What filters do I need for color slide and Landscapes?

[esbtse]

Hi,
I’m new to LF and I in a presses of buying filters for my 4*5" camera
And I’m using a Lee holder and Lee ND grad soft and a neutral Pol filter for the holder .
I need help to decide what type of filters I need for colour slides.
Do I need a set of ND grad Hard Singh- ray or LEE?
I think I need 81A,B,C filters.
Do I also need ND filters?
How about warm pol filter from Singh-ray?
The gold and blue pol filter from Sing-ray?
The reveres grade ND filter from Sing-ray?

What is important and what can I skip?
I appreciate your answers.

[Walter Calahan]

You can get all of them or none of them. It's up to your shooting style.

What color transparency film will you use? Each film stock responds to filters slightly or greatly differently.

I'd let your previous shooting experience guide you in your selection. First, though, I'd take some time learn the film stock you will settle on for LF. Once you know the film you like for your style landscapes, when I'd explore the filters you already own to see if they help.

Personally, my wallet isn't that deep to rush out to buy all these filters, so I'd take it slow.

What works for me doesn't mean it will work for you.

[esbtse]

You can get all of them or none of them. It's up to your shooting style.
Lots of good advice. Unfurti
What color transparency film will you use? Each film stock responds to filters slightly or greatly differently.

I'd let your previous shooting experience guide you in your selection. First, though, I'd take some time learn the film stock you will settle on for LF. Once you know the film you like for your style landscapes, when I'd explore the filters you already own to see if they help.

Personally, my wallet isn't that deep to rush out to buy all these filters, so I'd take it slow.

What works for me doesn't mean it will work for you.

Thank you. Lots of good advices. My biggest problem is that I have a problem with taking it slow, I usually want It all now. But I’m hurting badly from my purchase of camera gear this year. So I must take a long brake to fill my savings acconts.
I think that I need 81A,B,C and ND filter so I can get a long exposure for running water.
I’m using Kodak Ektachrome E100G, E100VS on 35 mm.

[Chris Strobel]

The noted landscape photographer Christopher Burkett uses no filters http://www.christopherburkett.com/


Hi,
I’m new to LF and I in a presses of buying filters for my 4*5" camera
And I’m using a Lee holder and Lee ND grad soft and a neutral Pol filter for the holder .
I need help to decide what type of filters I need for colour slides.
Do I need a set of ND grad Hard Singh- ray or LEE?
I think I need 81A,B,C filters.
Do I also need ND filters?
How about warm pol filter from Singh-ray?
The gold and blue pol filter from Sing-ray?
The reveres grade ND filter from Sing-ray?

What is important and what can I skip?
I appreciate your answers.

[Richard Kelham]

I think that I need 81A,B,C and ND filter so I can get a long exposure for running water.
I’m using Kodak Ektachrome E100G, E100VS on 35 mm.



That should cover you for most situations.

[Doug Dolde]

I'd first get a good polarizer. I use the Lee 105mm circular pol which will fit any lens with the correct adapter ring and the Lee foundation kit. Then you can start with some grads. I would recommend first using a hard edge grad as they are easier to see the effect of and align properly. 2 or 3 stops is good. Don't bother with reverse grads...a soft edge grad can be used upside down for the same effect. Singh Ray grads are the best, Lee grads are good, I'd avoid Cokin.

[Gordon Moat]

Night cityscapes you might want an 82A or 82B. Early morning you might want an 81A. These are very subtle, though sometimes they can be effective.

My feeling is that a hard ND grad is useful for seascapes, and rarely much else. A 2 stops soft ND grad should be enough for many subjects, and you might actually find you rarely use it. In reality, a Polarizer might be more useful than an ND grad for many situations.

Unless you are being swayed by the advertising in those Lee filters ads in some magazines, you might want to stay away from the more extreme gimmicky filters. E100VS has enough saturation and contrast to give a punchy look to a scene. When you want to be more subtle, then use E100G. Probably easier to change film for an effect than constantly playing with filters.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio (http://www.allgstudio.com)

[esbtse]

I'd first get a good polarizer. I use the Lee 105mm circular pol which will fit any lens with the correct adapter ring and the Lee foundation kit. Then you can start with some grads. I would recommend first using a hard edge grad as they are easier to see the effect of and align properly. 2 or 3 stops is good. Don't bother with reverse grads...a soft edge grad can be used upside down for the same effect. Singh Ray grads are the best, Lee grads are good, I'd avoid Cokin.

I have a Heliopan Polarizer is it a good one?

[esbtse]

Night cityscapes you might want an 82A or 82B. Early morning you might want an 81A. These are very subtle, though sometimes they can be effective.

My feeling is that a hard ND grad is useful for seascapes, and rarely much else. A 2 stops soft ND grad should be enough for many subjects, and you might actually find you rarely use it. In reality, a Polarizer might be more useful than an ND grad for many situations.

Unless you are being swayed by the advertising in those Lee filters ads in some magazines, you might want to stay away from the more extreme gimmicky filters. E100VS has enough saturation and contrast to give a punchy look to a scene. When you want to be more subtle, then use E100G. Probably easier to change film for an effect than constantly playing with filters.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio (http://www.allgstudio.com)

So I can use my Lee ND gard soft
Do I need more than a ND 3 step for loong exposure? 2 step?
When do I use 81B and 81C?

[Ron Marshall]

What length exposures are you aiming for of running water. I have found that 1/2 second works nicely. If you are in the woods and using a slow film and a small aperture, you may not need a ND. Do the math and see what shutter speeds you end up with.

[Gordon Moat]

I have a 2 stops ND grad that I rarely ever use. If I had more use for it, or wanted another, I might try to find a 1 stop ND grad. Of course, I am living at a lower latitude than you, though from my memory of my hometown on the North Sea, I cannot think of many times with landscapes that ND grads would be that useful . . . maybe sunsets.

I had an 81B and 81C before. Turned out I used them mostly for B/W shooting, instead of using an orange filter dedicated to B/W film. If you wanted to warm up E100G, I would recommend shooting the same scene with E100VS, instead of using stronger 81 series filters. I don't recommend warming up E100VS much, which is why I recommended the 81A (very light orange) filter. Of course, this also goes towards personal tastes, and you might like your image to turn out more orange. If you already have these filters, then experiment to see if you like what they do to your images.

Long exposures, as Ron Marshall indicated, can be accomplished by stopping down the aperture on your lens. I have used a regular ND filter on a barrel lens (without shutter), just so I could shoot in daylight with only using the lens cap to time the exposure (2 seconds fastest for me). Sometimes if you have a very bright scene, and want to use a wide open (or large opening) aperture, a regular ND filter can help stay within the limited shutter speeds (1/500 on Copal 0, 1/400 on Copal 1, etc.). I have a 2 stop and 3 stop ND, and have a few times used them together. These can be fun to play around with to extend the choices with your lenses, though you often need to compose your image first on the ground glass, and then install the ND filter prior to taking a shot; unlike an ND Grad which you compose with in place in front of the lens.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio (http://www.allgstudio.com)

[Capocheny]

I have a Heliopan Polarizer is it a good one?

Heliopan filters are a very good brand.

B&W filters are also good.

Cheers

[Brian Ellis]

After years of carrying around 14 different filters (two sets of the same 7 filters for two different lens sizes plus step-up/step-down rings for the in-between lenses) I now carry only two filters, a polarizer (which doubles as a 2 stop neutral density filter to slow down the shutter speed) and a graduated neutral density filter, plus step-up/step down rings for them. Anything that the other filters used to do can be easily done (and better) in Photoshop. However, the filters I used to carry were only for black and white, I didn't do color. So I don't know how easy it would be to duplicate the effect of things like color balancing filters for scenes with multiple light sources in Photoshop though my guess is it would be pretty easy.

I'd suggest going light on filters at first, just get a couple real basics like a good polarizer and a 2-3 stop graduated neutral density and see if you find a need for others. I still have a blue filter that I don't think I've ever used (my thought was that I'd use it to balance daylight film for tungsten lighting), several soft focus filters that I almost never used because I couldn't predict their effect, and at least twenty other filters bought for particular size lenses that I no longer have. And those are just the circular glass screw-in filters, that isn't counting the five filters I also have for the Lee system I no longer use. I almost think that if Photoshop did nothing other than eliminate the need for most filters I'd use it just for that purpose.

[esbtse]

I have a 2 stops ND grad that I rarely ever use. If I had more use for it, or wanted another, I might try to find a 1 stop ND grad. Of course, I am living at a lower latitude than you, though from my memory of my hometown on the North Sea, I cannot think of many times with landscapes that ND grads would be that useful . . . maybe sunsets.

I had an 81B and 81C before. Turned out I used them mostly for B/W shooting, instead of using an orange filter dedicated to B/W film. If you wanted to warm up E100G, I would recommend shooting the same scene with E100VS, instead of using stronger 81 series filters. I don't recommend warming up E100VS much, which is why I recommended the 81A (very light orange) filter. Of course, this also goes towards personal tastes, and you might like your image to turn out more orange. If you already have these filters, then experiment to see if you like what they do to your images.

Long exposures, as Ron Marshall indicated, can be accomplished by stopping down the aperture on your lens. I have used a regular ND filter on a barrel lens (without shutter), just so I could shoot in daylight with only using the lens cap to time the exposure (2 seconds fastest for me). Sometimes if you have a very bright scene, and want to use a wide open (or large opening) aperture, a regular ND filter can help stay within the limited shutter speeds (1/500 on Copal 0, 1/400 on Copal 1, etc.). I have a 2 stop and 3 stop ND, and have a few times used them together. These can be fun to play around with to extend the choices with your lenses, though you often need to compose your image first on the ground glass, and then install the ND filter prior to taking a shot; unlike an ND Grad which you compose with in place in front of the lens.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio (http://www.allgstudio.com)

You give very god advices. I usually use ND grad in the mountains( fjäll) to get a darker sky and to get the clouds stronger, 1 or 2 stop Cokin grades on my 35mm camera. But I get a blue-red cast when I using the E100Sv and Cokin filter. So for LF I’m going to switch to LEE ND soft grades for the Lee holder and for my 35 camera I’m going to use the Sing-ray ND hard grade for the Cokin holder. I like my slides dark and the colour doomsday saturated. I used Cokin 1 +2 step in the picture downloaded. I like the work of Paul Wakefield and Jan Morris book Wales the first place were the water is a mist due to the long exposure time but I can probebly step down the aperture.

[Gordon Moat]

You probably have the same Cokin ND grad I use. I found a similar colour issue when using that and E100VS, though it did not happen all the time. Probably a polarizer is a better choice for dark and contrasty (moody) skies with E100VS.

On 35mm, where it is tougher to see the edge, a hard ND grad is easier to use. With a 4x5, if you had used a hard edge ND for that shot you posted, you might see the line from the grad in the sky. Anyway, nice shot.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio (http://www.allgstudio.com)

[esbtse]

You probably have the same Cokin ND grad I use. I found a similar colour issue when using that and E100VS, though it did not happen all the time. Probably a polarizer is a better choice for dark and contrasty (moody) skies with E100VS.

On 35mm, where it is tougher to see the edge, a hard ND grad is easier to use. With a 4x5, if you had used a hard edge ND for that shot you posted, you might see the line from the grad in the sky. Anyway, nice shot.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio (http://www.allgstudio.com)
Thank you, Im a bit moody my self so I like that in my photos. I going to switch to Singh-ray Hard ND grad for 35, when I can find one on ebay. I have bout Lee soft ND grads for LF.