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Filters and Digital Photography

There’s still a case for using traditional colourcorrection filters, even when the white balance can be tweaked so finely in-camera and in Photoshop. It comes down to speed, repeatability and predictability. An amateur photographer might be happy to spend hours experimenting with colour modifications in Photoshop or Camera Raw, but a pro needs to know what colour they’re going to get so that they don’t have to mess around adjusting individual images later. Fixed white balance presets are a good start, because you can then anticipate exactly how the camera is going to respond in a given set of lighting conditions. Colour-correction filters on the lens also provide a fixed corrective value that, with experience, also becomes predictable and reliable. You could use a white balance preset on the camera and fixed colour corrections in Photoshop, but is that really any easier? (On top of that, you will find that Photoshop’s corrections are subtly different and not necessarily as satisfying as those you get from traditional colour-correction filters.)

What Photoshop does do is give you the opportunity to try out countless different adjustments later. If you don't like the effect that you have created, you can easily change it back and try something else.

We automatically assume this to be a good thing, but is it? Consider this. How much time do you spend in Photoshop? How much time do you spend taking pictures? Do you think you’ve got the balance about right? Photoshop makes it harder to decide when an image is right or finished. It can delay that final decision indefinitely, leading many of us to endlessly rework existing images instead of getting out there and shooting new ones. Filters have certain workflow advantages. First, they can achieve very quickly in the camera what it may take you several minutes to do in Photoshop. Second, they prod you into making creative and technical decisions about the image when you shoot it instead of delaying that decision until later. Here’s another point that you’ll seldom see mentioned. Traditional filters marry up beautifully with digital SLRs because they let you see straight away if the effect is working when you play the image back on the LCD. If it’s not, you can change the filter, change the settings and reshoot. If you leave it to Photoshop, you only find out it’s no good when it’s too late. Camera filters come in two main types: round and square. The round filters are usually glass and may offer superior picture quality, but they’re much less versatile and only come in certain types. There are two main problems with round filters. First, if you use different lenses with different filter thread sizes, you’ll have to buy duplicate filters for each size. Second, certain filter effects rely on careful rotation, and that’s not always easy with round filters.

There are no round graduated filters, partly because of this, but also because you can’t move them up and down, and the positioning of transitions with grads is crucial.

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