Pic Suggestions/Filter Questions

[Bingo]

Hullo Hullo to everyone. This looks like a really fantastic forum and I've already enjoyed reading through a number of threads here. I look forward to learning a great deal more, to be sure. I've been getting much more serious about my photography interests over the past year or so. Took a course at the local college, been reading a lot, practicing a lot etc.

So here's my current situation. I'm thinking I need to start dealing with filters. I've shopped around and I can't really quite tell what I should be looking at. The ones I've found all have horrible reviews and I can't find any that seem to be what I need.

An example picture is below. Many of my outdoor shots during the day here in Florida seem to have a serious yellow/sepia type tint to them. I'm shooting with a Rebel XT and either the standard kit lens or a Sigma 75-300mm. Usually in P mode rather than full auto.

I'll crank the exposure compensation down when outdoors in full sun. ISO as well. They still come out kind of flat and yellow looking.

Would filters in fact help this? If so, which? UV or Polarizng?

Regardless of use in this specific application, does anyone have any recommendations for a good starting set of quality filters for the Canon Rebel XT?

Thank you VERY much for having a resource like this available to us who are following along in your footsteps. It's honestly appreciated.

 

[dcclark]

Are you in a strange color balance mode (such as "shade" for example)? That could account for some of the coloring problems.

But, if you want to talk about filters -- a polarizer might help you a bit here, to avoid some of the light gleaming off of the plants. This is a fairly standard use, and it has the side effect of enriching some colors (such as the green of grass).

However, what you're really seeing here is just a very big difference in lighting. The tortise (?) is in a lot of shade, and the area around him is brightly lit by the sun. Your camera (rightly) exposed for the tortise -- to show him and avoid losing him in darkness -- and the result was that the brighter areas got very overexposed. This is unavoidable on cameras in general. Some people use fancy techniques such as HDR to create a more "natural" looking photo, but if you don't want to do that, your best bet is to learn a bit more about how your camera handles situations with a large range of brightness.

 

[LarryD]

First I'm going to say that with a modern digitial and the post processing capabilities, color correction filters are almost a thing of the past...nEnsure that your camera is set for the proper white balance, or even in auto-WB. It's possible that you need to work on exposure more with processing follow-up.

However, on to filters...

A UV today is used mostly for protection but may tend to keep the blues down, especially on long distance and hazy/smoggy days... I recommend one, but it won't do what you want..

A Polarizer will warm the shots and increase saturation at the cost of an f-stop, so it is great for outdoors with good light, but requires rotation for effect and should probably not be used at all times.. However, I would recommend that any photographer have on in the bag.

If you just want some warming, then the skylight filter will increase the reds and is pleasing as well as protecting the front element..

 

[Tiberius47]

If your problem is a colour tint, then you need to be looking at your white balance settings, not filters.

The only filters I use are good quality UV filters to protect my lens (debate about whether they are needed still rages, but I prefer to err on the side of caution), and a polariser, which gets occasional use. I also have a set of ND grads, which get used every once in a while.

Other than that, filters for dSLR cameras aren't really needed. In the days of film, filters were used to adjust colour temperature, but in digital this is handled in the camera via the white balance setting. There were also some special effects filters (soft focus, stars etc), but these can be replicated in Photoshop (with a lot more control as well). Finally, there were heavily tinted lenses used for b/w photography (a red filter would turn a blue sky black, for example), but as before, the effects created by these filters are easily replicated in post.

Your problem is almost certainly a white balance issue. If you still get the colour tint with your WB set to "Daylight", look around to see if there is a large coloured surface which could be reflecting tinted light onto your subject.

 

[Bingo]

Interesting input. Thanks for all the tips.

You can definately tell I first started to learn a little about photography right before the Digital explosion, so I still have filters on the brain. I even used an AE-1 for about a year or so until it got ripped off - inherited it from my Dad along with all the filters though I didn't get to use them much as I was still learning.

So it looks like filters now are as much about protection as anything. Anyone have any good suggestions for a UV and Polarizing filter for the Rebel XT? I would like to have them for the protection now that you have me thinking about it. Especially here in Florida where I already find sand *everywhere*.

One of the things I don't like about the Rebel XT is the difficulty with seeing the screen outdoors on a Sunny day. It makes it VERY hard to muck around with white balance and get immediate feedback on how things look. It's basically impossible to see anything on the screen it's so overwhelmed by the sunlight.

I think I need to go back to an afternoon of note-taking and trying different white balance settings to hopefully come up with one that works. Interesting suggestion to check for colored surfaces or other reflected light.

Thanks for the suggestions. You've definately given me some things to think about.

B

 

[Bingo]

However, what you're really seeing here is just a very big difference in lighting. The tortise (?) is in a lot of shade, and the area around him is brightly lit by the sun.

On a random note, yes it is a Tortoise. Florida Gopher Tortoise to be exact. First time I've ever seen one too!