Color filters with digital

swcolleen

Hi! I was wondering if anyone uses color filters (warming-cooling or whatever) with their digital cameras? I am new to trying to understand about filters and I know you can do a lot of stuff in Photoshop to replicate filters but I wondered about the practicality of using actual filters with a digital camera? I have heard that they don't do anything b/c of the white balance or something (which I still have trouble truely understanding but that is for another day!)

I thought some color filters might be fun to play around with and get some creative and different shots without having to rely on using Photoshop for those effects.

ANY info much appreciated....

ian408

bump

swcolleen

ian408 wrote:

bump

thanks for the bump....still hoping someone might have comments on this.

BenA2

Not really worth it
As you said, most of what you can do with color filters on the lens can be done (better) in camera or in Photoshop. What you use a warming or cooling filter for can be accomplished with in-camera white balance settings for JPEGs and in RAW conversion for RAW files.

The affects of other color filters, which people often use to change the tonality of black and white photos can also be more effectively and creatively accomplished by performing a B&W conversion from a color file in post-processing. Many cameras also have digital color filters built in for B&W JPEG shooting.

A key disadvantage of using filters on camera is that they cost you light, forcing you to slower shutter speeds, larger apertures or higher ISO. When applying filters digitally, you do so without losing light.

The only reason I can think of to justify using color lens filters on digitial is if you are shooting B&W JPEG, your camera does not have digital filter effects, and you have to deliver your shots immediately without post processing.

I hope that helps,
Ben

ScottMcLeod

BenA2 wrote:

The only reason I can think of to justify using color lens filters on digitial is if you are shooting B&W JPEG, your camera does not have digital filter effects, and you have to deliver your shots immediately without post processing.

I hope that helps,
Ben

Good call.

Zoom Raider

I find filters needful for protecting your lens' glass. One could be standing somewhere and a stone fly by and hit the glass that originated from a lawnmower.
I know I'd hate that.:cry

ScottMcLeod

Zoom Raider wrote:

I find filters needful for protecting your lens' glass. One could be standing somewhere and a stone fly by and hit the glass that originated from a lawnmower.
I know I'd hate that.:cry

I find that filters that I used to use for that purpose, have now been taken off, because I forget to take them off in conditions where they cause internal refraction and destroy perfectly good pictures with green and pink haloes.

I'd rather have to replace a lens, than lose a photo that could make me money.

That being said, I shoot mostly indoors. Outdoors, I'd probably put them back on again.