (both on my future wants list).