Protective filters for lenses. Light filters

Greetings, dear readers! With you again, Timur Mustaev. If you are the lucky owner SLR camera and use it not only for home photography, then sooner or later you will think about buying both new lenses and filters.

Why are lens filters needed and how does a particular instance differ? We will talk about this today.

A little educational program

Light filter is an optical device whose direct purpose is to suppress unwanted effects or, on the contrary, their acquisition.

In other words, light filter is an attachment to the lens lens used to adjust brightness, contrast, and color saturation directly during shooting. Usually they are also simply called a filter.

To know for sure which filter is suitable for your lens, you need to remember the only parameter - its diameter. It is always indicated on the lens or on its protective cover.

Main types of filters

There are eight main types of filters for a SLR camera, which differ from each other not only in purpose, namely:

• Protective, as you understand from the name, protect the lens from unwanted mechanical damage.

Dust particles and excess moisture very quickly deteriorate the quality of optics, so installation protective filter important immediately after purchase.

This type does not in any way affect the quality of the final images, because in terms of its structure it is ordinary glass, slightly better than window glass.

• Ultraviolet- are the most common among amateurs and professionals. If you believe the loud words of the sellers, then this type protects the device matrix from UV waves. In fact, it is not possible to confirm or refute this information.

• Skylight— have a pale pink tint, which makes the pictures look warm colors, I believe that their purchase is inappropriate, this result can be achieved in a matter of seconds when processing photos.

• Polarizing- used mainly during landscape photography.

They completely eliminate unnecessary glare on reflective surfaces such as water or glass.

• Neutral- somewhat similar to sunglasses, only can have variable dimming density.

They are used when there is a need to shade the frame or some part of it without making any color changes. Designated as ND.

They do their job perfectly when taking photographs. long exposure moving objects such as water, clouds, cars with headlights on, people.

Using this filter, you can get rid of passing people; to do this, you need to expose the photo for two minutes. This opportunity is often used by photographers who photograph architecture in places infested with tourists.

• Gradient— create a multi-colored overlay on the photo, changing the natural shades.
• Infrared- used for artistic photography, they record the ability of objects not to emit, but rather to absorb infrared waves.

In fact, elements that absorb IR waves will look darker in the photo, and, for example, the greenery of trees that reflects the rays, on the contrary, will become winter white. This effect is somewhat reminiscent of a negative frame.

• Fluorescent— balances the light emitted by fluorescent lamps to the level of incandescent lamps. Designated as FLD.

Filters for creating various effects on photos

1. Diffuse— create a pleasant blurring of objects, resulting in the photo looking like a cutout from a dream.
2. Radiation, as a rule, are used to stylize a photo to look like a picture. With their help, you can create star highlights around a luminous object, such as a street lamp or various LEDs. In this case, the size and brightness of the “star” depends on the size of the light source.
3. Foggy— reduce the contrast of the frame, creating a whitish haze.
4. Colored and multicolor— change the color of the entire image or a separate part of it.
5. Rainbow— create a rainbow effect around light sources.

As you understand, there are a huge variety of light filters; they differ from each other in structure, purpose, and price. By the way, as for the latter, it directly depends on the diameter of the lens; the larger it is, the higher the price.

The brand also affects the cost; original attachments from Canon and Nikon are quite expensive, but are not better than many analogues.

Therefore, approach your long-awaited acquisition wisely without spending money. Focus on customer reviews for a particular model, and also monitor prices in different stores.

You can easily find something on Aliexpress, for example, the same one - Polarizing filter . Be sure to read the reviews, based on them you can already draw conclusions whether to buy or not. I buy a lot of things there, for example, it turned out to be very good lens cleaning pencil And microfiber cloth.

If you are interested in light filters, then you are no longer just a person who sets the mode to auto and, without any knowledge of photography, presses the shutter button. You want something more. Do you want to learn how to take photographs like a pro? That’s why I recommend that you definitely watch the video course - Digital SLR for a beginner 2.0. This is a really good course that will give you a good head start in your endeavors as a photographer. All in your hands!

All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

There is an opinion that filters are rapidly becoming a thing of the past along with film cameras. Today, when any effect can be achieved using computer processing, light filters have indeed lost much of their relevance. But nevertheless, for some tasks even today, a light filter is the most reliable and convenient tool for work. Now it performs a different function - with the help of a light filter you can create the photographic material that you need for subsequent processing. It does not replace photo processing, but creates the base we need for processing.

And today we will talk about exactly this - about what kind of filters a modern digital photographer needs and why.

But first, let's talk about which filters really need to be consigned to the dustbin of time.

And it’s worth talking about them because the seller in the photo store can tell you for a long time and in a fascinating way how you need these filters and how you can’t live without them. It’s just that these filters have been lying around collecting dust in the store’s warehouse for a long time, and the seller needs to sell them to someone.

Color filters and filters that change color temperature

The RAW format gives us the ability to change colors, change color temperature, and do a lot of other cool things. And for this you don’t need to buy glass, which costs 100 times more than its cost.

Effective filters.

Asterisks. Rays. "Blur." All this was mega-cool until Photoshop was invented.

Let's say goodbye to these veterans and turn to those light filters that are of interest to us even in the 21st century.

Ultraviolet filter (UV)

The main task of this filter is to prevent the penetration of ultraviolet rays. If you are shooting in the highlands or on the ocean shore at the height of solar activity (when the influence of ultraviolet radiation on the picture is especially high), a UV filter will really make the colors in the photo more realistic and beautiful.

But such conditions are quite rare. In practice, the main function of a UV filter is different - a UV filter is great for protecting your lens from physical damage. It does not affect the picture in any way (and in some cases even improves it), but if the camera falls, it will take the blow. After all, it is much cheaper to buy a new filter than a new lens.

What is important is that it will also be the UV filter that gets dirty and scratched, not your lens. If you use expensive optics, be sure to buy a UV filter along with the lens.

Polarizing filters

I’m sure each of you has seen gorgeous photographs from tropical islands, where the sky is truly blue and the ocean is a beautiful, rich sea color. All these photographs were taken using a polarizing filter.

Photographer — Vasily Gureev

The main function of the polarizer is to eliminate reflections and glare on shiny non-metallic surfaces. It is thanks to this that the sky in the photographs turns out so blue - the polar explorer removed the sunlight re-reflected by the sky.

Photographer — Vasily Gureev

It’s the same with water - by removing glare from its surface, we get richer and more beautiful colors.

Photographer — Vasily Gureev

Another way to use a polarizer is to eliminate reflections in windows and windows. Let's say you need to photograph a person sitting outside the window in a cafe. But in the photograph we will get a lot of reflections in the glass of the store window. Use a polarizer and you will get the shot you want.

Of course, you can make the sky and water beautiful through processing. But, firstly, this is not possible in all cases, and secondly, using a polarizer you can do even more beautiful picture during processing, because with a polarizer we will initially get a frame with better colors - an excellent basis for subsequent processing.

In reportage photography, a polarizer is truly indispensable. Having taken 300-600 frames from an event, you will spend a lot of time beautifully processing the same sky. And with a polarizer, you will immediately get frames where general batch processing will be enough to produce excellent photographs.

Neutral Gray (ND) Filters

The effect that a neutral gray filter has is very difficult to recreate during processing. And even in those cases where this is possible, this becomes an extremely labor-intensive process. What does an ND filter do?

Have you seen photos of water flowing smoothly from a waterfall?

Beautiful shots. And they can only be removed using ND filters. The point is that if we set the exposure settings correctly, we will get a beautiful shot. But the water in the waterfall will freeze. There won't be the smoothness we wanted. Because to get this smoothness, you need to shoot at a long shutter speed - 1/2 second or more. But when shooting at such a shutter speed during the day, the frame, no matter how hard we try, will still end up overexposed. What to do? Put on the ND filter. The only function of an ND filter is to reduce the amount of light entering the camera sensor.

There are ND x2, x4, x8 and even x400 filters. These numbers in the filter markings indicate the coefficient of light transmission. We take, say, an NDx8 filter, put it on the lens and that’s it! Now the camera receives significantly less light and we can safely shoot at the shutter speed we need.

Gradient filters

Essentially, a gradient filter is just glass, one half of which is transparent and the other half is colored. There are two types of gradient filters - neutral gray and color. Color filters are used only when shooting on film, because... in digital photography, its effect can be created in Photoshop in a couple of clicks. This means that he is not at all interesting to us. But the neutral gray filter really deserves attention.

A gradient neutral gray filter has the same effect as a regular ND filter - it does not allow excess light to pass through. But in the case of a gradient filter, the ND coating only occupies half of the glass.

Why is such a filter needed? For example, let's say you're shooting a landscape. In the frame there is a field with wonderful flowers and beautiful clouds in the sky.

But the sky and the field differ in brightness. This means that either our sky will not be rich and contrasting enough, or the field will turn out to be too dark. And in such a situation, we just need to put on a gradient ND filter - one half of which is transparent (let’s turn the filter with this half on the field), and the other neutral gray (and its correspondingly on the sky). What did we get?

Now the sky in the frame will be darker than it actually is, which means we have equalized the brightness of our sky and field.

A similar effect, without using a filter, can only be achieved by taking several frames with different exposure settings, and then, during processing, merging them all into one photo. But it’s easier and more effective to just put on a filter and immediately take the shot you need.

In the shop

So, having decided which filter we needed, we came to the photo store. When purchasing a filter, it is important to know a few things:

— All filters are made to fit a specific lens thread size. For example, you won’t be able to put on a filter for a 50mm telephoto lens - it will simply be too big.

— Buy ​​filters from trusted manufacturers. A low-quality filter will not last long and will quickly begin to spoil your photos. The fact is that cheap filters are made of low-quality materials, which after a while will begin to deteriorate, the components of the filter will begin to delaminate, distorting the picture in your photographs.

— You should not buy filters from branded photographic equipment manufacturers (Nikon, Canon, Minolta, etc.). Of course, these are high-quality and reliable filters. But the brand in their name is just a set of letters and nothing more. They are produced by completely different companies commissioned by Nikon or Canon. And as a result, you will overpay a decent amount just for a well-known brand.

— There are several companies that produce really high-quality professional-grade filters for reasonable money:

Rodenstock

The Optische Werke G. Rodenstock company has been producing photo optics for over 100 years, and Rodenstock filters are rightfully considered one of the best in the world. Professional photographers around the world trust Rodenstock filters and this is perhaps the best recommendation.
If you need a really high-quality light filter, pay attention to Rodenstock filters.

HOYA

World leader in the production of light filters. In the production of filters, HOYA uses a number of unique technologies that make their filters very high quality and reliable. We are especially interested in the HOYA PRO1 Digital filter series - light filters created specifically for digital cameras.

Schneider B+W

The company is also known for the quality of its filters. In addition to producing an extensive range of filters, B+W pay special attention to the durability of their filter frames.

TIFFEN

Due to their quality, TIFFEN filters are used by professionals around the world. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to find TIFFEN products on the Russian market than HOYA or B+W.

As we can see, filters are an integral part of the filming process in modern photography. The success of a photographer today is the technical knowledge of photography and the ability to competently process photographs. And filters are exactly what will help you create a photo that you can process as efficiently as possible.

These are colorless filters that won’t hurt to buy in pairs with any digital camera and install immediately in the store.

A neutral density filter will protect the lens from dust, dirt, and fingerprints. With it, splashes of water on the beach and minor damage on a hike are not scary. Even if such a filter gets damaged, replacing it will be much cheaper than the lens or the entire camera. In turn, neutral density filters have several subtypes:

• ND - neutral gray. It allows you to open the aperture further and lengthen the shutter speed. At the same time, the filter controls the amount of light, so it is used in excessive lighting: in the mountains, on a sunny day, by the sea.
• UV - ultraviolet. Another filter that helps cope with the abundance of sunlight. Without it, the image may have a slight haze or a blue tint due to exposure to ultraviolet rays. If you take black and white photos with him, then White color will be more bright.
• SKY - this filter “removes” the cold tint, giving the photos some “pinkishness”. In general, this does not spoil the color balance, but makes it softer. This filter is good in cloudy weather and for portraits.

Polarizing filter - getting rid of glare

This filter is considered the second most popular. Its device includes 2 lenses: static and rotating. This design ensures its main advantage - the absence of glare when photographing glass and water. In landscape photos, it slightly darkens the sky without changing the color balance. The most popular types of polarizing filter are:

• Circular Polarizer - used in daylight outdoors. With it, the colors become richer, the clouds look more contrasting against the blue sky.
• Warm Polarizer - this filter is suitable for subject photography and portraits. With it, the color scheme is warmer and the image is softer.

Conversion and color enhancement filters - perfect color

The second name for a conversion filter is color correction. With its help you can get better color rendition even in poor lighting

Advice. Using such a filter, the color temperature of the lens shifts; to adjust it, you may need a special table or device - a colorimeter.

The situation is simpler with a color-enhancing filter, which is designed to highlight one color. It can be red, blue, green, etc. Interestingly, the tonality of the image does not change.

Softening filter - rejuvenation of any portrait

They are also called “Soft filters”. Images produced with this filter are clear, but with softened fine details. They are good to use for portrait photography, because they can smooth out fine wrinkles and other skin imperfections. Types of softening filters:

• Spot - used with wide-angle lenses, gives sharpness in the center and softness at the edges.
• Soft-spot - the edges of the frame are soft and slightly blurred, the center is clear.
• Warm Soft - balances contrast and gives “warmth” to the image. Good for a group photo.
• Silky soft - smoothes out sharpness, ideal for portraits, flowers, insects.
• Foggilizer - scatters the image, often used for morning photography.

Filters for special effects

These filters will appeal to creative people who tend to experiment. With their help you can get truly unusual photos.

• Star - create a star-shaped point light source in a photo with 4-12 ends.
• Dr-oreol - diffraction halo. With its help, you can create a rainbow circle around a bright light source in an image, provided that the background is dark.
• Triangle - a triangular prism, can be vertical or parallel, and have several sections. Creates a triple image effect in a photo.
• Odd out - removes the center of the image, moving its side parts. It looks unusual and, at the same time, very organic.
• Filt - macro lens. With its help, you can focus on a distant object, while conveying a sharp object in the foreground.
• Close-up - designed for macro photography done using zoom.

Filters for B/W shooting

Taking a high-quality black and white photograph is not as easy as it might seem. Color, light and shadows are important here. Therefore, a special filter will not be superfluous. They brighten light objects and make dark ones even more saturated. Therefore, the image is clear and beautiful.

Selection criteria

Deciding on what kind of filter you need is not everything. Now you should take into account the main criteria when choosing which manufacturer and modification to give preference to.

• Fastening. Most often, filters are made with a special thread, which is screwed onto the lens. Typically the thread pitch corresponds to the standard 0.75 mm, but there are models where it is smaller - 0.5 mm. Moreover, each lens has its own diameter; accordingly, the filter must be selected according to size.

Advice. Today there are gelatin filters on the market that are independent of thread and diameter. To make them, you need to dissolve a special dye in gelatin and apply this mixture to polished glass. When the film has dried, it is removed from the glass and cut to the right size. These are very high-quality filters, but fragile, they are afraid of heat, dampness, and touching your fingers.

• Price. Everything is very simple here. The higher the price, the greater the likelihood that the filter is of high quality. It is better to immediately abandon cheap models. There is a high probability that they will simply be ineffective.
• Manufacturer. Of course, it would be nice to buy “native” filters for such popular cameras as Canon and Nikon. But their prices are prohibitively high. Same quality for reasonable price can be obtained from Hoya, Marumi Promaster, Sunpack, Tiffen, B+W, Kenko models.

Buying a good filter is half the battle. It needs to be looked after properly. Can't clean it folk ways- breathing and wiping with his sleeve. It is better to buy a special cleaning kit. And store the filters themselves in soft cases. Then they will last a long time and give their owner thousands of bright and high-quality photographs.

Using filters: video

Lens filter- This is a special glass that is installed on the lens using a threaded connection. The purpose of light filters can be different, depending on the needs of the photographer: from simple lens protection to special effects. Using lens filters, you can achieve the required frames without special graphic editors (such as Photoshop).

• You can continue to read the article to the end or Select a filter for your lens using our .

Filter mounting diameter.

In order to select a filter for your lens, you need to know the diameter of the thread on the lens of your camera or video camera. Usually the diameter is written on the lens itself. Also this information You can find out in the instructions for your camera or lens, or simply measure the diameter with a regular ruler. All diameters are standardized by manufacturers and you are unlikely to go wrong.

Today the main thread diameters on lenses are: 30mm, 37mm, 40.5mm, 41.5mm, 43mm, 46mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 86mm, 95mm, 5mm, 107mm, 127mm.

Types of filters for lenses.

Depending on what kind of glass is installed in the filter frame and, accordingly, the resulting optical effect, light filters are divided into the following types.

Protective filters- used mainly to protect the lens from fire, dirt, and scratches. This type of filters can be used for permanent use; they do not affect the characteristics of the luminous flux.

Ultraviolet filters (UV Filter)- reduce the impact of ultraviolet radiation on the camera matrix, thereby protecting the pixels from fading. This type of filter is also recommended for use as protective filters.

Polarizing filters (CPL Filter)- remove glare that is formed when light is reflected from metal and glass surfaces, glare from water, and also reduce the contrast between sky and ground in bright sunlight.

There are 2 types of polarizing filters: linear (PL) and circular (C-PL).

Linear polarizing filters (unlike circular ones) cannot be used with TTL exposure metering, which is used in almost all modern cameras. Therefore, circular polarizing filters (CPL) are now mainly used.

Any polarizing filter requires preliminary adjustment before taking photographs. Because consists of 2 parts, then by rotating one of its rings, you can get the desired result. (Recommended for use on lenses that have internal focusing - this is when the external lens does not rotate during the focusing process).

Gradient filters (GND Filter)- usually one half of the filter is transparent, and the other part of the glass is painted in some color (gray, orange, blue, green, etc.).

These filters are necessary to reduce the dynamic range of the scene (for example, a situation at sunset: the sky is too light, the ground is too dark.)

Star filters

This effect is achieved by a grid of cross lines applied to the surface of the glass. These filters can be four, six or eight rays.

Macro-Filter- used when photographing macro objects (for example, insects, jewelry, coins. Currently, they are widely used in dentistry).

Using these macro lenses, you can reduce the minimum focusing distance, thereby displaying all the smallest details. Macro filters differ by diopter: Clouse UP +1, Clouse UP +2, Clouse UP +3, Clouse UP +4, Clouse UP +10

Neutral gray (ND) filters- allow you to reduce the brightness of the light flux. These filters are made of tinted glass and differ in the amount of light transmitted.

This type of filter is marked as follows: ND2, ND4, ND8, ND16, ND32, ND64, ND400, respectively, increasing the density by 2 times increases the exposure by 1 step.

There are also adjustable neutral gray filters (Variable Density ND Filter), in which, when the frame is rotated, the light flux entering the matrix decreases from 1 to 8 steps (ND2-ND400).

Skylight filters (Skylight)- allow you to make the cold tone in the frame “warmer”. This effect is achieved by using glass with a slight pink tint.

Softening filters (Soft)- Mainly used in portrait photography to soften skin tone.

Warming filter

Fluorescent filters (FLD Filter)

Diffusion Filters- designed to blur the boundaries of the photographed object without changing the color rendition. These filters are mainly used in portrait and landscape photography.

The degree of brightening of the filters.

This parameter determines what part of the light the filter will block. How more degree brightening of the filter, the less light loss and less extraneous glare. Clarification of the filter is achieved by applying special filters to its surface. thin layers spraying. There can be several of these layers, and each subsequent layer increases the degree of brightening of the filter and prevents reflection of light rays.

The presence of antireflection layers on filters has its own designation:

- filters without coating(up to 92% of light) - simply indicate the diameter and manufacturer of the filter.

- filters with single-layer coating(up to 95% of light) - the designation SC, C (single coated, coated) is added to the name.

- filters with three layers of coating(up to 99% light) - the designation MC (multi-coated) is added to the name. For example UV-MC, MC-CPL, etc.

- filters with six layers of coating(up to 99.7% of light) - the designation SMC, HMC, MRC (super multi-cjated) is added to the name.

Additional properties of light filters.

Manufacturers of light filters are constantly working to improve their products and try to best meet the emerging needs of amateurs and professionals.

For example, some manufacturers add waterproof coating WPC (Waterprof-coated) on the surface of the filter, which repels dirt and water droplets from the surface.

Especially for wide angle lenses They were designed light filters in thin frames (slim), which has a thinner filter edge, thereby eliminating the vignetting effect that can occur with a conventional filter.

For extreme photography, there are super-durable HD series filters, the glass of which is several times harder than a regular filter.

Manufacturers of filters.

Currently, there are quite a lot of companies that produce photo accessories. The most popular are the Japanese Marumi, Hoya and Kenko, the German B+W Schneider, and the American Tiffen.

Many photographic equipment manufacturers, such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung, also produce filters under their own brands, but as practice shows, the prices for their products are much higher, with the same level of quality.

When choosing a filter manufacturer, you should take into account the fact that many of them have production in Asian countries. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to less popular brands, such as Fujimi, Flama, Polaroid. The quality of products from these manufacturers may not be inferior to famous brand, and the price will be significantly lower.

To ensure that your filters serve you for a long time and do not lose their properties, use cases for storing filters. Periodically clean your filters from dust and dirt using special optics cleaning kits or lens and filter cleaning pencils (for example Lenspen LP-1). Place a protective lens cap on your filter when transporting your camera.

Lens filters, although not a mandatory part of a photographer’s arsenal, can significantly diversify creativity and solve a number of pressing problems. Their the main task- optimization, in other words, delaying “unnecessary” light that should not be displayed in the frame. And besides, they perfectly protect the main one, literally exposing themselves to attack. The variety of light filters is quite large, so let’s look at their main types to better understand what they are.

Polarizing filters

These lens filters are perfect for landscape photography. They delay and transform

ND filters

Neutral gray filters are needed for those moments when it is simply impossible to raise the aperture value even higher. These devices reduce the amount of light entering the matrix. An example is the need to shoot a waterfall in bright light. Without a filter, you will most likely end up with just frozen, immobilized water.

Gradient ND filters

The main difference from a regular ND filter is the ability to darken gradiently, from dark to almost transparent. These lens filters are good when you need to make the sky more expressive. Most gradient devices are rectangular in shape and are attached to lenses using special holders.

Gradient filters

Color filters for lenses are not used very often. They are often used for black-and-white photography to manipulate the contrast of the image. For example, a red filter that allows you to increase the contrast between clouds and sky.

Macro filters

This is not to say that macro filters are ordinary - they are more like an additional lens. Many of them can be assembled by screwing on each other. They enhance the possibilities of close-up photography. Of course, they do not compete with macro lenses, but are great for various creative experiments. But their price is much lower than that of lenses, and they can be a real boon for a beginning photographer.

UV filters

Ultraviolet is invisible to the human eye. UV filters are often used to reduce fog and haze, for example in the mountains. On digital cameras they are not as relevant as for 35 mm film, because the matrix is ​​much less sensitive to UV light. However, UV filters are widely used to protect the main lens of the lens from mechanical damage, dust, and moisture.

How to choose a filter for a lens?

In the variety presented on modern market filters it’s easy to get confused. The determining factor should be the personal preferences of the photographer, as well as the goals that the device is intended to achieve. Consultants from specialized stores can also help you choose filters for lenses. The ideal option is to make a purchase in those stores that provide the opportunity for pre-sale testing. When choosing, be sure to take into account the lens model, that is, the size of its front lens. This, and not the camera manufacturer, is the main thing. For example, filters for 52 mm are suitable for both Canon and Pentax with the same lens diameter, but they will not “fit” for 49 mm.