I use a NIKON D3100. I have the stock lens, a 55-200mm, and a macro 105mm...
Filters? Can anyone recommend good filters they have used and possibly the differences between some of the filters?
I really have never used one (sadly i know)....but would like to start trying it out.
The polarizer that John mentioned. It takes care of glare and adds a richness to many colors that can be washed out due to glare and reflection.
The most common is probably a UV filter. Many people use them to protect their lens. Others say no because putting an extra layer of glass, especially if it was cheap, just messes up the sharpness of your pics.
The third common one is the neutral density filter. They are used when you want to let less light in, ie silky water effects, long exposure, during the day.
They can also come in a graduated form so that you can darken the sunset while lightening the foreground out of silhouette.
Your camera may have built in color filters. They can change how the colors show up in your final pics, but if you aren't comparing them you may not notice it. There was a camera settings challenge quite awhile ago that worked on those and ended up with many examples.
Put a UV filter on the lens to protect it from accidental bumps and scrapes in front. Don't worry about the extra glass if you buy other than the $1.98 special from China. Of course you don't need it for UV filtering on digital cameras, the low pass cut off filter over the sensor takes care of all that.
If you process your images and especially if you shoot raw, there is really no need for any other every-day filter on the lens. A CP (circular polarizer) can be useful to cut back reflections off glass and water if that it what you need, but I like reflections so it is seldom I want to stop them. The CP will decrease your EV by at least a stop, maybe a full two, and it can be useful to enrich your colors out of the camera, but again, it never really bothers me since I shoot raw and it takes just a minute or two to do an even better job in an editor.
The Neutral Density (ND) filters come in all shapes and sizes and stops. Useful if you want long exposures in full daylight. Moving water immediately springs to mind. Graduated ND filters can give you a tone gradient out of the camera, but again if you use an editor, why bother handicapping your digital negative by shooting it that way rather than doing under your 100% control in an editor.
And then if you want to experiment with Near Infrared photography, there are all the (expensive) cut off filters that cut the visible light, typically at about 720 nm letting in just a little visible light to allow for "false color" processing, 850nm for pure Black and White (after you do the B/W conversions) or 650nm to let in even more visible "colored light" for extra "false color" possibilities. But with the standard DSLR (unconverted low pass filter over the sensor) exposures must be very long - the low pass cutoff filter over the sensor blocks almost all IR wavelengths - and you can never see what you are shooting since the visible is blocked for an optical viewfinder and is so black in Live View/Electronic Viewfinder. Indeed, some cameras do such a great job of blocking IR that not enough can get through to make an image even with 30 second exposures. For me, not worth all the bother.
my understanding is that most digital cameras don't really benefit from a UV filter, so i wouldn't go to the expense... i do get a decent quality glass lens protecter tho - i tend to be a bit tough on my lenses so i think it's worth it...
also, it's my understanding that the circular polarizer cuts glare and renders certain colours (blue sky for example) with a vibrancy that just is not achievable in post processing... i rarely bother with colour, but if i'm going to do landscapes in colour, i will be using a circular polarizer... you do lose some stops of light, but for landscapes i'd usually be using a tripod anyway so it's no biggie...
So, don't bother with UV filters (Oooh! Contentious!) - yes, they offer a bit of protection from knocks (but so does the lens hood. Use that.) but the add ghosting and flare, esp if you're shooting into the light. Srsly.
A CPL is worth it, for bright skies. Make 'em deep blue (though you can do that in post. Kinda. Sorta) or cutting out reflections off of water or, more usefully, glass (don't work out of airplane windows, though, you just get rainbow stress patterns - but, i dunno, you might want that ;)
As is a grad ND -- that shot of yours, "hay, hay, hay"? If you'd had a grad ND fitted, you could have arranged for the sky to still have some features rather than being blown out and white. Can't fix that in post....
What Inty Malcolm said.
1. Circular Polarizer
2. Neutral Density
3. Graduated Neutral Density
The UV filter for protection is a personal choice. I used to keep one on my glass but have given that up and now always keep the lens hood on for protection.
I used to have warming filters, cooling filters, star filters, soft focus filter, vignette filter, color filters, etc. Now I do all that in the editing software. To some extent the Graduated Neutral Density could be replaced with HDR high dynamic range or composite in post, but that can be a lot of extra work when the application of the graduated ND will get the exposure correct right from the start.
There are a couple styles of filters that are popular. One has a holder that goes on the front of the lens and square or rectangular filters slide into the holder. This style is especially useful for Graduated Neutral Density filters because it allows you to compose your shot with as much or as little of the bright sky as you'd like and then slide the filter up or down to match your composition. A round screw on Graduated Neutral Density filter is split right in the middle so your sort of stuck putting the horizon in the middle of the photograph.
The round screw on type are best for the NDs and CPLs.
Here's a pretty good article I came across about filters.
Got an Invalid Data error with the href html...
Google
"lens filters explained"
Edit: I forgot to mention that a Circular Polarizer will cut down about two stops of light so, in effect it functions as a Neutral Density to some extent.
I agree with the above. CPL and ND are great tools. I've just recently been playing around with them. You can see in my two water shots I posted recently. Those were used with an ND. This is needed if you are doing any long exposure in daylight. What's great about them is you can stack them in your lens. In my two shots I only had one so I had to improvise and use my sunglasses. But hey it works.
CPL does not only get rid of reflection it can make the reflection more noticeable. What it does to colors of sky, grass, tree leaves is great. I was shooting peacocks yesterday (will post soon) and this filter did a great job making the feathers more vibrant.
For those who don't have a computer at home and are not able to post process as they would like, filters are something you will NEED!
I have seen several comments saying that it is not necessary to use a UV filter. Now while this may be true I would say that replacing a, even expensive, UV filter is still going to be cheaper than replacing a scratched lens.
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Shauna,there are three very common filters used.
The polarizer that John mentioned. It takes care of glare and adds a richness to many colors that can be washed out due to glare and reflection.
The most common is probably a UV filter. Many people use them to protect their lens. Others say no because putting an extra layer of glass, especially if it was cheap, just messes up the sharpness of your pics.
The third common one is the neutral density filter. They are used when you want to let less light in, ie silky water effects, long exposure, during the day.
They can also come in a graduated form so that you can darken the sunset while lightening the foreground out of silhouette.
Your camera may have built in color filters. They can change how the colors show up in your final pics, but if you aren't comparing them you may not notice it. There was a camera settings challenge quite awhile ago that worked on those and ended up with many examples.
If you process your images and especially if you shoot raw, there is really no need for any other every-day filter on the lens. A CP (circular polarizer) can be useful to cut back reflections off glass and water if that it what you need, but I like reflections so it is seldom I want to stop them. The CP will decrease your EV by at least a stop, maybe a full two, and it can be useful to enrich your colors out of the camera, but again, it never really bothers me since I shoot raw and it takes just a minute or two to do an even better job in an editor.
The Neutral Density (ND) filters come in all shapes and sizes and stops. Useful if you want long exposures in full daylight. Moving water immediately springs to mind. Graduated ND filters can give you a tone gradient out of the camera, but again if you use an editor, why bother handicapping your digital negative by shooting it that way rather than doing under your 100% control in an editor.
And then if you want to experiment with Near Infrared photography, there are all the (expensive) cut off filters that cut the visible light, typically at about 720 nm letting in just a little visible light to allow for "false color" processing, 850nm for pure Black and White (after you do the B/W conversions) or 650nm to let in even more visible "colored light" for extra "false color" possibilities. But with the standard DSLR (unconverted low pass filter over the sensor) exposures must be very long - the low pass cutoff filter over the sensor blocks almost all IR wavelengths - and you can never see what you are shooting since the visible is blocked for an optical viewfinder and is so black in Live View/Electronic Viewfinder. Indeed, some cameras do such a great job of blocking IR that not enough can get through to make an image even with 30 second exposures. For me, not worth all the bother.
also, it's my understanding that the circular polarizer cuts glare and renders certain colours (blue sky for example) with a vibrancy that just is not achievable in post processing... i rarely bother with colour, but if i'm going to do landscapes in colour, i will be using a circular polarizer... you do lose some stops of light, but for landscapes i'd usually be using a tripod anyway so it's no biggie...
A CPL is worth it, for bright skies. Make 'em deep blue (though you can do that in post. Kinda. Sorta) or cutting out reflections off of water or, more usefully, glass (don't work out of airplane windows, though, you just get rainbow stress patterns - but, i dunno, you might want that ;)
As is a grad ND -- that shot of yours, "hay, hay, hay"? If you'd had a grad ND fitted, you could have arranged for the sky to still have some features rather than being blown out and white. Can't fix that in post....
1. Circular Polarizer
2. Neutral Density
3. Graduated Neutral Density
The UV filter for protection is a personal choice. I used to keep one on my glass but have given that up and now always keep the lens hood on for protection.
I used to have warming filters, cooling filters, star filters, soft focus filter, vignette filter, color filters, etc. Now I do all that in the editing software. To some extent the Graduated Neutral Density could be replaced with HDR high dynamic range or composite in post, but that can be a lot of extra work when the application of the graduated ND will get the exposure correct right from the start.
There are a couple styles of filters that are popular. One has a holder that goes on the front of the lens and square or rectangular filters slide into the holder. This style is especially useful for Graduated Neutral Density filters because it allows you to compose your shot with as much or as little of the bright sky as you'd like and then slide the filter up or down to match your composition. A round screw on Graduated Neutral Density filter is split right in the middle so your sort of stuck putting the horizon in the middle of the photograph.
The round screw on type are best for the NDs and CPLs.
Here's a pretty good article I came across about filters.
Got an Invalid Data error with the href html...
Google
"lens filters explained"
Edit: I forgot to mention that a Circular Polarizer will cut down about two stops of light so, in effect it functions as a Neutral Density to some extent.
CPL does not only get rid of reflection it can make the reflection more noticeable. What it does to colors of sky, grass, tree leaves is great. I was shooting peacocks yesterday (will post soon) and this filter did a great job making the feathers more vibrant.
For those who don't have a computer at home and are not able to post process as they would like, filters are something you will NEED!