filters?

[skatephoto]

hey, could someone explain to me the importace of using filters for ur camera? And also if anyone has any pointers about were to develope slides and film. thanks

 

[zio]

filters do exactly as they say. they filter the light through the lens of different colors. like a green filter should filter out all the colors but greenish ones. if you're looking at buying a filter, make sure you don't go cheap on it. what's the point in having a great lens and a piece of crap filter to go with it?

 

[Mitica100]

hey, could someone explain to me the importace of using filters for ur camera? And also if anyone has any pointers about were to develope slides and film. thanks

Skate, there are many filters for many uses. Some of the most used ones are (in no particular order):

Polarizer-this reduces glare and reflections from most surfaces except metal/mirrors. Used a lot for enhancing colors by eliminating glare, sometimes used as a Neutral Density filter (see definition below) Exposure must be adjusted depending on the needed results and filter.

Red, Green, Yellow-these filters are useful in Black and White photography, enhancing contrast. Red filter will filter out anything that contains red color, Green will filter out anything that contains green color and so on. When you use a Red filter on top of a Polarizer you get interesting effects, such as a very dark (almost black) sky.

Warming-used in Color Photography, it does what it says, warming up the colors.

Sky/Haze-they do very little, getting rid of some haze. Many photographers keep these on the lens in order to protect the lens from any accidents, after all a filter is much cheaper than a lens.

Close-Up-when mounted over any lens will enable you to take close-ups. Usually they are +1, +2 and +3 and you can combine them for greater magnification or use only one at a time.

Special Effects-such as Star, Diffuser, Multiplying, Fog used in creative photography, especially wedding.

Infra-Red-to be used exclusively for Infra Red films, this baby is opaque.

Corrective-such as FLD which will adjust the temperature of the light accordingly (FL=fluorescent and D=daylight), from Fluorescent to Daylight. I suppose you have seen green cast pictures taken under fluorescent lights, this filter corrects that in camera.

Neutral Density-they come in different strengths, 2x, 4x, 8x. They will help you take a longer exposure if that's needed (especially when the speed of the film does not allow you to do otherwise). Say, you want to take a picture of water flowing down trough rocks, stones and you want that 'flowing look' where the water is not 'frozen' in time. The camera/film speed/shutter speed/aperture combination will allow you to expose a 1/8 of a second, which many times is too short of an exposure. By adding the ND filter you will increase exposure by 1, 2 or 3 steps (same f stop but longer exposure).

I would recommend using filters of the highes quality if you can afford them, they are as good as your lenses. Also, consider taking any of the protective filters off the lens when shooting (unless you want to use them to get rid of some haze in the air).

I can't think of anything else right now, perhaps someone else will...

Good luck!

 

[vonnagy]

Mitica100,

thats the best lesson on filters i've read! cheers for sharing that!

 

[Mitica100]

Skate, this is a great example on how one could use a Neutral Density filter:

http://www.mark.nagy.com/new-zealand/new-zealand-black-and-white-photos.html


Look at the waterfall pictures. Say you use 100ASA B/W film, meter will give you a reading of 1/8sec at f22. That speed will only blur the water a bit, for a longer exposure you add on a ND filter, increase exposure accordingly (time but not aperture) and voila, you get a picture like this.

By the way Mark, thanks for the comments.