3 Photography Filter That Really Matter

Photography do not come only with camera. There’s also photography gear that comes with it. When it comes to photography gear, especially for landscape photography, one of the most important gear that a lot of photographers have is probably a filter. Filter comes with every type for every purpose. But many of them are not because necessary. So I just gonna show 3 photography filter that really matters.

Before we begin, I like to remain you that all of these filters aren’t a necessary gear. But in my experience, if you want to buy a filter, these are what you wanna get.

UV filter

Ultraviolet filter or UV filter is a filter that blocks sunlight to the camera. It works by reducing the ultraviolet light that comes into the camera sensor through the lens. By applying the UV filter, the UV light can be blocked and so prevent it from damaging the sensor. Usually, this filter (the cheap one) come as a bonus if you buy a new camera.

Just imagine it like a sunblock prevent your skin from getting burnt.

Little secret about UV filter, I never use it. It’s because these days digital camera equipped with multi-layered filters that are designed to filter out the extended ranges of UV. So in another word, new cameras are already protected from UV light without the need of UV filter.

Then why is it this filter still needed? It because UV filter can protect your camera from another treat, physical I mean, like dirt or dust. If it was broken, you can just buy another cheap UV filter. Rather than buying another expansive lens. Just imagine a UV filter like a phone screen protector.

Polarizer Filter

Polarizer filter has many functions. It can darken the sky, reduce glare, and reduce reflection. These days Circular polarizer or CPL filter can be rotated to control the amount of light to your liking. This filter mostly uses by landscape photographer. And also used by other creative work, like making video, timelapse, or architecture.

Neutral Density Filter

Neutral density filter or ND Filter is my most favorite filter. This filter has one purpose, to reduce the amount of light come into the camera. Basically, it makes your photo darker. Because of that, you have to reduce the shutter speed to compensate the darkness caused by ND filter. There’s variety of the amount of light it can reduce, from 1 stop to 20 stop depend on the ND filter.

There’s a lot of a different kind of ND filter and it has its own function.

ND Filter	Gradual ND Filter	Variety ND Filter

Every one of them can work alone fine. Or you can combine all of them to create your creative work. Many landscape photographers combine these filter to make a photograph.

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There’s a lot more photography filter. Some of them are for creative specific effect. Others are for a convenient reason. But for me, it isn’t really that important and just a waste of money. So if you have no idea what filter you should get. here are 3 photography filter that really matters.

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