A while ago, I was asked by LEE Filters to go out into the landscape
and shoot a series of pictures using some of their effects filters.
These filters are designed to enhance natural features in the landscape,
such as sunrise colours, sunset colours and the tints on autumn leaves.
First, we're going to look at the Sunrise Set.
These consist of a Mahogany Grad, a Straw Grad and a Straw Stripe.
This is the River Frome in Wareham on a lovely, misty morning.
As you can see, there's only a hint of colour in the sky, and it's not very dramatic.
I wanted to enhance this and bring it out a little.
First, I used the Straw Grad which, as you can see, has warmed up the sky quite nicely.
I then switched it for the Mahogany Grad, which gave a slightly better result.
The pinky tones give a more natural sunrise look.
The next filter was the Straw Stripe, which was probably the least successful of the three.
It's rather yellow, rather than pink, and you can see the blue above the yellow,
so it doesn't look entirely natural.
With all the filters, the problem was that all the colour was in the sky,
with nothing reflected in the water.
This is a bit of a giveaway, showing you've used filters rather than it being a natural effect.
So what I did was combine two filters: the Mahogany Grad across the top to warm up the sky,
and a Straw Grad coming up from the bottom to create some reflected colour.
You can see there's colour in both the sky and in the water, and it looks very natural.
The colours are quite subtle and enhance the scene, but look believable.
I then tried the same thing using the Straw Stripe,
and although it looks quite good, it's not as successful as when the Straw Grad
is used across the whole of the bottom area of the frame.
The colour in the middle fades away to a desaturated area.
The effect of the reflection in the previous shot is better.
It's worth bearing in mind that these filters can't add something that's not already there.
What you're trying to do is enhance the natural colour of the sunrise.
If you have a little colour but it's not particularly strong,
you can use these filters to enhance the natural colour.
Which one works best depends entirely on the situation.
If you have a pink sunrise, the Mahogany Grad will probably be your best bet.
If it is more orange or yellow, then the Straw Grad will probably work best.
In situations where you have an open horizon, such as a seascape,
the Straw Stripe is the one to use.
This will enhance the natural glow that appears over the horizon.
In a more rural landscape such as this one, the Grads are the better bet.
Moving on to the other end of the day, I started working with the Sunset Set.
This consists of a Yellow Grad, a Red Grad and an Orange Grad.
I went to Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset at sunset, and this was the first photograph I took.
I used a 0.6 Neutral Density Hard Grad and a 1.2 Standard Neutral Density filter
to lengthen the exposure and create a misty effect in the water.
As you can see, there was some sunset colour, but it isn't particularly dramatic
and I wanted to try to enhance that natural colour.
I replaced the 0.6 Neutral Density Hard Grad with the Orange Sunset filter.
I felt I didn't need to combine the two filters,
because the Sunset filter does have a certain amount of density to it.
Therefore, it will hold back the sky and stop it overexposing,
as well as adding a little colour to the scene.
I'm very happy with the result.
It has enhanced the colour so it looks natural, and it's not over-the-top.
I've certainly seen sunsets with colours such as these, or even stronger.
Next, I used the Red Sunset filter.
Again, I used it alone and not combined with a grad.
Although it gives a reasonable result, I felt the colour was a little too strong for the scene.
With no coloured reflections off the wet rocks, it doesn't work as well.
The Red Grad does work well in the right situation.
If the sunset is strong, with pink colours, then the Red sunset filter will be effective.
The next scene is Swanage Pier at sunset.
The sky is rather blue and cold.
I liked the scene,
but wondered if it might be possible to enhance the natural warm colour on the hut,
and introduce a little warmth into the sky.
I added a Yellow filter this time, and it's delivered a good result.
It looks natural, it's warmed the sky a little and it's enhanced the colour on the hut.
So this is an example where the Yellow Sunset filters worked very well.
To demonstrate that you don't have to use the filters to enhance only the sky,
I took a trip to Durdle Door.
At certain times of year, Durdle Door has a lovely warm glow on the cliffs at sunset.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen on this particular evening.
The sky had some interesting clouds, and I used a polariser to enhance them.
By using an Orange filter, I was able to give the impression of warmth in the scene.
I pulled the grad down to just below the horizon, so that it warmed the rocks,
the top of the beach, and the clouds sitting above Durdle Door.
The Orange filter gave a very pleasing result.
To me, it looks very natural indeed.
We're going to look at one more set of colour effect filters - the Autumn Tint Set.
There are three Graduated filters in this set: the Chocolate, the Tobacco and the Coral Grad.
I took these filters to Kingston Lacy in Dorset.
As you can see, there's a hint of autumn colour in the leaves.
As with the other colour effect filters,
you wouldn't use these to introduce a colour that isn't already there.
They work very well if you're enhancing an existing colour.
The early autumn, before the leaves have really started turning, is the time to use these filters.
A lot of the leaves are still green, but there's a little yellow and brown starting to come through.
The first filter I used was the Chocolate filter, which has given a nice, subtle result.
It brings out the browns and oranges in the leaves at the top of the image.
If you hadn't seen the comparison, you probably wouldn't know a filter had been used.
The next Grad I used was the Tobacco Grad, which has a bit of a bad reputation in some quarters.
It's been badly used in some pictures over the years
but used properly, it can give excellent results.
The key with the Tobacco Grad is to not overdo it.
With this picture I used it at an angle
and pulled down the very bottom of the Grad over the top of the trees.
It's just brought out the oranges and browns in the leaves.
The final filter in the Autumn Tint Set is the Coral Grad.
Again, this is a fairly subtle filter, a bit like the Chocolate Grad
but a slightly different tint.
It's one that you can pull down a little lower into the frame.
This was set at an angle from the top right.
It's done a beautiful job of enhancing the warm colours
where the leaves are just starting to turn.
The last set of effects filters are not coloured, but are Mist filters.
We have two filters here: the Mist Stripe and the Mist Grad.
Starting with the Grad, I went to Micheldever Woods in Hampshire for the bluebells.
As you can see, the display of flowers was fantastic,
with some lovely light streaming in from the side.
However, it wasn't quite as atmospheric as it could have been.
Pulling the Mist Grad down over the scene had the effect of adding a little haze,
which looks fairly natural.
Moving on to the Mist Stripe, here we are at Salisbury Cathedral,
looking at it from across the water meadows.
It was a pleasant morning, but lacked atmosphere.
There is quite often mist over the water meadows in Salisbury, but not on this occasion.
This is an interesting filter, because it can give the effect of a low-lying mist
- the sort of thing you get over water or floodplains.
So it gives the effect of a low mist over the water meadows,
with the tops of the trees and the spire of the cathedral rising above it.
One of the things to remember with the Mist Stripe in particular,
but with both of these filters, is that you don't want too much depth of field.
If you have too much depth of field, you'll see the filter itself
rather than the effect of the filter.
After Salisbury, I went to Lake Bled in Slovenia.
This is a fantastic location, especially when there's a sprinkling of snow on the mountains.
It's a great sunrise location,
and you have the church on the island in the middle of the lake.
It's often photographed in the mist.
I was rather unlucky in that there was no mist when I visited.
However, just placing the Mist Stripe over the water introduced a natural-looking effect.
Again, this filter is ideal for creating the effect of low-lying mist
- the type that often hangs over lakes and fields.
I positioned it so that the tops of the trees and church spire rose above the mist,
so it looks very believable.
Why create these effects with filters when you can do it in postproduction?
For me, there are two reasons.
The first is that I'd rather get things right in-camera - it's much more satisfying.
And secondly, as a working professional, it's far more efficient.
I'd rather spend my time in the field taking photographs
than spending hours in front of the computer sorting things out in postproduction.
In summary, I've really enjoyed using these filters.
Used correctly, they are capable of giving very natural, subtle results.