Unlock your camera’s full potential

Filters are powerful accessories with a range of uses, as seen in these examples

2024-06-21 -

TAKE IT LONG AND SLOW

Add a 10EV neutral density lter to a low-light scene and exposures can stretch for several minutes. Such lengthy exposures are not always needed but they can suit a slow-moving sky, such as when I was photographing this evening scene at Staithes in North Yorkshire. In fact, the sky was so slow, I decided to set the slowest ISO speed I had available to get an even longer exposure. For this scene, the meter reading was 1/2 sec at f/11 and ISO 50. Using the free Lee Filters long exposure app (other apps are available), I saw that adding a 10EV ND lter would give an eight-minute exposure. In the end, I gave the scene 420 secs.

HARNESS THE POWER OF THE POLARISER

The single most useful lter you can own is the polariser. This lter can enhance blue skies, cut down the glare from rock surfaces, painted metal and foliage, and minimise reections o glass and water. It can also slice through haze and warm scenes up. It’s an incredible lter that can get you out of many a hole. For example, I was on a group tour to photograph the Grand Canyon and we arrived late morning so there was a high sun and lots of haze that made it far from ideal for shooting great scenics. However, tting the polariser made all the dierence, enhancing the sky and the colours of the Canyon. The image still won’t win many awards, but it’s a good memory of the trip.

CONTROL SKIES WITH A GRADUATED FILTER

Le Zitelle on the Isle of Giudecca in Venice is a beautiful church with a white marble exterior and it was looking particularly wonderful on an afternoon of quickly changing weather. The clouds were stunning but just needed a little help to balance them with the foreground. To do this, a soft 2EV ND graduated lter was tted and positioned slightly higher in the holder so that the church’s dome was clear of the lter’s toned area. The exposure on a tripod-mounted Fuji lm GFX 100S and 100-200mm zoom lens at 105mm was 1/20 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 50.