Color filters for DSLR?

Are those outdated with digital? I know in Lightroom that individual color channels can be adjusted in black and white, but wondering if its better to use a filter over the lens. I like the simulated blue filter in Lightroom for many scenes but in reading about color filters from the film days they say blue isn't too useful. I was thinking about an infrared filter but I don't think I want to mess with needing a tripod. Considering just a basic red filter and wondering if that would still be handhold able and get me closer to that IR look of whiter greens in foliage and more deep blue sky.

Thanks!

Silver-Halide wrote in post #17608277
Are those outdated with digital? I know in Lightroom that individual color channels can be adjusted in black and white, but wondering if its better to use a filter over the lens. I like the simulated blue filter in Lightroom for many scenes but in reading about color filters from the film days they say blue isn't too useful. I was thinking about an infrared filter but I don't think I want to mess with needing a tripod. Considering just a basic red filter and wondering if that would still be handhold able and get me closer to that IR look of whiter greens in foliage and more deep blue sky.

Thanks!

Heya,

There's no reason to use a colored physical filter on a digital camera. You can completely do this in post, to an extremely precise level, whereas you are stuck with whatever happens when you use the physical filter. I'd rather have the RAW file with no filter, and have the ability to use a colored filter in post later, so I have the choice of anything, instead of just one.

Very best,

Cool, a reply! now that my trip is all over.

Didn't buy one. thanks

Agree with MalVeauX. With film the idea was to get it on film because it was often very hard to change afterwards. But with digital, kI think it's best to collect as much good unaltered data as possible in the field so you have plenty to work with in post. Ansel Adams' analogy that the negative is the (musical) score and the print is the perfomance still applies, but the way to do that changes.

BTW that blue filter imitates the look of the orthochromatic glass plates (and later film) of the 19th century. Think Timothy O'Sullivan, William Henry Jackson, or Edward S. Curtis (among many others). And it was, indeed, not used much for film - at least with people. Yellow darkened skies and usually added some clarity and a little drama. Red was yellow on steroids (remember those Ansel Adams black skies?). Green tended to make skin tones look most attractive. Those were the ones most used.