Do you wish you knew how to add drama to your photos? Camera filters could be your key to creating amazing images.
When you mention camera filters to the average person, they’ll probably think of Instagram or smartphone camera filters.
But physical camera filters were around long before those. And for the serious photographer, they are the only way to make your photos stand out from the crowd.
What Are Camera Filters?
Camera filters are pieces of glass that fit over your lens. By altering the light which passes over them, they can;
- Accentuate colors of a scene;
- Highlight a specific color or tone of an object; and
- Enhance the natural beauty of a portrait subject.
- Get rid of reflections and glare
But, which filters do we use for accomplishing these goals?
Let us walk you through the basic filter types and what they do, so you can choose ones to help you create amazing images.
1. Polarizing Filters
If you capture landscape photography, real estate photography, or travel photography, your images could be greatly enhanced with a polarizing filter.
What Does a Polarizing Filter Do?
A polarizer, or polarizing filter, is used to manage reflections, combat glare (usually from water), or to darken skies on photos.
Adjusting a polarizer removes the glare produced by reflecting light. It also reduces haze due to atmospheric scattering, which is essentially another form of reflection.
Using a polarizer is simple: view the scene through the viewfinder and rotate the filter on its mount to find your desired effect.
When to Use Polarizing Filters
There are specific situations when it’s best to use a polarizing filter. These include when you are photographing the following:
- Blue skies: a polarizer filter can darken the blue color and make the clouds stand out from the sky.
- Plants: leaves on trees or blades of grass are reflective, which can result in a lack of detail and blurred images. The use of a polarizer filter will reduce the glare of the reflections, revealing detail otherwise obscured.
- Water: both still water and moving water are highly reflective. A polarizing filter will deepen the blue or green of the water and may even allow you to see underwater.
- Glass: windows of buildings reflect any light that hits them. Reduce the strength of reflections with a polarizing filter.
- Shiny metal: this is the exception to the rule–a polarizing camera filter will NOT reduce reflections on metal. You’ll need to use the polarizer on the light source itself. A dulling agent can also be applied to the metal if you’re out of options.
When to Use a Polarizer
Any time you encounter glare in a scene, a polarizer can help. Remember, foliage and reflections can be controlled by polarizers, but metal objects require lighting control, not a lens filter.
Linear or Circular Polarizer Filter?
There are two common types of polarizing filters: linear and circular polarizers (CP). If the filter does not specify it is a circular polarizer, it’s probably linear.
Linear polarizers are usually less expensive, but the majority of modern cameras with auto-focus and in-lens metering, are only compatible with circular polarizers. This is true for both film and digital cameras.
2. UV and Skylight Camera Filters
UV filters block the level of ultraviolet light hitting the camera’s sensor.
What Does a UV Filter Do?
For many photographers, though, the main purpose of using a UV filter or Skylight filter (sometimes called a 1A filter) is purely for protection. The idea being that the disposable piece of glass on the front of the lens, takes the brunt of any accidental lens damage.
How a UV Filter Helps
Not only does it stop expensive lenses from damage, but it also blocks anything in the optical path of the lens that would degrade image quality.
But do note, a cheap filter on an expensive lens is not the best solution. Thankfully, there are high-quality camera filters available.
The Difference between UV and Skylight Camera Filters
Both filter out ultraviolet light, but a 1A Skylight filter also adds a slight warm tint to shots.
When to Use a UV Filter
So, when do we use a UV filter? Many modern lenses have deeply recessed front elements, which means the addition of a filter may not be necessary. Plus there is the risk they could cause lens flare.
Sometimes you will get a better measure of protection by using a hard lens shade. Still, high-quality UV camera filters are often a good general lens protection measure.
3. Graduated Neutral Density Camera Filters
This is one of the most popular filter categories in modern photography and is usually used by landscape photographers.
What Does a Graduated Neutral Density Filter Do?
Graduated Neutral Density filters (GND or ND Grads) add density, or darkness, to part of a scene without any color. Part of the filter is clear, part of it is darkened.
When to Use an ND Grad Filter
These are very useful for outdoor and landscape photography. ND Grad filters can make balancing highlights and shadows simple. Think of it as HDR photography without the processing.
Different Types of ND Grad Filters
There are three main types of ND Grad filters:
- Hard Edge ND Grad;
- Soft Edge ND Grad; and
- Reverse ND Grad.
A hard or soft edge refers to the transition from density to clear. A hard edge is a straight line boundary. On one side is the ND, on the other is clear glass or plastic.
A soft edge is a gradual transition from full density to none.
Both hard and soft edge can be used for sunrise or sunset images where the foreground is underexposed but the sky is overexposed.
A reverse GND has the same straight line that a hard edge GND has, but it gradually fades towards the edge of the filter. This is best used when the sun is at the horizon–place the hard edge of the filter there, placing the sun in line with the darkest part of the filter. The sky then fills in naturally.
When to Use ND Grad Camera Filters
It’s best to use these if you are shooting a scene that includes both under and overexposed elements, but you want to expose both evenly.
You’ll perhaps get more use out of a soft edge ND Grad filter. Plus, the task of placing the filter’s density edge in the right place is simplified.
4. Neutral Density Filters
Neutral Density filters (or ND filters) reduce the amount of light entering the lens and enables photographers to use long exposures.
They are especially useful for capturing motion blur photography or softening water.
What Does an ND Filter Do?
An ND filter works by blocking the light entering the camera. Density is an old film term for black or darkness. Neutral refers to adding no color cast.
For instance, waves crashing against a pier, a stream rushing over rocks, or storm clouds moving can be blurred with a long shutter speed and an ND filter. They enable you to use longer shutter speeds on bright days.
Outdoor fill flash is another situation where using ND filters can help. Your camera may have superb flash automation, but if you want to blend fill flash with selective focus, ND filters are a good choice.
When to Use ND Camera Filters
ND filters allow you to be creative, especially when it comes to motion blur. For example, if the scene requires 1/125th at f11 and ISO 100, you can add in a ten stop (+10) ND filter so you can expose at 16 full seconds at f16!
5. Color Correction Filters
Digital photography is so versatile: you can adjust color temperatures or white balance in camera or in post-production.
So why is there a need for color correction filters if we can edit in post-production? Well for one, it saves time in post-production.
What Do Color Correction Filters Do?
CC filters balance colors and help render natural colors in images. Think back to when film photography was king. Different light sources and films sensitized for different light temperatures. They were corrected for a natural white balance either by printing filters or color correction camera filters (or CC filters).
How Color Correction Filters Work
Setting a digital camera to a specific white balance is often all that is needed, but a real estate photographer or someone taking photos of painted art can achieve a little bit of fine tuning by using a CC filter. By using camera settings and CC filters on the lens, the post-processing time is minimized.
Another benefit is that colors can be rendered more accurately. This may be vital for imaging flat art for sale, for instance, or for real estate clients.
When to Use Color Correction Filters
Most color correction can be done in digital camera settings, however, if you need more exact adjustment, these filters may help. If you are using a film camera, you will find a lot of use for these, as film cameras have no built-in color balance settings.
6. Color Filters for Black and White Film Photography
This sounds like a contradiction in terms, however, color filters for black and white photography were, for many years, one of the most important tools in a photographer’s kit.
Different Types of Color Camera Filters
Black and White film is made with specific properties of light and color sensitivity. Color filters are used to change contrast for certain colors.
There are several colors available for such filters. These include:
- Red filter: this contrasts the most out of all the filters. It darkens blue skies and makes clouds stand out;
- Orange filter: reduces the appearance of fog or haze, darkens skies in landscapes, and can reduce freckles or blemishes on the skin in portrait photography;
- Yellow filter: produces more contrast between blue, yellow, or white items in an image. It offers less contrast than the red filter.
- Green filter: softens skin tones and minimizes imperfections in portrait photography. Can also be used to lighten dark foliage (some manufacturers make a slightly less intense yellow-green filter.)
Blue filters are seldom used with black and white film, but some photographers use dark blue and light blue filters to soften the contrast.
When to Use Color Filters in Black and White Photography
Many photographers still shoot on film. A large portion of current film photographers shoot in black and white, so color filters remain a useful tool.
Use these filters with black and white film to increase contrast, or to emphasize or diminish certain colors on film.
Can you use these filters with digital cameras? Of course… see our next point.
7. Color Camera Filters for Special Effects
Color filters are not just useful in black and white photography. They can create interesting color effects when used with digital cameras.
Color Filters for Digital Photography
- Red or orange filters: can enhance sunsets, the Moon, or other scenes.
- Blue filter: makes a daytime scene look like it was shot at night in the moonlight.
When to Use Color Filters in Color Photography
These filters create mood, transform day to night, or enhance what’s already in the scene. They are a fun way to look at the world.
Attach one color filter to your camera lens and another color to an external flash to create a very interesting look.
8. Infrared Camera Filters
If you want to dabble in infrared photography (or IR photography), you may think about converting your camera. IR photography gives a unique and dramatic effect to images.
A digital camera optimized for recording in infrared (IR) is a very specialized tool. But that can be an expensive option. The good news is you can get the same effect with an infrared (IR) filter.
What an Infrared Filter Does
Adding an IR filter to your camera lens will block most of the visible light, allowing only infrared light to pass.
Please note, however, this is not to be confused with thermal imaging, as that records radiation (which is not light).
Infrared is mostly used for scientific and medical imaging, astrophotography, and surveillance.
In the same vein, projected ultraviolet light can also be used with a specialized narrow bandwidth UV filter (not the same type of UV camera filter as in point #1), to capture things invisible to the naked eye. This is useful for photographing art, currency forgery or for scientific and medical purposes.
When to Use an IR Filter
You would use this filter to record images in infrared light. You will also need either IR film, or a camera converted to record infrared.
IR filters can be used to darken images, but an ND filter is a better choice for that.
9. Close-Up Camera Filters
Also known as diopters, close-up lens, or macro filters, these filters allow you to get much closer to your subject without the need to zoom in. You can also stack filters together for greater magnification.
How Do Close-Up Filters Work?
The concept is similar to a magnifying glass. However, be wary as they can cause distortion along the outer edge of the image.
You would use a macro lens that is specially corrected if you are needing to render close-up views properly across the entire frame with both the center and edges of the frame in focus and without distortion.
When to Use Close-Up Filters
These filters are very useful during trips to the beach or a flower garden. Any time you want closer than normal focus, but the results don’t have to be perfect across the entire frame, close-up filters are useful.
10. Soft Focus, Star and Other Special Effects Camera Filters
There are many other special effects that can be accomplished with specialized camera filters.
Get creative and add star points, soften focus, or even add bokeh to images.
Soft Focus Filters
Soft focus camera filters are great for portraits, glamour, or boudoir photography to soften the skin tone of a person. They give a flattering, romantic feel to images.
A soft focus filter can give a glowing quality to an image: the subject is in focus, but the focus is soft, not tack sharp, and edges may be blurred.
Star Camera Filters
A star (or cross screen) filter creates a star pattern: it will make lights in an image look like stars.
The number of points you get is determined by the number of crosshairs in the filter. For instance, a four-point star is produced by a simple intersection of two crosshairs.
Six, eight, and ten point stars are very common for this type of special effect filter.
Other Special Effects Filters
Other special effects (SFX) camera filters include multi-image prisms, speed streaking filters, and shapes that can alter how out of focus highlights (bokeh) will appear.
For example, a popular shape for romantic pictures is the heart shape. Similarly, flowers and spirals are also used a lot.
When to Use Special Effects Camera Filters
If you can think of an effect you want to try, there is probably a filter for it. Doing it in-camera also allows you to stack effects. In other words, one special effect in camera, and another in post-processing.
Try it out, you’ll find one or two that fit your personal style.
Screw-On Filters vs Filter Holders
Most of the filters featured on this list are screw-on or threaded filters.
Threaded filters are compact, so you can keep them on the lens even when attaching a lens cap or using a lens hood. UV and skylight filters, polarizers, diopters, and the color filters are very often screw-on filters.
Special effects filters such as ND or ND Grad filters often come as square filters made for use with filter holders. It is easier to control the placement of the hard or soft edge of ND Grad filters when using a filter holder.
Transform your Photography with Filters
So take a chance and try out some camera filters.
Don’t rely on the ‘fix that in Photoshop’ mindset: proper use of good quality filters can elevate your creativity and save time in post-production.
Take your images to the next level and rediscover your enjoyment of photography.
Do you have a favorite camera filter? Is it one we have mentioned or another one entirely? Leave your answers in the comments below.
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