All Filters page 101

All filters

There are many different filters which well help you further with photography. UV filters, polarisation filters or ND filters: time to look into the functions and possibilities

UV filters

With digital cameras, the UV filters are only used for protection against damage to the lens, effective UV filtering is in fact limited to analog photography and film.

Polarisation filters

A polarisation filter is a filter that is rotatable to ensure that light rays are blocked from certain directions. High-contrast images can be made, such as clear white clouds against deep blue skies, or minimizing glare and reflections in your wine glass or water features.

ND filters

There are ND filters in various grey tones (densities). The filters help to create the desired reduction in light intensity. In this way, you prevent for example overexposure or the possibility offered for recordings with long exposure times, without influencing colour rendering.

Close-up filters

A close-up filter is actually an extra lens part. Thanks to the specific curvature, in combination with a lens this filter offers a shorter distance setting and therefore a simple solution for making recordings close-by of animals, flowers or other objects.

What you can do with filters

Reflections

In one or more lens parts or filter surfaces they occur in particular with strong light sources or considerable contrast in the recordings. They are often the main cause of reduced contrast or irregular spots, also called flare, and reduced colour saturation in both photos and films

Transparency

By applying several coatings, manufacturers can prevent almost all reflections, so that the transparency (or light transmission) of the filter is optimal.

Vignetting

Vignetting occurs when the edge of the applied filter is intrusively in view (especially with wide angles). By using special thin frames, you can prevent this. For fisheye or very extreme wide angles, filters are sometimes mounted on the back.

Inspiration and tips

Looking for even more inspiration and tips on photography with a filter? Check out these pages:

• Top 10: filters
• All about polarisation filters
• All about ND filters