Transcript Advanced Camera Handling II – Lenses and Filters

Sensors and Filters
Eye
+
Brain
Image
(Perceived)
Naked Eye
“Reality”
Filters
Naked Eye
Sensor
Image
(Memory)
Capture
Display
Show
Eye
Image
(Perceived)
Film
“Reality”
Negative
“Reality”
Slides
Print
Negatives
Slides
Digital
Monitor
“Reality”
CCD
File
Print
Projector
Filtering with film photography
“Reality”
Optical
filter
Lenses
Film
Filtering with digital photography
“Reality”
Optical
filter
Lenses
CCD
File
Photo
Shop
Film Speed
Sensor Speed
The colour wheel
Filters for B&W
• We use filters to enhance certain features
when taking a photo in b&w.
Red Filter
Red filters produce a very strong effect and greatly increase contrast. They're often considered too "harsh"
for most types of photography, but can be used to produce striking creative effects. In landscape
photography, a red filter will turn a blue sky almost black and make clouds really stand out, giving the
scene a dramatic feel. They're also excellent for increasing visibility in haze and fog.
When shooting plants they help increase definition between flowers and foliage. This is particularly useful
when shooting red flowers, as they have a similar tone to the surrounding leaves.
Orange Filters
Orange filters sit between red and yellow filters, giving a nice balance of each one's properties. This makes
them a popular general purpose filter. In portrait photography, an orange filter reduces the appearance of
freckles and blemishes, giving the skin a healthy, smooth look.
When photographing buildings and cityscapes, they give bricks a pleasing tone, and increase contrast
between different materials to add depth and texture to the image.
Similarly to red filters, they can be used to reduce the appearance of fog and haze, and to darken skies and
emphasise clouds.
Yellow Filters
Yellow filters produce the most subtle effect of the 5 coloured filters. In some cases the difference is barely
noticeable, but it can help to lift a photo just enough. They're a popular choice for beginners as they can be
used in virtually any type of photography. When snapping landscapes a yellow filter darkens the sky slightly,
helping to balance its exposure against the darker ground. They also bring out clouds nicely, resulting in
more interesting skies. In portrait photography, they produce warm, natural, pleasing flesh tones, like an
orange filter but less intense.
Green Filter
A green filter is mainly used for photographing plants as it helps separate the green foliage from the
brightly-coloured flowers and buds.
They can also be used in landscape photography to boost the appearance of grass and trees, but they also
lighten the sky so you need to be careful not to lose detail there.
Blue Filter
Blue filters are rarely used for black and white photography. They darken most colours and reduce contrast
across an image. When used correctly, this reduced contrast can be useful for giving a shot a calm,
soothing atmosphere. A blue filter also increases the appearance of haze and mist, making it handy for
enhancing the mood of an early-morning scene.
Filters for colour
• We can also use filters in colour photography
to alter part or all the chromatic content of
the image
UV Filters
They do not
change a digital
image.
But they are
cheaper than
your lens to
replace !
Neutral Density Filters
Uniformly reduce the amount of light reaching the camera's sensor. This is useful when a
sufficiently long exposure time is not otherwise attainable within a given range of possible
apertures (at the lowest ISO setting).
Situations where ND filters are particularly useful include:
• Smoothing water movement in waterfalls, rivers, oceans, etc.
• Achieving a shallower depth of field in very bright light
• Reducing diffraction (which reduces sharpness) by enabling a larger aperture
• Making moving objects less apparent or not visible (such as people or cars)
• Introducing blur to convey motion with moving subjects
Gradual Neutral Density Filters
Soft Edge
Hard Edge
Radial Blend
Polarizers
Polarizers