Why Photographic Filters Still Matter

What are Photographic Filters?

Photographic filters are the filters in a camera that allows certain types of light to pass through it, while it also blocks other types of light. These filters used to give a lot of benefit to professional film photographers.

Filters, although not all, are normally fitted at the very front of a lens thus attracting flare. In the presence of filters, lens hoods are advised. These photographic filters are used in studio lights or even on small flashguns to either modify the colour of the lights or to produce some special effects.

Some may find having filters as a disadvantage because they just add surfaces to your cameras lens. Therefore, more surfaces available for smears, fingerprints, scratches and dust which will reduce the image quality.

Why do Photographic Filters Still Matter?

Photographic filters have been known to be very helpful especially to a lot of film photographers. The evolution of digital cameras made these photographic filters obsolete although there are still some other types of filters which benefit photographers, thus the reason why photographic filters still matter.

Manipulating or modifying the light can have the photographer control the mood or the situation, which is another reason why photographic filters still matter, because these filters allow the modifying of light. Aside from protection for the valuable glass of the cameras lenses, many digital photographers see filters as the difference between good photographs from great photographs.

Photographic filters are used to also manage the effect of how lights hit the object that you are trying to capture. Adjusting the lighting adds more life to a picture. Though this is already built-in and is done automatically in digital cameras, adjusting the lighting manually is still the best in giving the photos that you have taken life. Not all light sources can be automatically filtered and there are specific filters that you would need to use in every situation. Though this might sound like a tedious task in constantly changing the filter to suite the ambient lighting, the results wont make you regret anything.

Photographic filters are obsolete, they cannot be fully replaced. Though we have already advance to the digital age in terms of photography, there are still professionals that still favour photographic filters and still use them with their work.

There are several types of photographic filters and each one has a specific use. There are filters for black and white films that can lighten or darken the tone of the images. Filters for colour films are designed to correct the intensity of a colour. Photographic filters not only adjust lighting and colour, it also adds effect to the images displayed, like how star filters seen to make the lights on the stage of a game show, shine like stars.

Photographic filters are also made with different materials and the effect for each material may vary but is generally classified or categorize by its price and durability.

Among all the photographic filters, glass is the most expensive and most durable as it does not get easily scratched and can show the best effects. The next choice would be optical resin which is a special form of plastic which is cheaper but can easily be damaged. There are also gel filters that are used for slot in filter holders and some are made from polyester which can be a little more durable.

Image quality and how the lighting of an image tells its story are important key points in photography. These cannot be achieved by your standard digital camera even though how good it seem to be. This is why photographic filters still matter.