Filters

thefly

Can anyone recommend a good filter for 70-200 canon l series 2.8. Cheap but good

magicbastarder

as in skylight filter?

thefly

magicbastarder wrote: »

as in skylight filter?

To protect the glass and lens

Thin White Duck

To be honest, with an absolute peach of a lens like that it'd be criminal to compromise on the filter

Personally, I've always found Hoya good value for money - I used to buy the Pro1D series but switched more recently the HD series - the coatings are as good as any other hoya filter but they are super tough and remarkably easy to clean unlike some other multi-coated filters.

Although I wouldn't describe either as cheap, it's worthwhile checking Amazon as I've picked up some bargains on HD filters there recently.

Jackobyte

I've been looking to take sunset pictures recently but I cannot capture the colours the eye can see. I am just wondering what filter will "fix" this. My widest lens is my 52mm 18-55 kit lens so I would need a filter to fit that.

Thanks,
J.

PCPhoto

theres a technique to capturing the colours of a sunset.

ND grad filter (+0.9 works best I think) , tripod, remote/timer .... good positioning, correct exposure.

alternatively learn how to post process to get the correct effect.

Ballyman

You need a tripod first off. All the filters/cameras/lenses in the world won't "fix" your pic like a tripod will!! So use a tripod.

You have a few options after that to help expose the sunset correctly after that. The two main ones are to either use ND Grad flters or to take a correctly exposed pic of the foreground, another of the sunset and then blend them together afterwards in photoshop.

Both are easy enough to do once you get the hang of it. It looks a little more realistic when you use the filters although it can be difficult to tell the difference between a filtered and photoshopped image if it's done well.

You could need anything from a 1 stop ND Grad up to 5 or 6 stop depending on how bright the sun is. The most common filters are 1, 2 and 3 stop filters so you can stack 2 x 3 stop filters on top of each other and this gives you a 6 stop filter!

Paulw

Or shoot without any filters at all, but set your exposure compensation down. Anything from 1/3 to 2/3, depending on the light.

Here's an example shot without use of any filters or any major PP work.

Jackobyte

Here is one I took in April just changing the exposure to -2

DaireQuinlan

Or try to use clouds to your advantage ...

Ballyman

The pics above (except Daire's of the clouds where a filter would have brought a little detail into the island if required) are not ideal situations to use filters as the foreground is lit up completely with the sun so there is no need of filters.

Using a high f stop like Jakobyte's pic also gives a nicer star glow to the sun rather than blowing it out into an orange mess but just underexposing by 2 stops makes everything else very dark.

The pic below also gives an idea of when you need a filter. You don't have to use one of course but I prefer the look it gives in the filtered pic below.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that jazz!!