What filter to use for landscape photography?

Use these three filters for landscape photography: CPL (polarizing filter), GND neutral gray gradient filter, and ND filter.

1. ?CPL (polarizing filter)

Using a polarizing filter can partially eliminate the polarized light in the sky, making the sky blue, making the clouds more layered, and the grass color Saturation also increases.

Eliminate the reflections of other objects, such as reducing the reflection on the water surface, and shoot through glass. For example, if you want to photograph objects behind the glass, if you use CPL, you can reduce the reflections caused by the glass.

Eliminate the reflection on the water surface. Sometimes we want to take pictures of fish or vegetation in the water. Using CPL can reduce the reflection on the water surface and see the bottom of the water more clearly.

Eliminate the reflection on the surface of the plant. When we use macro photography to shoot plants, we often encounter the problem of reflection from the leaves, which affects the harmony of the picture. The effect of the polarizer is very obvious. After using polarization, because it filters out Without polarized light, not only the colors of the picture are more intense, but the leaves themselves are also more transparent.

2. GND Neutral Gray Gradient Lens

We usually use mobile phones, SLRs or other cameras, and a photo taken can easily appear too bright or too dark. . We saw beautiful scenery. When we pressed the shutter, either the ground was extremely dark or the sky was white. This was really a headache, so we needed GND to balance the light ratio.

3. ND filter

A light-reducing filter is a gray filter that reduces the amount of light entering the camera. Generally we increase the exposure time by setting a low ISO or a small aperture. However, a small aperture will degrade the image quality (such as f22), and the lowest iso (such as iso100) is generally used for landscape photography.

So what if we also want to increase the exposure time? I need ND mirror to help. For example, when photographing water flows and lake surfaces, we hope to capture cotton-like water flows through long exposure. That soft feeling is what many photography enthusiasts want to try. In this case, we need to use an ND filter.

Extended information:

A light-reducing filter can bring more exposure methods to your creation, turning day into night and giving full play to your creative space; in many cases, due to the intensity of external light, Because of the relationship, we can’t get a long enough shutter time, so we can’t realize our photography intentions. For example, when shooting water flow in the wild, we hope to use a shutter of 1 second to make the water flow appear soft and cotton-like. texture.

When the light is relatively strong, according to my shooting experience, the aperture is f16, the sensitivity iso100, and the shutter speed is still about 1/30 seconds. So we need a light filter to slow down the shutter speed. Light-reducing filters are divided into gears, and the commonly used ones are nd8 and nd64. The 8 and 64 here represent several powers of 2. For example, 8 is 2 raised to the third power, which means lowering the exposure by 3 stops (from 1/800s to 1/100s).

64 is 2 to the 6th power, which means lowering the shutter speed by 6 steps (from 1/800s to 1/13s). Personally, it is better to buy a light-reducing filter that reduces the light by 6 stops or even 10 stops, so that the shutter speed can be reduced to a very low level.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Filter