Everything comes in cycles: with every downturn; there'll be an upturn.
Get these
as cards
Get these as prints for
your walls
How to take photos:
Filters
See:
'How to use your SLR'
articles. Bookmark this page in your browser, or with
del.icio.us
(others below).
See our forums to
discuss and ask questions.
Basic gear you need:
Polariser, Neutral Density
Filter (ND), and others appropriate for your style
The
Aim:
To get the subject to
stand out
Polariser: Add a deeper
colour to the sky
Polariser + ND: Avoid
overly dark spots because of your camera metering for overly bright
bits (and vice versa) .In other words, averaging out the contrast
NB: The filters
discussed below are the ones that are common or that I have experience
with.
The
Info:
Basically, there are
screw on filters (seen here), and slide on ones (seen here
and below).
The big difference is, you have more flexibility with the slide on ones. I use Cokin, as these
filters can be used on any lens with minimal adaptation (one size fits all,
except for the screw on adaptor ring, which is much cheaper than any
filter anyway). However, the screw mount filters fit only one size lens (no adaptor rings are
available).
Polarisers are seen
as the first-bought and most essential filter for all beginning
photographers and professionals alike. These add a deeper colour to the
sky helping to make clouds stand out. And yes, polarisers are still needed
with digital cameras (nothing you can do in Photoshop can bring out
equivalent effects). They can also 'pretend' to be an ND filter to reduce
contrast between overly bright spots, and overly dark patches. I use a
linear polariser only because I could get it cheap; it's best though, to
get a 'circular' one if you can, as it apparently gives a truer light
meter reading in your camera. With most polarisers, you turn them to
deepen or lessen the darkness / depth of the sky (or other subjects).
Neutral Density (ND)
filters are great for reducing harsh light. The first picture below
should have used an ND with the polariser to help reduce the glare
off of the pavement. The idea being to average-out the bright spots and
the darker areas, and to help bring out details under the eaves of the
temple seen below. Compare this to the Golden Pavilion also seen below.
Graduated filters
(seen below)
are great in preserving colour in either the foreground or background,
whilst modifying the other. In the sunset picture seen below, a tobacco-coloured
filter was used to preserve the greeness of the rice field, whilst enhancing the colour of the sunset.
Occasionally, on rainy days I might add a graduated-fog filter, though I'm
yet to get a good picture with it.
Warmers are great
for portraits and in 'cool light', like cloudy or rainy days, and adding a
lovely warm colour to skin as sunset approaches. Though I
wouldn't use them on snowy days. In the studio they put a 'warm' cast (a browny
hue) over the whole picture, so it might be better to use a warmer on one
of your studio flashes, so the whole scene isn't rendered 'warm'.
Furthermore, many high-end amateurs and some professionals might use
Photoshop instead of using one of these filters. I haven't used mine
for... I can't remember! UPDATE: I now love using it for portraits near
sunset.
Magnifiers are
rare, because they are a poor-mans extension tubes*. They are smaller and
lighter-weight, so a little more handy. But perhaps they produce a softer
effect than extension tubes, and can't zoom in as much.
Buying. If you're
considering buying any filters, first, consider if you really need it.
There is a joke in photography: "how do you make a million in photography?
Start with two million." Only purchase anything, if you're really needing
it, and could have already got better pictures in the past if you had it.
The same rule should apply with buying lenses.
A Cokin Graduated filter
(P124 G.Tobacco)
A Cokin Neutral Denstiy
filter (P152)
A Cokin Polariser (Linear
Polariser P160)
Square filters are fitted
to the camera with a screw on adapter
Up to four filters can be
stacked
A yellow-green Hama
screw-mount filter for black & white film portraits.
*Extension tubes are
adaptations that fit on your camera between your camera and the lens. It makes
your lens into a kind of zoom that effectively gives it microsope-like
abilities.
Examples:
Click on
these to view them at a larger size
< F5.6,
1/100, iso100; with 18-70mm lens at 18mm, with Cokin P160 linear polariser
filter. Horyu-ji, Nara, Japan.
< F8, 1/25,
iso100; with 18-70mm lens at 45mm, with Cokin P124 Tobacco Graduated
filter. A bell tower at a Shinto Shrine, Nagashima, Japan.
< F6.3,
1/160, iso250; 18-70mm lens at 60mm, with Cokin P103 (+3). Taken at Higashiama Gardens, Nagoya, Japan. These are
very, very small flowers. The magnifier helped bring out the smaller
details on these flowers, however, extension tubes might have done a
better job of it. Also note, the nicely blurred out background (see
Depth of field article).
Note the high shutter speed, this is to compensate for a close-up
(shaky) handheld job.
< F13,
1/20, iso100; 18-70mm lens at 35mm, with Cokin P160 linear polariser and
Cokin P152 ND, tripod, and remote shutter release. It was a brilliant
sunny morning here at Kinkaku-ji temple (Golden Pavilion, with real gold
leaf external walls). I wanted to use a very slow shutter speed to get a
mirror effect of the water, get details in the shadows under the eaves,
and reduce the glare of the gold. Unfortunately, a security guard moved
me and my tripod on before I realised that the tree in the foreground
was ruinously in shadow! Kinkaku-ji receives near tens of thousands of
visitors daily, so this viewing area is really crowded, thus the no
tripod rule.
del.icio.us
(others below).
See our forums to
discuss and ask questions.
