The English just love those filters...

I've been reading a few magazines lately from England, and they all seem to push filters, be it warming/haze/polariser​/diffuser and the one that crops up most - ND or graduated.

Why is it that none of the Australian mags talk about filters much at all... I admit to not having read many US photo mags, but the few I have glanced at don't seem overly enthusiastic about filters at all.

Can someone enlighten me? (pun intended)

- Well they need that in UK to compensate for lack of sun

- Simulates natural UK conditions
Not sure about the others !!

A lot of those filter functions have been duplicated in PS & RSE where we have more control over the effect so I guess they're not used as much. Still, they can be fun to use at times. The thing is to know what they'll do so, when that one time it will make a big difference comes alomg, you have that "effect" in your brain.

As far as I can see, the only one that can't be duplicated in PS is a polariser.
Even graduated filters can be duplicated by bracketing and merging in PS.

Here is a uk answer,becouse i live in the lake district and you get a load of dark landscapes you need a nd grad. 1,2 or 3 stops of compensation to stop burning out the sky while maintaining correct exposure in the foreground.

Actaully I've seen a really nice trick to simulate the blueing (if that's a word) effect of a polariser in PS - but it's not as good as the real thing.

Also, no matter how hard you try, you are not going to be able to effectively simulate an ND filter, be it a full ND or a grad. The former is great when you want a slow shutter speed but no matter how much you stop down the aperture (or if you want a shallow DOF) you cannot get it down to the required amount.

ND grads are a landscape tog's dream, as you can correctly expose the land and/or foreground while not having to worry about overexposing the sky.

Personally I use NDs and ND grads (of varying strengths) a polariser and the UV haze for protection. I have a Cokin kit full of silly colours and effects (left over from my film days) but I have to say that I very rarely use them (perhaps the odd sunset filter now and then) but as you say most of it can be done in PS.