 |
| The entrance to the Wave in the Vermillion wilderness |
using filters in the field
fun-function-freedom
To use or not to use ... is this really the question? Do you bring your photo gear to the shot, or does the the shot bring you with the gear? Did you have a specific image in mind when you bought your last lens or camera, or did you see a specific shot that you thought would be improved by that camera or lens before the purchase?
I'm reminded so many times how different we all are in our thought processes and the way we work. Basically, we are all confronted with the same set of problems and problem solving is what photography is really all about; especially landscape photography in the field! Far from studio lighting, where light can more easily be controlled, being unable to control most lighting situations in the field can make or break an image. Many times it has been my practice to simply recognize that a decent rendering of what I'm seeing is not possible and move on to one that is. Sometimes the allure is just too great, resulting in a problem solving scenario session.
Trying to bring a lighting situation to a manageable level usually involves contrast; that is, the difference between the brightest and darkest areas of your image. Digital photography has helped in numerous ways with this, but it's not always the magic wand. There are several things you can do in the field to help make the post-processing easier and a lot more satisfying.
 |
| Stacking grads with polarizer and color intensifier at Red Rock Crossing Sedona AZ |
One solution is to make multiple exposures for a range of tones. These can be used later in a number of ways. It's similar to bracketed exposures with film, only here you would shoot a different frame for a meter reading that would expose the shadows and another for the highlights. For film we would be looking for a single frame that would hold some of both.
Later, in an image manipulation program, multiple frames can be combined to create a pleasing image. Or can they? Again we come to that theory about different approaches for different people ... and images. A lot can be said for the old adage: Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should. I have done some incredible things in Photoshop that just don't look right (translated natural) when finished. I've also done a lot of them that are very good. I find that sometimes a combination of exposures works, but usually it is my last option for a frame that I could not do any other way. My preference is usually to get it right in the field.
So what is right? The object of image making for me has always been an interpretation of the scene taking place before me. The mood, the passion created by changing light translates to motion and action. It's the playing of the game as much as the result that brings the continued interest and challenge to me. The tools I bring to that game, and the warm-up process all lead to the thrill of the hunt and the adventure of the chase.
Luck is to be prepared when the opportunity presents itself!
filters in the field
Filters are a tool, as is your choice of film, lenses and camera bodies and their sensors. These choices are personal and as stated before, preference has a lot to do with that choice. If you've just purchased a 600mm lens, the chances are you'll be in the field quickly looking to use it. You'll be likely to see everything in terms of a long focal length. If your new camera body is capable of 10 frames a second, chances are that you'll be out there looking to capture motion or things that move fast. After awhile, at least for me, these wonderful pieces of equipment all become tools and pretty much blend into my toolbox. I don't pre-conceive my images, that is, I don't go out with a specific shot in mind or with the thought of using a specific piece of equipment.
The same is true for filters. Yes, if I've just invested a fair chunk of change in a new one, I'd like to use it, but I've also learned that there is a time and a place when it will be "the tool of the moment." The right tool for the job is still my best weapon in the fight for images.
 |
| On the dunes in Death Valley a warming polarizer and graduated ND moved from bottom to top during the exposure. |
I use filters in the field, and I use them a lot. I enjoy using them; in some cases they have changed the way I see and photograph. More and more I see images that were helped and sometimes made much better by using a filter. Above all, I enjoy the creative thought process that their use instills in me.
Provided I can see an application for a filter in an image, the drill begins. The considerations for me are fun, function and freedom. The fun is knowing and using the filters. The function is creating the "minds eye image" in the field and the freedom is doing it easily and quickly.
Rule one for me is to only have a filter on a lens when there is a reason for it! No, I don't have a UV filter on a lens to protect it. It never made sense to me to put something over a $2000 - $8000 lens without some benefit. If I want to filter ultra violet rays then I may use a UV filter in that instance, then remove it once I take the shot. Protection for a lens is called a lens cap! When I'm working, the lens cap is removed for an exposure and then goes back on. If no filter is needed, no filter is used.
Rule two is to shoot one frame without a filter. For me, the frame without the filter is generally the first one I shoot because I remove all filters between each set-up.
the filters
 |
| A full kit has rings, holders and filters. |
Let's look inside the bag, or in my case the vest, for my filters. The filter used most often is the circular polarizer. There are things you can do post processing to boost contrast, which a polarizer is best at, but I know of nothing that will reduce or eliminate glare, which is one reason I use a polarizer. A scene with reflected light is helped tremendously with a polarizer. No other filter in my kit can help an image as much. If you only have one filter, I'd suspect it would be this one!
When I need a polarizer, it usually is due to cross light, glare and contrast. Using a polarizer at 90 degrees from the sun maximizes the effect of this filter. The easy way to learn this is to face the sun and then raise your arms out to the sides. The polarizer with be most effective in the direction of your finger tips and have a reduced effect the closer you point the camera toward or away from the sun. Usually when using a polarizer I find that the shadows are cool because of the light reflected from a blue sky. This is a good situation for a warming filter. Anytime a shadow has reflected blue sky it will appear cool in temperature and color. A warming filter uses gold tones of varying degrees to counteract the blue. In my case, I use a Singh-Ray warming polarizer. It has both of these features built into one filter. I've found that if I'm polarizing, there are not many instances when I don't want the warming filter. Another handy rule I've learned over the years is that the polarizer does not need to be used at it's fullest effect and usually I don't. Watch out for black sky especially if you are in high altitude. Also be aware that a wide angle lens will require less polarizing. I seldom, if ever, use a polarizer on a lens wider than 20 mm.
Another polarizer in my kit in addition to my regular and warming, is a wonderful invention called a Gold-N-Blue. Some manufacturers have different names for this filter. I see this one as a specialty filter. Its use can bring subtle or startling effects. Water is my favorite subject for it. The rule about not always using a polarizer at its full effect is especially good advice here. It does amazing things with reflected light. I like it most in quiet light where I find I can throw color into shadows that have none. It is definitely not used as much as my other filters, but when it is needed it has truly been worth its weight in GOLD ... excuse the pun :-)
 |
| A Vari-ND filter helped to slow the shutter speed to a full second at mid day. |
Neutral density filters provide creative opportunity. Anytime I want to show motion, one of the hardest things to show in still photography, I consider using a slower shutter speed. If I want to blur moving water for example, a slow shutter speed results in a soft quality of the water. Using a slower shutter speed is easy when light is low, but neutral density filters will help make light low when it's not. The degree of the reduced light depends on the density of the filter used. Filters can be used in multiples (stacked) for desired effect. My favorite situation for landscape photography with ND filters are usually water or clouds. Anytime a blurred effect to represent motion is desired and no polarization is needed, ND's are the answer. The introduction of the Vari-ND, again by Singh-Ray filters, has made this task much easier and it has become one of the most useful of all my filters. It allows an aperture and shutter speed combination to be set in just about any light quickly and easily.
Color intensifiers have long been a useful addition as well. Used mostly when earth tones are the key element in an image, I find that there is a heightened sense of color in the greens that is so hard to define in post processing. Yes, the expected "snap, crackle and pop" that this filter provides is not to be overlooked either. I have a combo filter that has both warming polarizer AND color intensifier for situations that can benefit from all of these.
In a previous article I discussed the benefit of graduated neutral density filters. Their use can bring great benefits. In a full frame exposure a normal histogram reading is acceptable, however for "Selective Exposure Compensation" where you want further control over a specified part of the frame such as the sky, a graduated neutral density filter is my answer. How to use them is again a matter of preference and style. There are many ways of mounting these filters and many ways of using them after the decision of when and where to use them is addressed. There are a couple of points to remember about using graduated ND filters in the field. First, you don't want to make the earth brighter than the sky! You don't want to balance it either. If your meter says the brightest part of your image is 4 stops lighter you don't use a 4-stop graduated ND filter. A 2-stop or maybe a 3-stop will do. I'll usually do both.
 |
| In the Grand Canyon at North Canyon the water reflection was dark and colorless until the use of the Blue/Gold Polarizer |
After first doing a set of frames without filters, I then set the filter or filters, as the case may be, in place. I will then stop down the lens using the depth of field preview feature on my camera at the predetermined aperture. This takes a little getting used to as in most cases a small aperture for depth of field will be used and the viewfinder will appear very dark. With the depth of field preview engaged, I begin moving the filter back and forth and sliding it up and down gradually to adjust where it will appear in the image and judge its effect. Remember that the angle and focal length of the lens used is as important or more so than the aperture, but all will have an effect. In a less than full frame camera the effect of the transition line will be much different than a full frame camera. The last drill before opening the shutter is to go through the apertures with the depth of field preview still engaged. Just because you've decided that a certain aperture should be used does not necessarily mean it's the only one. I like to see what the effect is as I open up and then close down again. I may shoot several frames in what I like to call an "aperture bracket."
Fun-Function-Freedom ... revisited
 |
| The holder requires a ring and then the filters are fitted into it and adjusted |
If all of the above mentioned seems like a lot of gear, well it is! Organization is the key for me working in the field. Recently I've had a reordering of the wording of the fun-function-freedom phrase, or more precisely the thinking. I've placed the freedom first and found out that it has led to more fun and greater function! Carrying the "P" size filters for many years, which I now refer to as small, has led to quite a collection of filters and holders. The number of filters was not such a burden, as a matter of fact, I found the more of them I had the more I used them. What was trying was the use of filter holders! I've never found a system that suited what I did or how I worked. The thought was always a better designed system would eventually be offered, until last year I just gave up for most part and started doing something that I had never dreamed of. I started hand holding the filters in front of the lens!
The taboo of course is that you don't want to touch a camera while the shutter is open with shutter speeds below roughly 125th of a second. After all that's why we have the expensive tripods and remote releases. I shot some exposures while hand holding the ND grad out of necessity in the past- when hurried by changing light. To my amazement these exposures were quite usable. All too often a shot was lost while mounting the cumbersome holders to the lens. The truth is that most camera shake happens at shutter speeds around 1/60 of a second. Most of my work is done in the range of 1/4 second to 30 seconds. I've found that hand holding a filter in front of a lens during long exposures in almost all cases has no noticeable effect.
 |
| With a XL-Grad holding becomes easy |
On the down side of this new found technique is the fact that I can not bracket a shot. In other words, if I do an exposure holding the filter it will not be in EXACTLY the same orientation for the next frame. Auto bracket on most cameras would take care of this in some instances but it's not the way I work. The other drawback is that by using my filters in this manner they have become somewhat scratched while making contact with the lens. I understand the feeling that the worst thing that can happen to an expensive filter is having it scratched and I was at first very concerned. After more use I came to realize that I could not see the effect in the image however. Remember I do a frame with and without a filter and I constantly look at the one without (that's the most usual use for this frame) and to this point do not see any deterioration of the image. Yes, my filters for the most part look used and I think that's OK ... because they are!
This new "hand held" technique has allowed me more freedom. I now can use the filters quicker and can also move them during an exposure for effect. I call this "dancing with the filters" or "dancing in the light." Again, what I'm after with a graduated filter is selective exposure compensation. I found that if I move the filter's orientation during a long exposure, I can compensate for the fact that there is not a place in certain compositions to hide the line of the filter; the place where the filter is graduated. What I find myself doing is painting slowly with light. Of course attention must be paid to having the filter flush with the lens or the image will be out of focus or blurred in places and the moment must be fluid and smooth. Now by adding a Vari-ND filter for a longer exposure in brighter light and the option of a Gold-N-Blue polarizer or LB Color Intensifier, the opportunity becomes one much like a painters palette!
What brings success can also bring failure. With the small "P" size filters I began having problems where you might think. Fingers, even with a nice manicure, don't belong in the corners of my images! I also found that on occasions, especially in low light situations, I left part of the lens uncovered by the filter at times. All of my lenses are 77mm diameter and a "P" size filter just barely covers.
 |
| The difference in size from the small P on the left to the XL-Grad is substantial |
My solution to both these problems was fairly simple in concept. I've begun replacing them with larger Singh-Ray 4X6" filters! This XL-Grad size filter has many rewards. They are a lot easier to find and identify especially in the dark. They are a lot easier to hold in front of the lens and actually a lot easier to hold period! It's just a better size all around for what I do. There is also an added benefit that I can't seem to prove but see in my photographs. With the bigger area of the XL-Grad filter over my large lens barrel opening, I seem to get better light meter readings. I see improvement in the mid ranges and highlights. It allows me to expose more for these areas. I'm seeing much better balanced exposures compared with the smaller type filter.
The ability to hand hold the XL-Grad filters has also made stacking or sandwiching two or more filters quite easy to do as well. The bigger surface gives a more precise visual for lining up the various filters and aligning them in the viewfinder. A big added bonus I feel, is with this technique I don't need nearly as many filters now. I've limited my Graduated ND's in the XL-Grad size to a 2-stop soft, a 3-stop soft and a 4-stop hard. With the dynamic range of today's digital cameras, I'm finding there is very little that I can't do with this combination.
Quality is the main issue for me when adding a filter. There are many quality manufacturers making many variations on all the filters that I use. My preference has been Sigh-Ray filters for some years. I feel that the their quality is as good or better in most cases and I have always liked the attention they have shown to photographers on a personal level. In the variety of filters offered, I feel the company is a leader in the field of creative photography.
So with filters it's now freedom-function-fun! Isn't that what our passion for landscape photography is all about?
More information on Singh-Ray filters
Check all the current workshops
View the DVD series Steve Kossack Photographing the Great American Landscape
Want to contribute articles and images to our website?
Your comments are always welcome. f8andbethere@cableone.net