Hi Peter. Let me chime in on this. First of all, there is one filter that
cannot be duplicated in post and that is the polarizer. With a lot of work
you might come close, but your final recorded image has no record of what
light was polarized and what was not. In film days, I had a PL filter on
every lens I had since I shoot mostly nature stuff. I would take it off if
I needed more light for some reason, but other than that it was my
protection along with being a polarizer. With digital I have noticed that
with my first Canon and then three Nikons, at elevation, it seems to be too
strong a lot of the time. Not sure why the difference. Maybe a circular vs
linear polarizer that I had on my old film cameras that were completely
manual. That said, I often have PL’s on all my lenses unless I know I will
not want one.
Next, I think that anything you can do before the sensor records the shot
has the ability to improve the image, and anything you do after, in Post,
will degrade the image as taken. That is not to say it won’t improve the
looks, but it is still a degradation of the captured image. You are adding
something or taking something away, altering pixles. So, with that in mind,
filters are something to consider. One that comes to mind has been
mentioned. The neutral density filters, either full, or split, hard or
graduated. In the case of the split filters, these prevent you from having
to do sever manipulations of darkening or lightening parts of the image,
both of which will degrade the image to a greater or lesser extent depending
on how much you need to change the local exposure. Introduces noise or
other artifacts. If you can do it before you capture the image, you are
better off.
So, those two filters are ones that everyone should consider.
Now, there are filters that we use to use for B&W. Yellow, orange, red
among them. I have not tried them with digital, but I am tempted to try a
yellow or red when I am shooting something I intend to turn to B&W. I have
noticed, at least in LR and PS, if you convert to B&W then attempt to
really darken the sky by adjusting the blue component, I get all kinds of
artifacts around fine detail like branches, or at sharp boundaries like the
tops of mountains and the sky. The sky darkens, but the branches/mountains
have a bright line halo effect around them. I have not been able to get rid
of that. Maybe it is my ignorance. I have been wondering if I had shot
that with a red filter then converted the image to B&W if I would still have
that same effect or if I would get a nice dark sky to accentuate the
branches/mountains the way it works with film. I don’t have any large red
filters as I never had any zooms when I shot film. Only smaller filter
primes. Has anyone tried this? Of course, if you are lucky enough to have
a Monochrom, you need to do this with filters as there are no color channels
to manipulate in post.
Then there are special effect filters like soft focus, star, etc, some which
you may be able to duplicate in post and some not.
So, that is my take on filters. Polarizer and ND, definitely. Others,
maybe.
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Stevens (Redacted sender "fritzj3" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2020 4:00 AM
To: Leicareflex Photo Group
Subject: [LRflex] Are On-The-Lens Filters Still Revelant With Digital
Cameras?
Good morning to everyone. A question for the group. Does anyone use
on-the-lens filters with their digital body/lens combos? If so, what filters
do you use and why? I was wondering earlier this morning, with the
sophistication of digital editing, if the contol available in the software
minimizes or eliminates the application of lens filters? I’m not educated
enough to know if the software will replicate things like, for example, the
polarization with regards to minimizing or removing reflections on water and
glass surfaces, or if the control of light provided by a Neutral Density
screw-on filter can be replicated or not in post-processing. Are there
things that software just can’t provide a substitute for? Thanks.
Best regards,
Peter S.------
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