Filters

Hi All

Can anyone tell me what essential filters I should be carrying for day to day use.
Regards Greg

Same here, I always use a polariser, usually a ND Grad and sometimes (not often) a 10 stopper. The only other 'filter' I carry is a piece of welding glass, just because I like to give myself a challenge! Oh, sometimes I have a Hoya IR72 Infra-red, but this is rarely used.

Regards
David

Does anyone use a circular polariser on a DA 15mm which does not interfere with the function of its built-in hood?

Any guidance or comment would be welcomed. Cheers!

push the glass out of an old 49mm filter and screw the rim to the lens to make an extension then screw on the polariser, works a treat.

Filters have become less important with the advent of Photoshop and HDR photography so using them is becoming more about what you prefer...getting the shot as good as possible in-camera or trying to make a not so great shot into a good one in photoshop, that debate's already ongoing so lets not start it here again...anyway to answer your question...

A polariser is the hardest to replicate in Photoshop and is a very useful filter..enhances colours in landscapes, kills unwanted reflections and as a by-product it reduces light levels by around 2 stops so can be a useful pseudo-ND filter too.

For landscapes I personally wouldn't be without NDgrads..can't beat the satisfaction of getting back home and not having to do hardly any PP because you've captured the shot exactly as you wanted

A standard ND filter is very useful if you want those "milky water" long exposure photos

Simon

I'm thinking of purchasing the lee system filters, question is would you use soft or hard ND filters, and why.

This is a good explanation of the subject. Filters above P size are big and expensive. http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1108/dw1108-1.html

My experience is that with a crop sensor DSLR then hard grads are ideal in almost every situation, in fact I don't think I've used my soft grads more than a handful of times. The graduation line on hard grads isn't nearly as obvious as you think it would be, its only really evident if using ultra wide focal lengths..10/12mm etc and even then not too bad.

Simon

Only thing that can't be done in softrware is polarisers and ND filters for long exposures in bright scenes. I have some polarisers but still haven't got around to getting an ND filter.

Can't see the point of using grad ND filters when that can be done so simply in Post pro, and much more accurately and in multiple if needed. Just expose to avoid blowing the birght regions of the scene. There's plenty of Dynamic range to bring up the darker regions with today's cams

Thank you, Joe, for the tip!

Nd grads are absolutely essential for me, just couldn't do without them.