Darren Smith Photography's photographic tutorials are aimed to teach anyone interested in photography the basics in how to operate their camera and what to consider when you move beyond taking "snaps".
This video is all about using filters (both physical and digitally) and how it affects your photographs.
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Hello and welcome to the Darren Smith photography tutorials.
This video is all about how filters can enhance your pictures.
Filters are specifically designed to absorb and remove selected wavelengths of lights modern filters are made from plastics such as polycarbonate or polyester resin or glass filters which are a little bit more expensive
There are two main Categories of filter, the first category represents technical filters which has special effects on modified optical characteristics the second category represents aesthetic filters and simply changes the visual appeal of an image have you ever wondered why the sky looks so blue and the sea so clear in holiday brochures it's due to the fact that the photographer has used a polariser when taking these images a polarising filter gives a blue sky a rich deep colour and is used to reduce reflections in water or other non-metallic materials it has a neutral grey appearance that rotates in its mayn't so it can block polarized lights. B
Because of its colour it does reduce the amount of light entering your camera by around two stops so it is not a filter you would normally leave on your lens this filter is one of the only filters that cannot truly be digitally processed using a photo editing package so it's worthwhile having one in your kit if you look at these pictures the first image looks flat and dull whereas the second image is more vibrant and well defined to use this filter you must rotate it around the lens and rotating the filter is essential to getting the amount of polarization correct
Too much saturation will look unnatural so it's worth experimenting a little by rotating the glass also the amount of polarization depends upon the position of the Sun and maximum polarization will occur when the camera is at right angles to the Sun i.e. 90 degrees.
There are a few problems with using a polarizing filter, for example on a wide-angle lens vignetting may and probably will occur unless you are using a much larger polariser than your lens diameter which can become very expensive. It is also very important that you put your polariser on the right way round because it will not work and make your image look very dull indeed.
A diffuser is a filter range that can give a dreamy look to your image and suffers the contours of your subject it is often used in portraiture and occasionally another genesis of photography - if you look at these two images the second image looks slightly softer than the first with a more dreamy glow whilst the shadow areas keep their definition maintaining the contrast of your image.
Traditionally skylights and UV filters reduce the haze levels and UV light exposed to your camera with modern digital sensors forever there is no practical need for such filters some photographers use them to protect the front of their lenses as these filters are not expensive and easy to replace. We all know that replacing a scratched filter is a lot cheaper than replacing the lens front glass element.
A skylight filter is a hint of subtle magenta colour and slightly warms your image especially during the sunny day in traditional film photography certain colours such as blue would dominate in the use of a skylight filter would tone down the amount of blue light making a more balanced image a UV filter also has a subtle magenta colour and blocks the UV light present in sunlight traditional film would react to this light and would ruin a good image
An ND filter or neutral density filter shades the amount of light entering the camera allowing a longer exposure to be made and filters are often used in macro work as they allow a wider aperture to be used to get the same exposure and this will reduce the depth of field and potentially enhance your image ND filters are also widely used in landscape photography to protect from lens diffraction which is caused when you use a small aperture on your lens adding a neutral density filter allows the aperture to be set more near the lenses optimal settings which is often around f8 allowing for a longer exposure time
If you look at the two photographs that we have here the second image has a longer exposure time then gives the viewers a sense of motion in the water we can also use an ND filter important photography and we can use it to control the light from the flash of speed light allowing a shallower depth of field guaranteeing the subjects background remains out-of-focus where the subject remains completely in focus.
Graduated filters or grade filters are a hybrid of the colour compensating and new density filter however the density gradually increases towards the top of the filter these are particularly useful in landscape photography when compensating for a dark foreground and the light sky there are two types of grade filters
The hard-edged "grad" is a filter that is particularly useful in high contrast images where the sky is very bright compared to the subjects in the foreground and when the horizon is completely flat the hard edge must however be aligned with horizon otherwise a clear line will be present in your image the other type is called the soft edge "grad". This filter does exactly the same thing however the transition from light to dark he's a lot more gradual a filter like this is useful when photographing your horizon which isn't flats such as a mountain range or a near forest.
The compensation filters are used to correct colour imbalance in your picture filters of this type come in various densities of red, green, blue, yellow, orange, magenta and cyan I will talk about the orange and blue filters a little more later in this tutorial these extreme colours are used primarily in black-and-white photography to either make regions of colour much darker or really stand out colon compensation filters can easily be replicated and even the most basic of photo editing packages and I rarely used nowadays
A warming filter reduces the blue caste photographs taken in the midday Sun but given the image a golden glow they are effectively an orange- coloured compensation filter they are also useful in portrait work as they warm the colour of the skin however they are easily reproduced using the most basic of photo editing packages so I rarely use nowadays a cooling filter does exactly the opposite of a warming filter emphasizing the blue light that is weaker in the morning and evening light they are effectively a spectrum absorber removing some of the orange colour from the image again this filter can be easily reproduced using the most basic of photo editing packages so we don't really use them any more
We can also use a standard lens as a macro lens with the use of a close-up or a dioptre lens filter several of these lenses may be used together to achieve magnifications of approximately life-size the because of the extra glass light quality is lost making some cameras trouble to focus particularly in and around the edges of the image due to the distortion caused by the glass in this filter. It is however a cheap quick and easy way to get into macro photography
Filters can also be used to perform some special effects as filters can be cut to perform a multitude of tasks where there the need of photo editing packages on your computer shaping the filter have drastically altered the path light through to your camera sensor these special effect filters have been generally replaced due to their niche use and the versatility of editing software they range from motion blur star effect and dream effect to name a few all of which can be reproduced easily using photo editing packages the example shown is a 6-sided star effect filter on a bridge in Budapest
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