Kayla R.

asked • 05/31/19

What are the three main types of photographic filters?

Jim N.

There are more than three main types; there are many: color-correction (for warming the blueness of shade, or green cast from fluorescent lights, etc); polarizing; neutral density, diffusion, UV filtration; clear (for lens protection); infrared; special effects (star patterns, kaleidoscope, etc); graduated (for darkening skies). That's not an exhaustive list, but the most common filters that come to mind.
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06/16/19

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Lisa S. answered • 07/23/19

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The three main types of photographic filters are UV, Neutral Density or ND, and Polarizing. A UV filter should always be on your lens to protect the glass and provide UV protection. A Neutral Density filter will allow you to stop down your F stop in bright light. A Polarizing filter will cut out environmental haze and pop the colors of sky and water.

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Jeffrey W.

Great tips, another extremely important function of a polarizing filter is it's ability to remove reflections off of glass, metal, and water, something that can't really be done well on a computer. For example, if you're trying to photograph fish in a pond on a sunny day you may have glare from the sun reflecting off the surface of the water which prevents you from getting clear shot of the fish. By using the polarizing filter you can eliminate much of that reflection and let the camera "see" through the surface of the water. This works great at removing reflections off of cars among other things as well.
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12/12/19

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