Review: Lens Filters

Lens filters aren’t just about protecting your glass from scratches. There are many options out there that will help elevate your photography. Why would you need to use a filter? Read on to learn more about UV, neutral density, neutral density graduated, polarising, colour and softening filters.

UV filters

A UV filter is likely to be your foray into filters. UV filters are sometimes bundled with a kit lens. While they do filter out some unwanted light frequencies, it’s usually not easy to notice any difference or improvement in your images. They are, however, an excellent choice for helping to protect your lenses from scrapes, scratches and drops—the filter takes the brunt of the damage, instead of your lens’ front element. 

But that doesn’t mean you should just opt for the cheapest available UV filter. Lens manufacturers put a lot of effort into creating top-quality glass. Covering it up with a cheap filter can lead to softness, flaring and ghosting, potentially ruining your imagery. It’s well worth spending just a little more to ensure you’re protecting your glass without impeding it. Think of UV filters as an insurance policy for your lenses.

Good for: protecting your lenses.

Neutral density filters

A neutral density (ND) filter is like having a pair of sunglasses for your lens. By reducing the amount of light entering your lens in the first place, ND filters enable you to decrease exposure beyond what the camera and lens would otherwise allow. Here’s an example. It’s a sunny day, you want to shoot with an f/1.2 aperture but your maximum shutter speed is 1/8000 and your lowest available ISO is 50. An ND filter reduces enough of the light to help you achieve the correct exposure.

If you want to change the strength of the filter, you can choose a selection of different ND filters and switch between them. Or you can opt for a variable neutral density filter, which will allow you to manually alter the amount of light entering your lens simply by twisting the wheel.

Good for: daytime portraiture, long exposure photography. 

Neutral density graduated filters

Neutral density graduated filters, or ND grads, are popular with landscape photographers who want to bring the brightness of the sky in line with the darker exposure required for the foreground.

They come in different strengths and colours, allowing you to fine-tune your exposure. While some landscape photographers will prefer to bracket exposure in camera, shooting different exposures to then edit in post, many will attempt to get it right in camera. ND grads usually come as square filters, which are dropped in front of your lens via an adapter, but you can also find them with a circular screw.

Good for: landscape photography.

Polarising filters

A polariser allows you to cut out certain light frequencies that would otherwise cause unwanted reflections on glass and water. For example, if you want to shoot a scene involving water—or something through water—a polarising filter will allow you to ‘see through’ the water, without any glare on the water’s surface.

If you’re shooting a subject through a closed window—inside a car or a house, for example—a polariser will help to eliminate any surface glare from the glass of the window.

Polarising filters will also give you a little more contrast within skies, specifically clouds, for more dramatic skyscapes.

When using a polarising filter on a lens mounted to a camera with live view, you can see the polarising effect change by rotating the filter’s secondary wheel. 

Good for: dramatic skies, shooting through glass and water, adding contrast.

Colour filters

There are filters of many different colours available for creative photography. Today we’re only talking about red, green and yellow filters, the three colour filters traditionally used for black-and-white photography. When light passes through a colour filter, only certain colour frequencies are allowed to reach the sensor—thereby affecting the rendering of the scene.

Yellow filters are most frequently used to add drama to skies, adding more separation between the edge of the clouds and the backdrop of the sky. A yellow filter will also slightly lighten greens and blues.

The green filter tends to be used more when foliage is more likely to dominate an image. Greens are typically rendered lighter and can add separation to other colours. The filter is more likely to allow the green colour channel through to reach the sensor to a greater degree than the other colours.

The green filter can also be good at bringing out freckles, for example, should you choose to shoot black-and-white portraiture.

The red filter is arguably the more specialist and might add the most drama or make landscapes look more unusual. The blue channel, for example, struggles to get past red filtration—so skies can appear darker than normal using a red filter.

Red colours, such as in flowers or clothing, will appear lighter and in higher contrast to other colours that struggle to get recorded past the red filter.

Good for: black-and-white photography.

Softening filters

Most of us will recognise softening filters from the 70s and 80s studio portraiture with a Hasselblad. Most pro photographers would carry Zeiss Softar filters at different grades, depending on the age of the person sitting and their requirement or request for more softening.

These days, generally softening duties are taken care of by Tiffen’s Pro Mist range. They come in different levels of strength—the weaker ones might provide a light glow and softer contrast, whereas stronger ones will have much less contrast, which allows for a softening effect for portraits. When used shooting against bright light sources, the filters will give an effect of halation, which effectively ‘blooms’ bright light sources. 

Good for: portraiture, cinematic, urban and night photography.

And many more

Filters are a great way to accentuate your work. They can often be the cherry in top to bring out that extra bit of texture or tonality. Aside from the filters we’ve mentioned, there are many more out there. Some filters can give you in-camera effects that you might not be able to recreate in post. Plus, filters are relatively inexpensive to purchase—compared to another camera or lens—so you won’t have to spend much to get you on the next part of your creative journey.