whats your favorite filter ?

Existing Light · Jul 18, 2011

I have an orange filter for my two Pentax K1000's. I dont mean an orange filter for each one, but one individual filter they must share. Actually one's a backup camera in case the first one decides to act up, but they both should have one. The local camera store only had one orange in the right size, so I promised myself I'd go back to get another one; that was probably a year ago

I wanted a bit of contrast between the clouds and sky, but I thought a yellow wouldnt be enough, but I didnt wanna go red and get black skies. I think dark skies and white clouds are cool when used sparingly, but the effect can get boring just like every other technique/effect used too often (Like that selective color crap digi shooters like to use where one thing is colored while everything else is black and white. hand tinting would have the same effect with me if I actually ever saw anybody do it )

Valerie · Jul 18, 2011

My Rolleiflex's red filter....

BrianL · Jul 18, 2011

1) UV and Skylight to protect my lenses
2) Polarizer
3) Yellow
4) Orange
5) Red
When photographing females, I tend to use a fine web softening filter. Finess depends on the amount of softness I want.

I have several dozen filters and over the years have steadily slowed down in using almost all of them.

I agree many what do you threads are useless so I ignore them but this one can be informative and interesting as someone jumping into filters can get a sense of what might be advisable to start with. One can always jump into the filter catalog and buy dozens and then over time learn what works or ask experience persons to see what most use.

I was lucky as many of my filters were bought at flea markets in bulk and are series filters for my Rolleiflex or larger series filters with adaptore for my Leica. With my Bronica the original owner seemed to buy one of everything on the shelf so I got them when I bought the system.

If I had to live with one filter, I think it would be my Nikon circular polarizer for the Bronica, an orange for the Rolleiflex 2.8 and a yellow for my Leica 40mm Sunnicron-C on my Leica. Each camera I tend to use for different types of shooting and find slight differences in filter effects on different lenses so can not say one particular filter works equally well on evey lens I own.

removed account4 · Jul 19, 2011

Gerald C Koch said:
Which is why I have a problem with such questions. I am tired of questions such as: "What is your favorite camera?", "What is your favorite film?", etc ad nauseam. The posters deliberately make the questions as vague as possible. If they really wanted useful information they would be very specific. These questions are meaningless and so are all the answers.

Gerald C Koch said:
Forgive me but I thought that the purpose of APUG was the sharing of useful information among serious photographers. Perhaps APUG should start a jokes forum for those desiring entertainment.

jerry,

you can easily ignore this thread. no one has forced you to read it
or comment here, just use the ignore thread option and remove this thread
from your whole view.

the question was vague because there are 1.000,001 different things
that can be used as filters ...

Kisatchie · Jul 19, 2011

When I shoot color film, all my lenses have Nikon L37c (haze) filters for protection.
When I shoot B&W, all my lenses have Nikon Y48 (medium yellow) filters for proper shading of the blue sky.

I rarely use a polarizer to make the sky more dramatic. I use it to remove glare on occasion.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 19, 2011

On special occasions I might use a red filter and a polaizer filter to get a deep black sky.

Jeff

MaximusM3 · Jul 19, 2011

Gerald C Koch said:
Forgive me but I thought that the purpose of APUG was the sharing of useful information among serious photographers. Perhaps APUG should start a jokes forum for those desiring entertainment.

I think that APUG exists because of the support of ALL sorts of photographers, some serious (maybe too serious, literally) and some not so. Let's not forget that and not pass judgement so easily, even when the topic is deemed not suitable to one's participation.

Thomas Bertilsson · Jul 19, 2011

My favorite filter. Makes everything better.

Klainmeister · Jul 19, 2011

Thomas Bertilsson said:
My favorite filter. Makes everything better.

well done.

bblhed · Jul 19, 2011

Orange for underwater correction.

Dave in Kansas · Jul 19, 2011

I suppose favorite does not mean used most often. When I use a filter, most often it is a yellow K2. But I really like the orange G.

Dave

moki · Jul 19, 2011

Red (or maybe it's dark red) that needs about 20-25x exposure. It allows long exposure or open aperture in daylight and gives a great look with Superpan 200, which I use very often. Portraits become very smooth/soft and under the right circumstances there is a slight wood-effect in landscapes but not the completely surreal tones of infrared photography.

Other than that: clean air. When I have a very sharp lens, I don't want to reduce its quality by putting some piece of glass in front unless it's absolutely necessary.

For lomographic stuff, I use whatever is around. Pieces of glass or plastic, bubble wrap or beer bottles. One of my favourites is a yellow filter that got dropped from a roof. It's completely shattered and full of dirt, so it gives great flare and vignetting.

Renato Tonelli · Jul 20, 2011

Thomas Bertilsson said:
My favorite filter. Makes everything better.

Forgot to list this one in my post - thank you for the reminder. I also use it as an all-around and most excellent lubricant.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 20, 2011

I also like the 81A filter.

Jeff

Klainmeister · Jul 20, 2011

You raise an interesting point, Moki, that I have often wondered about. Does having a filter actually reduce image quality on high-end lenses?

André E.C. · Jul 20, 2011

If the filter is of low quality, you will notice the loss. If it is one of the highest quality optical glass, well, you will lose a tad of course, after all, you're placing more glass in front of your optic, but nothing you will notice at naked eye.

I use always the highest quality filters on the market, filters are something where I don't save money, I demand utmost optical glass quality, whatever the price.

I use B+W mainly.

Cheers

railwayman3 · Jul 20, 2011

Klainmeister said:
Does having a filter actually reduce image quality on high-end lenses?

In theory, it must do. But in practice, using a good quality, clean, coated filter, I've never noticed any adverse effect.

I like to have filters of various kinds to hand for B&W, and to a limited extent for color, but try not to use them unless they really contribute to,or improve, a shotg....for example, I groan when I yet another indifferent landscape with gimicky white clouds and black skies that shouts "Infra-red filter", or an uninteresting night shot with a "starburst x6" on all the highlights.....

Klainmeister · Jul 20, 2011

Ok, so I have a set of B&W and Tiffen filters that I mainly use. My set of lenses are the M7 43mm, 80mm, 150mm, yada yada. I hear these are the best, but without access to the darkroom, I'll take it as hearsay. Nevertheless, I've always wondered if I should be removing my UV protection filters or not since these lenses are supposed to be so highly rated.

whats your favorite filter ?

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