What filters do you have? Would recommend?

[rammy]

Being a relative newbie (1 year with DRebel), I have witnessed the wonders of a Polarising filter.

What would be your top 3 popular filters?

I am looking at getting a UV, ND Grad and some Warming Filters. Good idea or would you suggest a better three?
I'm a newbie so think I can only make use of these three. UV to do the kinda night shot effect; ND Grad to filter out bright skies; Warming to add some colour.

What do you guys have in "your bag"? And what would you recommend?

[CyberDyneSystems]

First should be a circular polarizer.
UV if you want to use one as a "lens cap"

Split ND is great for landscape work.. but get a flat square one.. don't bother with a screw on.. its next to useless.

[chris.bailey]

With film I had a whole box of them but I tend to go with the clear Canon Protect on all my lenses and then swap with a UV or Polariser if I think I need them. I do all the other stuff in PS. A 70mm Canon Circ Polariser is a second mortgage job :shock:

[Scottes]

Toss the warming stuff - you can do it in Photoshop/etc much more easily.

For ND grads I agree with CDS on the big square ones - even rectangular so you have full range on where to put the line. But be aware of the varieties - you could easily get 6 ND grads - 1/2/3 stop, and hard line or soft line. A 2-stop soft line is probably the most useful.

[thomascanty]

Why are the screw-on grad ND's useless? I've never used them, so I don't know.

I do have a couple ND (non-graduated) filters that I use occasionally. They come in very handy when you want to use a long shutter speed, but it's a little too bright.

[Scottes]

Why are the screw-on grad ND's useless? I've never used them, so I don't know.

Because you can't move the line. With a screw on you have to place the horizon line right in the middle, or wherever they happened to put the line. With the rectangular ones you can slide the filter up or down, thus allowing you to put the horizon line at the bottom or top of the image.

[thomascanty]

With the rectangular ones you can slide the filter up or down, thus allowing you to put the horizon line at the bottom or top of the image.

Ah, that certainly makes sense. Thanks.

[robertwgross]

Ah, that certainly makes sense. Thanks.

Generally, it takes a new user about ten seconds of playing with it until that makes sense.

---Bob Gross---

[rammy]

Thanks!

Ok, so Polarising, split ND and UV are the ones to go for.

I ask because of a panorama I did which was too dark in foreground because I tried to capture as much of the sky information as I could:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=49468

So, in this case, would I use an ND split filter to darken the sky but keep the foreground well lit?

I did do some work in PS to get a better blend but would like to capture shot correctly in the first place :wink:

[robertwgross]

So, in this case, would I use an ND split filter to darken the sky but keep the foreground well lit?


Normally, and if you have a relatively flat horizon, then the graduated neutral density filter works good for "darkening" the sky and leaving the darker foreground alone. The exercise is to figure out where to meter the scene.

If you do not have a flat horizon, then the Photoshop technique might work best.

Once I made the mistake of shooting a well-known landmark against the blue sky, and I used the graduated neutral density filter. Unfortunately, I did not pay close attention to it, and it darkened the sky and the top half of the landmark. Then there was a smooth transition and a lighter bottom half. It took me six months before I was able to return to the scene to shoot it correctly.

---Bob Gross---