TROUBLESHOOTING FILTER CHALLENGES
Not getting the effects you were after? Here are some potential solutions
Digital cameras are highly complex pieces of technology. In terms of both hardware and software, there is a lot going on underneath that casing that users rarely give a second thought to. The days of a camera being a light-tight box are long gone – they still are at their most basic, but the process of exposure management is a much more refined one.
Filters are simply sheets of optical material you place in front of the lens, and might seem rather unassuming, uncomplicated items, but that doesn’t mean their usage is always straightforward. It is important to understand how their integration with the rest of your gear needs to be carefully considered.
The most obvious difficulty of using circular filters is the variable thread diameter of different lenses (here, circular refers to the physical shape of the filter, not to be confused with ‘circular’ and ‘linear’ polarisers).
As we buy new lenses, especially those with constant maximum apertures, the front elements of which tend to be oversized, it is commonplace to find that our older filters no longer fit. This can be addressed with a stepdown ring, such as a 77mm-67mm ring, but this will introduce unavoidable vignetting.
Good practice, therefore, is to buy a large filter in the first instance, such as an 87mm filter, which can then be adapted to smaller threads via step-up rings, which will save money in the long run.
Beyond this, however, there are some unexpected effects of camera-filter pairings, and the sort of camera you own can dictate the type of filter you should buy. This may not be immediately apparent, so can lead to some confusion. Furthermore, there are some problems which can go unnoticed if the photographer does not know where to look for them, lessening the impact of their images.
So, let’s explore both a few common problems and some lesser-discussed issues we can, and probably will, experience when using filters in a range of scenarios.