Filters???

[jasenh7]

What physical filters do you use? I carry a Cross Screen, polarizer and macro filters. I never went for the red/yellow/orange filters as I figured this could be done in photoshop. But can you do it better when the shot is taken or is it a waste and just do it in PS? Your opinions and experience are appreciated.

[ryuwulf]

i carry a red filter, yellow, and polarizer.

Red and yellow i use for my black and white shots with my g3. Generally you would use yellow for landscapes and trees, red would be used for buildings/architecture.
For portrait photography in B&W, i often use a red filter, if the subject has really red skin. This will make their red skin in seem whiter and less noticeable in B&W.

The polarizer i use for my garden photography. Basically when i want to make the greens greener or saturate the scene.

i hardly use my macro filters or my macro lens.

If the scene is too boring, or i dont know what to do, i use my Hoya IR filter. Also i do have a vara cross star filter

So i guess i have five filters i carry with me.


Hope this helps

[jasenh7]

It does in fact. I forgot...I also carry an IR filter. I just never bothered to pick up the red, yellow, or orange ones as I figured it could all be done after the fact.

[Andy_T]

Hi,

what always amazed and intrigued me about B&W film fotography was the effects coloured filters had on the outcome.

Now - is it possible to do this kind of manipulation also in Photoshop? When you shoot B&W with your digital cameras, do you use the in-camera-B&W setting or just take away the colour later?

Regards,
Andy

[John_T]

Well, just a note on post processing. Color is information present in the color photo which will be converted to gray scales in BW. By using color filters on the camera, you influence the data recorded to get the effect you want when converting in post. It would be more difficult to get the same effect just in post having used no filters.

In any case, I would do the BW in post, not in the camera. You give yourself more latitude.

[ryuwulf]

John_T wrote:
In any case, I would do the BW in post, not in the camera. You give yourself more latitude.

There is a lot of debate on that. Im old skewl SLR photography(1995). I barely got into digital last year. Point being its always best to take the best picture possible before you go into the darkroom or digital darkroom. If you do it right the first time you save time. Of course in the darkroom, you burn, dodge, increase contrast. You do this because of trouble negatives, and this causes more more time.

on example would be a portrait (head shot). I know with my SLR(or g3) that im going to need to blur the background instead of using f16 (or f8 on G3), i going to use f5 to limit DOF. Why would i want to blur the background in photoshop? My my example above, some peeps have bad skin or extremely reddish. A red filter will clear that up. I could go into photosohp and start sliding my Red slider, but then i would have to start adjusting the other settings to balance the image.

Others believe just take the pic and fix it in photoshop. Without any thought of using the zone system( B&W).
This can also be resolved in photoshop somewhat.

My main point is to do it right so that it requires little adjustments and little time. For me more latitude means more work in post. But then again im new to digital. :(

and i could be entirely wrong

Cheers!!! :)

Andythaler wrote:
Hi,

what always amazed and intrigued me about B&W film fotography was the effects coloured filters had on the outcome.

Now - is it possible to do this kind of manipulation also in Photoshop? When you shoot B&W with your digital cameras, do you use the in-camera-B&W setting or just take away the colour later?

Regards,
Andy

Yes you can, but my experience is to have a color pic. I do shoot in B&W with my filters on my G3, but thats because i know before hand or im familiar on what to do. Sometimes color pics look better in B&W. Normally if you have a color pic, use chanel mixer and choose monochrome. Here you will have 3 settings for RGB. You can slide them to increase certain parts of your image. Very easy and from my experiecne preffered, because you have more control over your image because of the RGB sliders that affect your B&W

filters are fun!!!!!! just remember in B&W, if your are shoot the same color as the filter (ex. red bucket with a red filter) the object becomes lighter(or overexposed which cause it to be lighter ). And of course skies become darker (red (very dark) & yellow (dark))

:)

[GPR1]

I carry a polarizer, split neutral density, and warming filter. My attitude is get the best image I can in the camera. Yes, I can correct some things in photoshop, but coming from years of film I prefer to start with the best image, and improve from there.

[ryuwulf]

my sentiments exactly

:)

[Conk]

GPR1 wrote:
I carry a polarizer, split neutral density, and warming filter. My attitude is get the best image I can in the camera. Yes, I can correct some things in photoshop, but coming from years of film I prefer to start with the best image, and improve from there.

Completely understood and agree, however the use of colored filter seems to be not only a waste of money but unnecessary when you have a program such as PS7 on your computer.
To each their own I suppose. There is going to be people that use filters like these simply because they like to play with "gear". Polarizing filters and the like are necessary though as you cannot duplicate the effects in photoshop.
Then there are IR filters. You can duplicate the effects only to a certain degree but the results from an actual IR filter is superior.

[John_T]

I'm personally not into color filters at all. Maybe in the next life. But I have seen really good stuff done for BW with them. Trying to get the same affect in post alone isn't the same. I've tried just to experiment, but not my thing.

[ryuwulf]

Conk wrote:



Polarizing filters and the like are necessary though as you cannot duplicate the effects in photoshop.
.
i disagree with filters being a waste.
You can make bluer skies by adjusting CMYK settings, or saturate colors more. The same goes for most of the colors.
A polarizer is a must to get rid of reflections but then again, you can always clone stamp out, but that would be waaaaaaayyy to hard.

Dont get me wrong photoshop is awesome(i luv it), but it goes down to getting the image right or near perfect first, and then fixing the image in photoshop.


cheers

[RichardtheSane]

Another point to mention, if you ever want to sell images, the clients will generally want an image that has not been manipulated outside of the raw conversion.