Weekly Poll: Do you use filters on your camera?

[drec]

i have uv filters for my 3 lenses for protection, a polariser and a nd*8. all hoya just realised.

[Teewinot]

I voted 'yes'. I have 3 filters.

(1) A UV filter that remains on my lens for protection (unless I switch it out with another filter).
(2) A circular polarizer...great for blue skies, reflections, etc.
(3) A split neutral density filter...great for sunrise/sunset conditions when half the frame is bright and the other half dark.

Do I think photoshop can completely replace filters? Maybe (2) and (3), but I think that for now I still value getting certain results 'in-camera' even if I post-process a lot.

[ny156uk]

I have a polarising filter and I would say that whilst you can often increase the intensity/contrast of sky/clouds in photoshop later it does things that photoshop cannot.

I understand that it reduces reflections off of water/metal surfaces that could hugely alter the shot.

I also notice that sometimes it stops skies being blown-out to pure-white. Now this could be me getting the settings wrong (and the polariser helping) but I think that it certainly does things that cannot be achieved by photoshop alone.

As always it is a case of both have their benefits.

I would be interested to hear more about graduated neutral density (think that is the name) filters and how important they are in making certain photos viable

[Richard]

Only circular polarizers and neutral density (ND) filters. A photoshop wizard might be able to get the same effects as these, but it is way beyond my abilities. The polarizer is great for darkening too-bright skies and cutting down reflections off water in landscapes. The ND filters are good for forcing long exposure times and motion blur in bright light without resorting to an aperture setting small enough to cause diffraction issues.