Using ND filters is a great way to get creative with your photography, creating motion in your images with long exposures, being able to shoot wide open in full sun, producing smooth silky waters are just a few ways to have fun with them. In this blog I show you how I used a cheap eBay variable ND filter to produce these images below and then compare the images using more expensive and excellent quality B+W filters.
This guy shot a lens and UV filter with an airsoft rifle to see just how much “protection” they offer
It’s one of those debates that’s been going on since the dawn of digital photography. To use UV filters or not? In the film days, a UV filter was often a wise choice, depending on what film stock you were using. In the days of digital, it didn’t really offer the advantage it once did. But, many still choose to use them. The common reason is for “protection”. In the event that something bangs into it, or the lens is dropped “I’d rather replace a UV filter than a front element”.
But just how tough are front elements, really? And just how strong are the UV filters? Are they really protecting the element from impact as much as most people think? That’s something YouTuber Vaes Joren wanted to find out. After his Nikon 18-55mm kit lens broke, he decided to shoot both it and a UV filter with an airsoft rifle to see just what would happen.
Are filters even necessary for landscape photography anymore?
This is a topic that seems to come up every few years. As sensors increase in dynamic range, ND grads sometimes aren’t so essential. Raw processing software becomes more capable with each new release. Even filters that cut through haze aren’t always needed. But what about things like circular polarisers and big ND filters for super long exposures?
In this video, landscape photographer Thomas Heaton offers his insight and thoughts on the question. When it comes to polarisers, Thomas is of the opinion that they absolutely are necessary. It’s an opinion I share. The function that they serve just cannot be reproduced in post. But what about the rest? Watch the video to find out.
How to adapt Large Lee filters to the Nikon 14-24mm (and other wide lenses)
I love my Nikon 14-24mm lens but it has one drawback; you can’t put filters on it. Not that one needs to use a huge selection of filters on ultra-wides but if you’re doing certain kinds of photography being able to use an ultra-wide combined with ND filters makes the composition or time lapse more interesting. Lee filters, the company that makes really cool kind of pricey large resin filters, has developed a holder for the 14-24mm lens and it’s equivalent in the Canon world. The downside of this is, the basic holder is $200 which needs a lens adapter, for another $100, to which you add the actual filter, around $150. So what you have is a filter and a holder that costs about a third as much as the lens to begin with, $450.
A Metal Ball Bounces off The SIGMA WR Ceramic Filter; Said To Be 1000% Stronger Than Other Filters
A few years ago I broke the filter on my 24-70 2.8 Nikon lens. I felt quite the lucky guy, as that lens is about $1,800. The comments on the usefulness of that filter were mixed. I think the comments on how the new Sigma filter protects a lens will be different.
On December Sigma announced that they are developing a new ceramic glass filter that will be stronger than any other filter you know.
Sigma released a video that was very slick (we will link it below) but did not show much of the action. Now Sigma released another movie showing how a 49 gram metal ball is dropped from 127 centimeters onto the filter and the filter survives. (None of the other branded filters do… ). Why 127 centimeters, and why 49 grams? I don’t know. Maybe it those symbolize the first and last names of Sigma founders.
Listen To An Expert Image Analyst Easily Explain The Science Behind Photo Filters
Photo filters like those we find in Instagram, VSCO, and Photoshop are often used to apply a desired style to a photograph without having to put much thought into it, but have you have ever took a moment to think about how they work under the surface? How exactly do they work and what’s actually happening to your photograph?[Read More…]
Cheat Sheet: 11 Filter Types, What They Do And When To Use Each One
Filters are magic, and I am not talking about those buttons that punch on Instaram, I am talking real glass circles that you mount on top of a lens. The folks at zippi, came up with a fun cheat sheet that explains what each one does and when is the best time to use it. See the full stack after the jump.
Avoidable Photographic Errors
Rule number one: there are no rules. A ‘mistake’ may not necessarily be a mistake if it helps convey the message or story or feeling intended by the photographer. I can easily think of multiple examples that go against every scenario described below. That said, for the most part, I’ve found these ‘mistakes’ to hold true. And if you want to achieve something very specific, then you either won’t be reading this article in the first place, or you’ll know when to bend the rules. The general viewing public probably has some preformed opinions of what is right/good, but these are born out of as much ignorance as conditioning by companies trying to sell more software or lenses or something else. There are rational reasons why these opinions may not necessarily be right in the context of fulfilling creative intention.
OWL Aims To Be The World’s First Drop-in filter Adapter Reducing Costs and Improving Workflow
One of the best features of mirrorless cameras is the ability to use DSLR lenses. But when using DSLR lenses you immediately fall into one of the flaws of the DSLR lens system: filter design. The mix of filter thread sizes, ‘regular’, thin and extra thin filters and lenshood interaction makes you with there was a better solution.
Owl, “The World First Drop-in filter Adapter” aims to solve the filter problem for mirrorless once and for all with their new indiegogo. Most DSLR to mirrorless adapters are simply a hollow tube pushing the lens away from the camera. They are strong enough to carry a lens, while moving the electric contacts needed for focusing and feedback from the camera bayonet to the adapter bayonet. Owl simply makes a clever use of that space, adding a drop-in filter slot.
Want a Natural Density Filter – Best Buy Has them On Stock
If we had a breaking news section, this would probably be breaking news. Best Buy just introduced a new family of filters – “Natural Density Filters“. You can get them right here.
So, this is obviously a typo (confused with Neutral Density Filters) and thing will resume to normal as soon as the Department Of Web Sites Categories gets their hands on this and makes a fix. (Hopefully, they will not have to throw all their stock of Natural Density Filters and replace them with Neutral Density Filters as throwing away so much stock can be quite expensive.
/end irony
[Natural Density Filters | Best Buy. Thanks for the tip Simon]
P.S. If Best Buy says that they don’t carry this kind of filter, just point them to this screen grab.
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