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Adyc

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I have been taking ladscapes with a canon 450d and am looking at experimenting with some filters. I have done some research on the net but have a couple of questions if anyone can help:

Am I better with Cokin or ring filters, or is it personal preference?
When would I use a polarising filter as opposed to a graduated grey filter?

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
I'll admit upfront to having not tried the cokin-style filters, but for most filters (ND, polarising, etc) then i've not had any issues with screw-in filters - withthe big advantage that they're small and i can judt drop the camera back in my (small) bag without any faff. For me, convenience and practicality have a huge impact, and haven't seen any reason to change.

The exception would be ND Grad Filters, which you need to be able to move in front of the lens, and so view cokin-style filters as the only option. But haven't yet got any of those myself.

David
 
Yup, screw-in for ND and CP, drop-in for GND. For landscape the GND and CP filters are the ones you'll probably want to use most often.

The CP is great for when you have a bit of blue in the sky as it will darken the sky and make the contrast between clouds and sky much greater. But its effect is really only noticable at 90º to the sun. The CP will also reduce reflective highlights from water.

GND filters are good for darkening any sky, which makes it easier to get the sky and the landscape exposed properly. But they really need a fairly horizontal horizon.

As for your ladscape pictures - some of my female friends may be interested!:)
 
The oft sited benefit of a filter kit like the cokin is that you only have to buy one set of filters and then use step up rings to attach the holder to the lens rather than having to buy all of the filters in different sizes for each lens you have...
 
Thanks for the replies, took a while for me to suss your female friends but you could probably hear the penny drop in Sussex.
 
Adyc said:
I have been taking ladscapes with a canon 450d and am looking at experimenting with some filters. I have done some research on the net but have a couple of questions if anyone can help:

Am I better with Cokin or ring filters, or is it personal preference?
When would I use a polarising filter as opposed to a graduated grey filter?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Are you interested in long exposure? If so a great (and very cheap way) is to try welding glass attached to a step up ring. £1 for the glass and £3 for the step up ring. With this you can achieve some awesome photos where the clouds are moving or the sea is made to look dead flat. Its basically doing the same job as a 10 stop ND Filter. In my experience my shade 9 is approx 12 stops. There's a full welding glass thread in basic images on here and also various groups on Flickr.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=152480
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=welding glass&w=all
Phil
 
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Hi, IMO think that both types have there place, round filters like the POL or the ND's can be useful at times but the slot in like Cokin or Hitech I think are a lot more flexable in landscape and by flexable I mean a lot quicker and easier as you don't have to keep on screwing in just lift out and drop another in.
 
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