Landscape photography is a creative process,
and filters are vital creative tools.
Some filter effects cannot be replicated in postproduction.
Polarisers are one example of this
and ND standard filters are another.
Both are very much part of the craft of photography in the field.
I’d now like to show you how they work in practice.
The polariser has a number of advantages.
The most obvious one is that it darkens a blue sky
but it has other applications, too.
It removes reflections from vegetation, for example,
which increases colour saturation.
And it removes reflections from water,
allowing you to see beneath its surface.
After the ND grad, the polariser is the most important filter
for a landscape photographer.
It’s expensive but you only need one.
The system holder has an accessory ring
onto which the 105mm polarising filter fits.
The ring needs to be attached to the outside of the filter holder.
I recommend fitting the polariser onto the holder before you attach it to the camera.
Hold the filter flat and screw the polariser onto it
to avoid the danger of dropping it.
The polariser darkens the light coming into the camera
so I set the orientation of the polariser before I put it on the camera.
You don’t have to turn the holder,
you simply have to turn the polariser itself within the ring.
I always have the brass lug on the right.
You look at the scene and rotate the polariser.
It’s easier to see the changes this way than when it is on the camera.
In this case, the effect is very obvious.
To increase the exposure time and get a more fluid feel to the water,
I’m using an ND standard.
This is a two-stop filter.
I’m going to take the holder off
and place the filter in the rear guide rails.
The waterfall at the bottom of this picture is very brightly lit.
I think I can improve the image
and balance the exposure by using a 0.6 ND grad inverted.
I’m going to insert this one upside down in the second guide rails.
The image is bright enough for me to see the effect
and the grad is doing exactly what I want it to.
The exposure has reduced to one second at my preferred aperture.
I’m just going to make a test picture.