# Filters - Starting Out Set?



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Oh dear, oh dear... I seem to have been bitten by a new bug that seems to be equally as big a money pit as detailing!! :lol::lol:

Anyway, its my aim over the next few months to learn how to use my camera _properly_ rather than randomly pointing and clicking all over the place! Seeing as it seems a capable camera for a non-DSLR (Fuji FinePix S5700) I may as well see if I can get the best from it and if I can get any good, I may warrant myself a purchase of a more serious piece of kit.

So - I'm thinking of tinkering with a few filters so looking for some advice on what folk would recommend bearing in mind I like photographing landscapes (and beaches), cars and flowers... Diameter is 46mm. My thoughts thus far are...

Skylight Filter - basically something cheap on the end that doesn't really effect the picture but will stop be chibbing the actual camera lens by accident.

Neutral Density Filter (4, or 8? - took me a while to get my head around this as I work in dB as a Physicist) - wanting to do some longish exposure shots (up to the 4sec the camera allows) for motion blurs on things like waterfalls but dont want to overexpose everything.

C-Pol Filter - in an effort to cut down some glare at the beach and reflections...

Was also wondering about some form of filter to allow me to get more significant contrast in skys - especially clouds, C-Pol I guess will get me some of the way, or are there specific filters for this??

I'm considering the non-professional range of Hoya filters here, or are there any specific manufacturers I should be considering?

Any other filters you'd suggest for starting out? I'm not really wanting any strange multi-colour filters, but perhaps green filter may be good for flowers and orange perhaps for buildings?


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## flanker (Feb 18, 2008)

Can you still get Cokin slide in filters?
The holder fits on the end of lens, and you slide filters in.
Means you can use more than one filter.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

flanker said:


> Can you still get Cokin slide in filters?
> The holder fits on the end of lens, and you slide filters in.
> Means you can use more than one filter.


Yes I can, and I believe they work with my camera as my colleague has the older version of my camera and uses the Cokin filters...


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## flanker (Feb 18, 2008)

here you go;
http://www.cokin.co.uk/

Although I have been taking piccies for years, I am new to digital, 
so it may be that some of the effects can be done either on the camera or on Photoshop.
Some one with more knowledge will no doubt confirm or rubbish this.


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## neilneilorange (Oct 9, 2007)

Hoya or Cokin are both good makes. I personally use the Hoya range. I would suggest a UV0 filter (basically for lens protection) and a circular polarizing filter as a good start. A simple Jessops UV0 will suffice, but I would suggest spending as much as you can afford on the polarizer. I have found circular polarizers brilliant for brining back hazy or washed out summer midday skies and also for taking pictures through glass or windows. They also stop surface reflections when trying to shoot something underwater.


HTH 

Neil.


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Go for the Cokin P series Dave.

A lot of folk use a UV or skylight filter (round ones) permanently on the front of their lenses just to protect the front element.
As for effects, get the P system holder and adapter ring for your lens just now. Then any time you buy a new lens you just need a different adapter ring for it, and the P series will work up to pretty big front element size. (A series is cheaper, but think of the future).
Once thats done the first filter I would recomend is the CP. It can bring out details in skys, cut out reflected light etc and depending on the conditions can be used to darken the whole scene to allow for longer exposures. Expensive, but very usefull.
Next up would be a couple of ND grads, seeing as you want to take landscape pics. Hold back the sky so you can get better detail in the foreground.
That little lot will cost about a tub of SN, so enough to keep you going!!


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## -ROM- (Feb 23, 2007)

Right my advice would be this.

You can use a skylight filter but i don't really like them, they have a pink tinge to them to counter excessive blues in skys etc, but this can also be done in post production and any filter is gonna degrade the image quality a little as it is an extra layer of glass to get through.

Graduated neutral density filters are the way to go for long exposures (i.e they fade from top to bottom) but be careful that you line them up with the horizon or some clear horizontal break in the scene as it look odd when a tree or waterfall suddenly gets lighter half way down.

The c-pol will get you nice contrast in scenes like woods and vegetation, but remember they will stop some light getting through so you need to adjust your exposure accordingly. They are also great for cutting reflection so would be good for taking photographs of water and also give a nice effect when shooting cars.

You may also want to conider a clear UV filter especially when shooting on top of mountains or by the coast as the uv light is stronger there and as such give pics a wash out look with a lack of contrast.

Do you have a copy of photoshop CS2/3? If not PM me and we'll get something sorted

TBH i'm not a great fan of filters myself the only on i use on a regular basis is the polariser as i feel i can achieve 90% of what they do in photoshop.


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## nsanity (May 7, 2007)

Daves got another pricey hobby!!! hehe

(sorry, i cant add anything to the convo as im a n00b when it comes to cameras!)


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Many thanks guys for the help, good food for thought for me - definitely will look into a good C-Pol filter and a couple of neutral density filters to kick me off, cheers for the advice


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

Dave - have you got a tripod yet? That would be my first purchase if i were you. Will make more of a difference to your photography than anything else... Filters i would suggest a quality C-pol and perhaps the grad NDs but they are hard to use well unless you have a flat landscape. Learning some PS is far better, and then you merge 2 shots, which can be done much better than trying to use a grad filter that doesnt match your horizon etc giving funny coloured hills or trees...

I would also recommend taking a course - some of the online ones are superb. I have some lesson plans etc from some courses I took a few years ago that you might enjoy. Will try and look them out and email them across


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## TangoMan (Jul 28, 2006)

Cant say much more than what has already been said, I would suggest you can actually use more than one filter at a time though. For a weird effect you might want a go with an infrared filter;










Also check out http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ if you haven't already. Plenty of useful guides there.


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## JasonRS (Aug 8, 2006)

Polariser is probably the only filter you cannot replicate in image editing software, so definitely invest in one of those. a non graduated ND filter will allow you to get long exposures to get the mystical water effects etc, and tbh, you can't achieve that with image editing software either, so for me

C-Polariser
ND Grad (2 & 4) (effectively giving you 2, 4 and 6 as options)

A decent tripod is well worth the investment too, especially for long exposures.

And finally, don't pirate software, if you can't afford it, use the opensource / freeware versions. My day job is in the software industry, and my other job is in the entertainment industry, both affected by Piracy, so please don't do it, and it is a contributing factor to why PS CS3 et al cost so much.


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

If you are still a student you can get CS3 for £120 i think. Full version, just reduced for the unwashed:lol:


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