Essential photo filters.

Photo filters offer many advantages, and by using them properly, you can transform your photos from good to great. They can significantly reduce image processing, providing exactly what you need at the moment of taking the picture. Let's review the main filters so you understand what each one is used for and can start adding them to your photography toolkit.

Shall we begin?

The polarizing filter

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It is one of the filters that provides the greatest effect; together with the neutral density filter, it produces photographs that cannot be achieved with image processing.

What is achieved? Polarizing light means eliminating light coming from the side, resulting in greater contrast and color saturation. It's also used to reduce glare.

Things to keep in mind. If the light source is directly in front or behind the subject, we won't achieve the desired effect. The light should come from the side. It's most commonly used for photographing sunrises or sunsets.

In the following cases it offers very good results:

Through a glass: When you take photos through glass, reflections appear that you can eliminate with a polarizing filter. You'll see how, as you rotate the filter ring, the reflections begin to dissipate or change position.

Photographs of water: When photographing water, many glares and reflections sometimes make it impossible to see what's underneath. If the water is clear and you apply a filter to your camera, you'll see how it's possible to photograph what's below.

Reduce brightness: The more polarization, the more stops of light are reduced. This means that you can benefit from the filter's functions in long-exposure photos.

Greater contrast: A higher contrast is especially noticeable in greens and blues. This filter is popular for intensifying sky colors, significantly enhancing scenes.

2 Neutral Density (ND) Filter

It's a very popular filter that helps achieve the effect of silky water and moving lights. These filters work by darkening the image, allowing you to increase the exposure time; depending on the filter, this can be by 3, 6, or 10 stops.

Keep in mind that these filters usually add color to the photograph. Therefore, it's advisable to take two shots, one without the filter and one with, to compare and make adjustments during post-processing. Another important point is that very dark filters significantly reduce visibility, so it's essential to frame and focus the shot before applying the filter.

Its main feature is that it reduces brightness, allowing for long exposures even on sunny days. It can be very useful for:

Silky water: Highly recommended for capturing the movement of water, making it appear silky, like sea waves, the flow of a river, lakes and ponds.

Cloud movement: On a bright day, getting clouds to appear as a vanishing point seems like a Herculean task. You can use this to create perspective with clouds at any time of day.

To give movement to a photograph: By using long exposure times, you can take photographs with trails, both of people and other moving elements in broad daylight.

Neutral density graduated filters

They differ from the previous ones in that, as their name indicates, they have a light part and a dark part, and a gradual transition between both parts.

What are they for? They are used to compensate for contrasts in the same scene, and are often used in nature scenes.

For example, if we have a scene with a lot of light in the sky, but we want to preserve its details, we'll use this filter. Without the filter, the sky would appear overexposed. This will save us many hours of photo editing.

Graduated filters with a maximum setting can subtract four stops of light in their darkest area.

The way to work with this type of filter would be the following: first you prepare the framing, once you have it you measure the darkest and lightest areas, the difference in steps is what you have to compensate for with the graduated filter.

What did you think? Are you ready to start using filters on your photos? Are you already an expert and want to contribute to this post? You can leave your comment below. Remember, we repair all kinds of photographic equipment. You can call us at:  96 546 18 62 ; or fill out our contact form We'd be happy to help!