Camera Lens Filters Explained – Your Full Guide

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Camera lens filters are translucent or transparent glass or gelatin components that connect to the front of the lens. They secure the camera lens, adjust the attributes of light going through the viewpoint or add enhancements and hues to a picture.

Camera Lens Filters Explained in details so keep reading.

Filter Material 

Filters can be produced using glass, resin, plastic, polyester, or polycarbonate material.

Filters made of glass are regularly of the most noteworthy quality, yet are exceptionally costly and tend to effectively break, particularly the square or rectangular ones.

Resin and plastic filters are much less expensive than glass and they do not effectively break. This is the reason why they are the top decision for graduated neutral density filters.

Polyester ones are much more slender than resin or glass and are of high caliber, yet are inclined to scratches and consequently not extremely useful on the field.

Polycarbonates are extremely intense, scratch-safe, and are a decent different option for plastic or resin filters.

Types of Lens Filters

1) Circular or screw-on filters

 

Camera Lens Filters Explained

The most well-known type of filter that mounts straightforwardly on the lens string. Illustrations of circular screw-on filters incorporate the circular polarizer, UV filters, impartial neutral density or color filters.

Check all Circular Filters Here.

2) Square filters

This is a popular option for landscape photography and also other genres. This is attached to the filter holder and the lens filter thread can even hold more than one filter.

Check all Square Filters Here.

3) Rectangular filters

Another prevalent decision, fundamentally for landscape photos. They are mounted simply like square filters by means of a holder system. The rectangular type is the essential decision for scene photography.

Check all Rectangular Filters Here.

4) Drop-in filters

Camera Lens Filters Explained

These are the filters used with long telephoto lenses because of the large size of the front element. In this category, we can only mention polarizing and clear filters.

Check all Drop-in Filters Here.

Filter Factor

Filters change the progress of light entering the lens and for the most part oblige you to modify the exposure to adjust for this. This is known as the Filter Factor and every filter has a particular component, so read up to figure out how to utilize them.

1) UV/Clear/Haze Filter

 

Camera Lens Filters Explained

The motivation behind a UV filter today is to just ensure the front component of a lens.

All advanced camera sensors have a UV filter before the sensor, so there is no more need to utilize UV channels on DSLRs. Numerous picture takers utilize these sorts of filters for insurance, on the grounds that it is less demanding and less expensive to supplant a filter than to attempt to repair a scratched or broken lens component.

Check all UV FiltersHere.

2) Polarizing Filter

 

Camera Lens Filters Explained

A Polarizing Filter can be utilized to obscure excessively light skies as it builds the differentiation in the middle of clouds and the sky.

Like the UV Filter, the Polarizer lessens air cloudiness, additionally decreases reflected daylight. The most normal capacity of a Polarizer is to expel reflections from glass and water.

There are two sorts of polarizers: circular or linear.

Check all Polarizing Filters Here.

3) ND – Neutral Density Filter

 

Camera Lens Filters Explained

The motivation behind Neutral Density Filters is to lessen the measure of light that gets to the camera and in this manner decline the shutter speed and build up the exposure time. These sorts of filters are especially helpful in the daytime.

Check all ND Filters Here.

4) GND – Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Camera Lens Filters Explained

The contrast between Neutral Density Filters and Graduated Neutral Density Filters is that the recent is half clear.

Since the extent of sky versus the forefront can change contingent upon the structure, most GND channels are made fit as a rectangular shape.

Check all GND FiltersHere.

5) Soft Focus Filter

Soft Focus Filters do precisely that, they decrease the sharpness of a picture, yet just to a degree that is scarcely detectable.

They are helpful in shooting close-ups of individuals’ faces. Recollect that you can utilize these filters while shooting landmarks or landscapes, too.

Check all Soft Focus Filters Here.

6) Hard-Edge Graduated Neutral Density Filter

 

Camera Lens Filters Explained

Hard-edge Graduated Neutral Density Filters can be extremely helpful in high-differentiation circumstances, where the sky is splendidly contrasted with the closer view and the skyline is level.

While shooting, the hard edge in the inside is adjusted to the skyline. The sky is then obscured relying upon the power of the filter.

Check all Hard-Edge Graduated Neutral Density Filters Here.

7) Reverse Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter

These filters are newer on the market.

For a better understanding, if you could compare them with the Soft Focus Filters and Hard-edge filters, these ones are dark at the horizon and then gradually soften to the top. These types of filters are quite useful for sunset photos.

Check all Reverse Graduated Neutral Density Filters Here.

8) Color Balancing Filter

As you most likely are aware, obvious light is comprised of a different color spectrum. Yet, in photography, you need to settle on a decision to catch pictures with the camera’s white mode is setting to record the blue light of sunshine or is setting to record the tungsten (glowing) light.

This is the thing that the white equalization is utilized to control, and you utilize a Color Balancing Filter to influence an adjustment in your light sources.

Check all Color Balancing Filters Here.

9) Close-Up Filter

 

Camera Lens Filters Explained

 

Close-up Filters are for the most part called like this in light of the fact that they are actually lenses and not filters. Nevertheless, they join to lenses, which is the reason I am posting them as filters.

Close-up lenses are essentially utilized for large-scale photography to have the capacity to get closer to the subject, diminishing the least center separation of the lens.

Check all Close-Up Filters Here.

10) Special Effects Filter

 

Special Effects Filters can deliver some cool impacts, however since most impacts can be effectively created in Photoshop, these filters essentially lost their ubiquity. The main channel that can’t be repeated in Photoshop is a “bokeh filter”, on the grounds that the highlights can’t be effectively changed through post-processing methods.

Check all Special Effects FiltersHere.

Related Posts:

Best Neutral Density Filters

What Is Polarizing Filter? 

 

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5 Comments

  • Hi there,

    That is a great article explaining quite clearly the different lenses and what they are used for,

    I am looking polarised filter for a little experiment with HDR. I tend to experiment a lot with photography.

    Do you have and article that explains exactyy how polarised filters work?

  • Hey Ehab, nice site you have created here, with very helpful content with free photography course. I also liked your picture gallery. I saw some pictures taken form the sky and on the plane. Did you really take those pics? That must have been fun, well I learnt a few things about camera and lenses. Good luck on your site.

  • Hello, Ehab. This is an excellence website there is everything aboard that is needed and I didn’t see anything I would change if it was mine.WOW, hats off I really like this website maybe you can give me a few pointers one day. I would like to integrate an amazon store.

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