What filters is he using???

[Alaska_Photo_Shooter]

Hello,

I am planning on getting a Canon 20d w/ a Canon 24-105 lens. Right now I am busy researching what kind of filters I might need.

So, to get to the point, I really admire this photographer on Panoramio.

Here is the link so you can look at his pics:

Panoramio - Photos by Andrey Jitkov


And I would like to know what kind of filters he is using. Especially in his landscape shots. He definitely uses a polarizer filter and ND filters, but what on earth does he use, that makes his shots so bright!??

Any comments would be appreciated!

 

[max3k]

looks like HDR to me

 

[pbelarge]

I do not think he is using HDR on all of those landscape shots. I think he is using filters and very good post processing techniques. Plug-ins like NIK can help a lot with this stuff.

 

[KmH]

I see some GND filter work, some HDR work using exposure blending rather than tone mapping, and some good editing. He looks to have a very good understanding of how photography works.

 

[Alaska_Photo_Shooter]

He is probably using multiple filters in the landscape shots. Any ideas about which ones?

 

[MartinCrabtree]

I'm not very well versed in digital postprocessing. However he may just have the eye for it and patience to find his vision. Have you ever seen Michael Fatali's work? No filters,post processing magic and all natural light. IMHO he is the epitome of what is possible through sight,subject and patience.

And I like the OP link images as well. Regardless of how they were made.

 

[ViewfinderArt]

You could always send him an email and get the answer from the source

 

[JR Davis]

I would be curious to know, as well. If anyone finds out.

 

[Canosonic]

He is also pretty lucky with his location. He's in Russia, and there you get tons of great scenery and interesting situations very often. I used to live there and even with my P&P i had splendid photos. Unfortunately they all died with my busted hard drive.
But actually I'd be pretty careful walking around with a DSLR in Russia, especially these days.
And of course, his images are well processed and also I smell sharp gear. Ah, and he's still pretty talented.

Filters?
Just a get a polarizer and shoot everything in RAW. With P&P you can ditch all other filters except this one.
Rarely ND's and ND grads are used, and i do have them. They are useful only if you don't shoot raw or want a result instantly.
NDs can make the scene darker if you want to motion blur during the day, but they multiply the probability of dust..... so....

 

[mwcfarms]

He is also pretty lucky with his location. He's in Russia, and there you get tons of great scenery and interesting situations very often. I used to live there and even with my P&P i had splendid photos. Unfortunately they all died with my busted hard drive.
But actually I'd be pretty careful walking around with a DSLR in Russia, especially these days.
And of course, his images are well processed and also I smell sharp gear. Ah, and he's still pretty talented.

Filters?
Just a get a polarizer and shoot everything in RAW. With P&P you can ditch all other filters except this one.
Rarely ND's and ND grads are used, and i do have them. They are useful only if you don't shoot raw or want a result instantly.
NDs can make the scene darker if you want to motion blur during the day, but they multiply the probability of dust..... so....

Really? I would like some clarity on this. I have shot some landscapes and they were in Raw but I dont have a filter yet and have been debating between the ND, GND, or a CPF and of course been advised three different ways to Sunday.

 

[guitstik]

He uses a Canon EOS 20D with an EF-S 17-85 f/4-5.6 lens, no mention of filters.

 

[KmH]

There are some things that can't be done using the filters in an image editor.

For example you need to do a mid-day shoot of a waterfall but want silky, blurred water.

The only way that can be done is with a dark enough ND filter(s) on the lens so you can get down to a 1/4 second or so shutter speed.

CPL (Circular PoLarising) filter effects can't be duplicated with image editing software.

 

[mwcfarms]

So for my landscape shots and even if i wanted to do the blur water effect I am still better of getting a ND filter then? Sorry dont mean to hijack the thread but am curious/confused.

 

[Canosonic]

So for my landscape shots and even if i wanted to do the blur water effect I am still better of getting a ND filter then? Sorry dont mean to hijack the thread but am curious/confused.

A CPL is extremely essential, but it seems you need a Neutral Density one.
You can though still try to get a CPL since it still darkens the scene, but not that much and it darkens less, the more money it costs.

 

[Overread]

MY views on filters and landscape work - note that for all these are am refering to highquality (not always highprice but often is the case) filters and not cheap ones

Circular polarizers:

About the only filter that you simply cannot reproduce using editing or by shooting in different lighting conditions - the abilty to polarize the light as it enters the camera allows you to capture different content to work with. This cannot be edited in since the camera would never capture the data for the editing software to unlock (even in RAW mode). Furthermore revoming things like reflections in glass and water might be possible, but you are looking at long hours and lots of find detail work to get the effect to look right

An example of using a Circular polarizer

Without:

With

You can also use one (with the sun to the left or right of you for maximum effect) to get a nice blue sky in a shot during the brighter parts of the day. There is even a nifty trick you can do with wide angle lenses and polarizers when shooting a portrait orientation shot.

Polarizers can also be used instead of a neutral density filter or in addition to them as they stop around one/two (I forget which) stops of light entering the camera.

Neutral Density (ND) filters;
These stop light entering the camera and come in a varity of powers depending upon how much light you want to stop. They are good for allowing you to expose a bright scene without having to rely upon closing down your aperture and/or using faster shutter speeds. As said above want a nice blurry waterfall? ND filter is a great option to reduce the light coming - thus letting you use a nice long shutter speed.
You might say why not just stop down the lens more - well to that you have to remember that after around f13/16 you will get noticably softer shots from most lenses due to diffraction so there is already one limitation.
Again this is something editing software can't recreate

Neutral Density Graduated filters - (NDGrad)
These are like ND filters, but instead of stopping the light over the whole scene, instead they block it only over part of the scene, graduating at the midpoint. These are the only filters that you cannot really use as screwin types and instead it is advised that you use a square filter with a filter holder (eg cokin). This is because screwin filters will always have the point of graduation at the middle - which seriously limits composition - whilst with a filter holder and square filter you can slide the filter up and down to set the point where you want it.
These filters can somewhat be reproduced in editing by using HDR (proper multi shot HDR - not single shot RAW tonemapping (fake HDR)) however again there are limits - such as if you have moving elements in the shot or if you have very long exposures that will cause differences between each frame.