The Secret Ingredient to Many a Dynamite Photo
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BG (0 u h PHOTO 0 h 0 I FILTERS o. The secret modular filter holder might be the solu- signed for a specific lens, quite often tion. This filter holder has lens threads your selection will be limited. ingredient on one side and a rectangular filter slot on the opposite side. The advantage to BASIC FILTERS to many a this system is that you can buy several holders to accommodate your lens di- Every filter manufacturer has a dif- dynamite photo ameters, then use the same filters for ferent way of grouping filters, which by Jack and Sue Drafahl each. You can quickly change filters by makes your filter selection even more sliding one out and the next one in. difficult. We think that filters should be Many holders have two slots, making it grouped as basic filters, advanced filters, hen we first started in pho- easy to use a combination of filters. The and special-effects filters. The basic tography, a photographer modular-system filters are square or rec- group includes filters that most photog- W could fit almost every type tangular in shape, and are made of plas- raphers would have in their camera bags, of photographic filter in a small camera tic, glass and acetate gel. regardless of whether they were just be- bag. Today that is almost impossible, as Special lenses such as fisheye and su- ginning or well advanced. The basic fil- there are hundreds of filters on the mar- per telephotos may require the third type ters include a polarizer, UV filter, and a ket, with new ones constantly being in- of filter. These lenses have a small filter series of light-balancing filters. troduced. Photographers can no longer drawer in the middle or rear of the lens. The polarizer is one of the most just go out and buy one Since these filters are de- popular filters since it performs a of each and have variety of functions. It can re- things covered. Instead duce reflections from glass they must analyze and water, make the sky their shooting style much darker, or increase and buy specific fil- the color saturation ters to fit their photo- of an image. graphic needs. The older linear polariz- FILTER TYPES ers were fine until the newer Before you decide what cameras with filters to buy, you first need built-in TTL metering to decide on how you want to and/or autofocusing sys- attach the filters to your cam- tems which partially polarize light. With era. There are three basic filter Three types of filters: The such cameras, you must use a circular systems for your camera. Screw-in plastic system filter (such as the polarizer, which is more expensive than filters are most common, and are de- Cokin shown at left), which is attached the linear polarizer. lenses of various diameters via a filter signed to screw into the finely machined holder and adapter ring; the screw-in fil- The polarizer comes in a rotating threads on the front of your camera lens. ter (front left), which screws into the mount. While viewing through the cam- You will need to buy a different-diame- lens's front threads; and the gelatin fil- era lens, rotate the filter until you see ter version of each filter you use if you ter (right), which have different diameter lenses. You can is attached to the buy step-up and step-down adapters to lens via a holder keep filter duplication to a minimum. To and adapter ring. avoid image cutoff, use the step-up adapters (which allow you to use a larg- A polarizing filter er-diameter filter on a smaller-diameter can darken a lens). Image cutoff can possibly occur blue sky so that with the step-down adapter (which at- white clouds will taches a smaller-diameter filter to a larg- really stand out. er-diameter lens), so make sure you use In black-and- the depth-of-field preview at the small- white photogra- est f-stop to check for cutoff. You may phy, you can use still need to purchase several different a red filter to darken the sky, filter sizes if you own large-diameter su- too; but obvious- perwide-angle or long telephoto lenses. ly the red filter If you plan on using several different won't suffice for filters on a variety of lenses, then the color work. 114 1998 PHorographic Buyer's Guide BG the desired effect. Reflections are quite color correction. Many of the larger for- lights, these filters may not provide per- •0 unpredictable, so trial and error is the mat films will have a suggested CC cor- fect color rendition. Testing ahead of I name of the game. You can obtain the rection for each box of film. This time is important if you want to get a 0 darkest skies with the polarizer when ensures that a product will have the same critical color balance. If the tests show H you point your camera at a 90° angle to color balance when photographed with you are close, you can finish the correc- 0 the sun. one box of film to the next. tion with one of the color-compensating In the past a UV filter came standard Photographers who find themselves (CC) filters. If you don't have an FL fil- when you bought a new lens. With im- shooting under fluorescent light will ter, a CC30 magenta filter can get you in H provement in lens glass, and as the spec- need the assistance of a special fluores- the ballpark. m 71 tral response of film keeps improving, cent filter. The two basic types are the Neutral-density filters reduce the V) this filter's job has changed to just pro- FL-D for use with daylight film and the amount of light coming through the lens tecting the front lens element. If you do FL-B for use with tungsten film. Since and onto the film. When you use this fil- a lot of outside work that is near mud or there are over 60 types of fluorescent ter, there is no visible color shift, and water, then this filter may save you the overall image quality is not degrad- some grief. ed. Neutral-density filters allow you to If you have ever seen pictures taken capture blurred action and use slow shut- indoors without a flash they probably ter speeds in full daylight. Exposure cor- turned out quite yellow. Right? Well that "If you plan rection is calculated at one stop for each is because the photographer didn't use .30 rating of the filter. (.90 = 3 stops). A the correct film to match the light on using polarizing filter can also be substituted source. Conversion filters are designed as a neutral-density filter. to help you balance the light source to several Contrast-control filters are seldom the film you are using. The 80 series of used in still photography (professional conversion filters will correct tungsten different movie cameramen like them) and may to daylight so your pictures will not have never see the inside of your camera bag. that yellowish cast. If you need to shoot filters on The low-contrast filter works by catch- tungsten-balanced film in daylight, the ing light from the highlight and adding 85 series of conversion filters corrects a variety it to he shadow areas. One variation of the color balance. this filter is called a soft-contrast filter, If you want to warm the color tem- which causes a slight amount of flaring perature, then the 81 series of filters of lenses, or halation around the highlights. would be your choice. Each filter has a letter behind it and increases in warmth then the SPECIAL-EFFECTS FILTERS as the letters go up. You don't have to get the whole series, as each filter is on- modular It seems that today's movie ratings are ly slightly different than the next. We based on the caliber of the special ef- recommend the 81A and the 81C for filter holder fects. This explosion of special effects starters. If you take pictures using day- has found its way into the world of still light film in deep shade with blue skies might be photography, too. Special-effects filters above, then you may want to go to the are constantly being improved, and new 81Dor81EF. the solution" effects seem to come out every month. Black-and-white photographers would have a different assortment of ba- sic filters. The polarizer would still be of great help, but a whole different set of color filters are used to increase the overall contrast in the scene. The red No. 25 filter gives very dark skies, the green No. 58 improves the density of flesh tones and lightens foliage, and yel- low filters give strong cloud contrast in landscape photography. ADVANCED FILTERS As a photographers improve and ad- vance to the status of serious amateur or pro, they will undoubtedly add more so- phisticated filters to help fine-tune their results. When an exact color balance is required in a scene, the smart photogra- pher reaches for a series of color-com- pensating (CC) filters. These come in the additive primary colors (red, green, blue) and the subtractive primaries (cyan, ma- genta, and yellow), with values of 05, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. They filters come A graduated filter can be used to bring out detail in a sky that is too bright to record in both glass and gel form and allow fine with detail when you expose for the dark foreground.