Tell me about the filters man!

Oh, I couldn't live without filters! First of all, the "must have" filter for ALL photographers is a circular polarizer! This can be used to saturate colors, add more contrast, reduce reflections and glare, reduce haze and overall just make your photos look better. Besides a circular polarizer filter, I have a 6-point star/cross filter, an infrared filter, a red filter, some macro filters, some gradual color filters, and a ND filter. The star cross filter is used when taking pictures of lights. It makes every light take the shape of a star. It makes for a very neat effect! The infrared filter is used to block out visible light and only let infrared light pass through. I mostly take infrared photos of landscapes, which alters the colors and makes for some amazing looking photos. The red filter is used for black and white photography. It just adds more contrast to your images. The macro filters (also known as close-up fiters or diopters) are basically like magnifying glasses you put over your lens. I use them for macro photography. My gradual color filters add a gradient of color to my images. I mostly use them for taking pictures of the sky. I use my gradual blue filter for bright sunny days to make the sky look more blue. And I use reds, oranges, pinks, purples, etc. for sunsets to really enhance the color in the sunset! The ND (Neutral Density) filter is used for long exposures to keep the photos from being overexposed. There are lots of different types of filters, but there are only two types that I use- threaded round filters and square filters. Threaded round filters screw right on to the end of your lens. The downside of these is that they will only fit one lens. So if you use a lot of different lenses, or if you plan on purchasing a new lens in the future the filters probably won't fit. You can get step-up rings and step-down rings which is basically like a converter so that a different size filter can fit a different size lens. Square filters are flat and square shaped. In order for them to work, you need a filter holder for your camera. The filter holder comes in two parts: one part that fits your lens size and another part that fits the filter size.

I tend to shoot without a lot of filters for the most part. The majority of the shooting I do is all low light and I can't afford to lose even a third of a stop for most of it. I have very good UV filters on all of my lenses for protecting the front element. All of my glass is FLAWLESS because of it, however I've had some filters scratched, so I'm glad I kept them on. My favorites have to be circular polarizers and neutral density filters. ND filters make for some awesome long exposures in bright daylight. Without it, I can't imagine how I'd get a 30 second exposure on a bright and sunny afternoon of a waterfall. They're just amazing.