Nature Travel & Street Photography

Essential photo filters for nature, travel & street photography

I use filters only when it is absolutely necessary. I have played around with a lot of them, experimenting and some of them have helped create very nice impressions. However, I use only a few regularly and have found them to improve the quality of the pictures dramatically.

Polarizers are very helpful in situations where you are shooting reflective surfaces and would not like the reflection to wash off the details from the mid tones or shadows. Reflective surfaces tend to over expose the meter reading, thereby creating a “hazy” picture with loss of texture.

Modern TTL meters read well off circular polarizers for an effective reading. The usual effects are darkening the blue sky and the water, removing reflection off shiny surfaces and glass and generally improving the saturation of the image.

The use of a polarizer, or the amount of polarization, depends on the artistic approach of the photographer. The fact that a polarizer could stop down the speed by as much as 2 stops is also a deciding factor on its usage.

Warming Filters - 81 series are very helpful in color correcting situations where the ambient is at a different Kelvin than the nominal rating of the film. Light sources with low average color temperatures tend to be red - orange, while that with higher color temperatures tend to be blue.

1000°K Candles, oil lamps 2000°K Very early sunrise, low effect tungsten lamps 2500°K Household light bulbs 3000°K Studio lights, photo floods 4000°K Clear flashbulbs 5000°K Typical daylight, electronic flash 5500°K Normal Daylight 6000°K Bright sunshine with clear sky 7000°K Slightly overcast sky 8000°K Hazy sky 9000°K Open shade on clear day 10,000°K Heavily overcast sky 11,000°K Sunless blue skies 20,000°+K Open shade in mountains on a really clear day

As a result, some daylight film appear with a bluish cast when shot in shade. A warming filter tends to correct this difference of temperature giving a more realistic feel to the image.

The warming filter - 81 series has 3 levels of strength, namely A, B and C. With A being of the lowest strength, adds a subtleness to the picture, and C being the strongest, leaves a warm yellowish or golden tinge. Many photographers have used the C grade to shoot sunrise and sunsets to create a strong ambiance.

Portrait photographers often use the subtleness that 81A filters have to offer to create a realistic skin tone. Using a combination of lighting and softness with a diffuser or a center spot filter, a 81A could be used to create a halo when shooting portraits. These compositions have to be carefully created to keep the picture from apprearing surrealistic! I have rarely used the higher 81 series, 81D or 81EF, in either landscape or portrait photography.

Neutral Density filters are probably the most important component of landscape photography. Of the many uses, they stop down light 1, 2, 3 and higher stops without changing the color composition of either the film or the ambiance. Please refer to the film manufacturers’ note on any adjustment to the exposure timing for long exposures. These filters, in combination with TTL slow sync flash, are also a vital component while creating impressions.

The gradual neutral density filters are like any other gradual filters, with the speciality of keeping the color intact. The cheaper ones show color casts ranging from pink to orange. I have found the B+W and Singh Ray filters to be very well created and thus far costlier!

.

Color Correcting Filters - the Wratten code is a system of naming photographic filters, named after Frederick Wratten, a British inventor. Wratten and his partner C. E. K. Mees later sold their company to Eastman Kodak in 1912, and Kodak™ continued to produce Wratten Filters. As of 2006, Wratten filters are still produced by Kodak™ and sold under license through the Tiffen Corporation™. Over a period of time, various filter manufacturers have started using their own system of labeling filters.
.
.

.

* Mired [definition] Derived from the term micro reciprocal degree, the Mired (M) is a unit of measurement equal to 1,000,000 (one million) divided by the given color temperature, as per the formula:
.
M=1000000/K, where M is the mired value desired, and K is the color temperature expressed in Kelvins (degrees Kelvin or Kelvin degrees).

Another commonly used unit of measure is decamireds (dM) where 1 decamired containing 10 mireds.