ND Filters
 

Im new to photography and am looking for new ways to improve my pictures would filters improve them?
thanks

Hello Fred, welcome to WPF. To answer your question, it all depends on what sort of pictures you are taking, what you want to do with them, and how you want to improve them. Without a clear idea of what you want to do, people are going to struggle to answer. If you don't know how you want to improve things, then I suspect the answer is "no". Random use of filters without knowing what you want to achieve is not likely to give an improvement.

Thanks i realize now i should have put more into my question.
So here goes.. Im interested in taking landscape and architecture pictures and just keeping them for my own enjoyment. I hope to acomplish the same results as ive seen on http://www.interfacelift.com
So is it a matter of post processing? or will filters help me to improve the overall look of the pictures?
any advice is appreciated
thanks fred

Hi there Fred, if you are taking landscape pictures then there are some filters you may find essential/useful - Graduated Neutral Density filters will allow you to retain detail in the sky, when there is a big range of exposure between sky and foreground. You can buy circular mounts, or as I think, the more useful square/oblong filters such as Cokin, Lee Etc. these slide up and down a holder on the front of the lens and it means you can move them up and down to suit your image. Solid Neutral Density will allow you to use lower shutter speeds to get that milky effect on streams and sea. A polarizer ( Must be a circular polarizer for Digital ) - will cut down glare and reflections. Cokin and others make numerous different effect filters but I think these are the ones to start with. I use Cokin "P" size filters and for different lens sizes I use step up or step down rings to attach them. This is probably the cheapest way to get them. Neutral Density filters come in different gradations - from about 1 stop up to 8 stops. You will find you rarely - if ever - want the extremes - so I have a .3 and .6 which combined give me a .9. I find that the .6 is the one I use most here in the UK. When I was in France I used the combo most because the light was different. For Architecture your problem is different - external shots - use same as for landscape - for internal shots - learn to use the white balance on the camera ie: set white balance for tungsten, fluorescent etc depending on the internal lighting.

Thank you for the info much appreciated. I'm off over to ebay to see what i can pick up
thanks again

Just a point which you may already know but when Andy says "circular" polarizer he is not talking about the physical shape (although they are circular) but about how the polarization actually works. The other sort is called "linear" polarizer and I am not sure they are even made any more but they may well be on e bay but would give you all sorts of problems.

Fred,

Having seen the examples you wish to aspire to, I'd say it's got more to do with understanding light, understanding composition, and planning your shots with a clear idea of what you want to achieve before you press the button. You can post process to your heart's content, you can add all the filters you like, but unless you understand light and composition it will not get you where you want to be.

Take a good look at some examples you want to aspire to. Really look at them. Look at where the light is coming from, look at how the light hits the subject, look at the shadows, look at the colour of the light, understand what time of day the picture was taken, look at how the picture has been framed and composed, think about how your eye is led around the image, what you look at first, how your eye is led around the image. These are the things that will improve your photography.

Good luck.

thank you so much for those words of advice

Hi again Fred - I would endorse both the comments by Mike and Duncan (Yelvertoft) - especially Duncan's comments - In jumping straight to the physical filters you can get I jumped the gun. Look at as many examples as possible and really study them, as Duncan says - composition, light, framing. No amount of filters will make a poorly composed or lit shot into a masterpiece. Look through the Landscape Sections in the Gallery - They may give you ideas - don't be overawed by any of them - remember we all started somewhere and we are all still learning.