Haze Lens Filter

Haze Lens Filter

A Guide on using Filters for Photographers

Do you sometimes wonder why a professionally taken picture can look so full of impact? Sometimes you would realize a picture may have colors are â€œso brightâ€ or a sunset that almost feels â€œwarmâ€ or a sky that is so â€œclearâ€ and â€œblueâ€ or even a portrait shot looks so â€œgentleâ€ and â€œsoftâ€.

The secret here is the clever use of filters. In analog (film) photography, a lens filter is attached to the front of a lens. Light passing into the camera is affected by the filter and this creates different effects in the final image.

In digital cameras, the built-in image processor mimics traditional filters to create the effects you would normally get. However, D-SLR cameras still uses physical filters as this allows for greater control of the effects of the filters.

If you are using a camera with threaded lens or a DSLR, here are several descriptions of some common photography filters that you can use to create interesting effects

UV Filter

If you use a SLR camera or a camera with threaded lens, a UV filter will be almost essential to keep on your camera all the time. It is a colorless filter and its purpose is to keep out ultraviolet light in the atmosphere and reducing atmospheric haze to capture images clearer.

Polarizing Filter

A polarizing filter cuts out reflections by preventing light waves from certain angle from passing through to the cameraâ€™s sensor (or film). This means that it also affects the light coming from water particles (i.e. clouds) in the sky at the same time enhancing the image by deepening the colors that comes through. It also is useful in shooting through surface of water and glass which are reflective.

A polarising filter gives you deep, rich and high contrast colours

Neutral Density Filter

A neutral density (ND) filter reduces the amount of light that reaches the cameraâ€™s sensor without affecting anything else such as colour. This allows you to create effects such as slow shutter speed. ND filter also come in graduated form which is particularly useful if you want to balance out the amount of lighting coming from the sky, which is generally brighter to light from the ground.

You can use an ND filter to reduce the amount of light and slow shutter speed to create effects like this

Warming Filter

Sometimes your pictures can look dull on a overcast or cloudy day. Your camera may capture an image that can appear cool. Warming filters help to add a little warmth for a more desirable effect. Sometimes strong warming filters can give that extra touch to a bright sunset.

Cooling Filter

Cooling filters does the opposite of warm filters and are less commonly used for photography. But, it helps to add saturation and impact to a dull sky.

Blue filter can give you a cool, misty morning feeling

There are also other less common filters such as the Soft-Filter (which is great for portraiture), Intensifying-Filter (to increase individual color saturation) and Infrared Filters (which enhances the effects of infrared radiation to create surreal light effects especially on green foliages).

About the Author

Las Vegas PhotographerJasper Ferrer started his photography at the age of 19, He lives in Las Vegas and anywhere he goes, he brings his camera and start taking event pictures. Visit his blog at Las Vegas Photography for updates. Check out his Las Vegas Commercial Photography featuring food, architecture, advertising and trade-show portraits.

What type of lens filter would be best for outdoor photography?

Using Olympus c-8080 wide zoom, but not sure whether to get Polarising, UV, Haze or skylight for the best results?

Personally, I'd say the first place to start for effects is a polarizing filter. You want a "circular" polarizer. Some people use a skylight or UV filter to protect the front glass of the lens, but you can also buy high quality plano glass filters for that purpose. Whatever you do, at least buy a decent quality filter instead of trying to get off cheap.

As far as all the rest, you can do this in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Okay, I don't want to argue with anyone about how it's better to use the real filter, but ATX can try a few in Photoshop (etc) "for free" and see which ones will be the most useful.

Or, go here http://www.thkphoto.com/products/hoya/index.html and see what you can learn.

Or here http://www.tiffen.com/tiffen_filters.html Tiffen makes a kit to get you started on filters, if you think you want more than one. They include a polarizer, a UV filter and a warming filter. B&H Photo and many other places sell this kit.

Many people use a UV filter simply to protect the front element of their lens from damage. "UV filters absorb ultraviolet rays which often make outdoor photos hazy or indistinct." (from: http://www.thkphoto.com/products/hoya/gf-01.html )

We get this question often enough that I decided to upload a sample to Flickr showing the same subject taken with and without a UV filter. Download the image, cut a small section out of the top half and drag it to the same section in the bottom half and see what you think. The photos were taken about 15 seconds apart in subdued sunlight, so I think the lighting was virtually identical for each. There was no post-processing at all so you can make a fair comparison. I will not comment any further and let you decide for yourself if there is any color shift.

The picture was taken with a Nikon D200 at ISO 100 with the Nikon 18-200 VR lens @ 112 mm at f/5.3.

Buy a name brand like Hoya or Tiffen. Don't get cheap junk to put on the front of your fine lens.

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