Completing Your Outdoor Photography with Landscape Filters—Course Preview

Hello, I'm Adam Barker, landscape and active lifestyle photographer from Salt Lake City, Utah. Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about how to really make your landscape photography scene through the use of landscape filters. In particular we're going to be discussing, grad ND filters and some polarizing filters as well. I've been shooting scenic photography now for some time. And I can recall the very first time I started using these filters. It appeared as though I was finally able to capture a scene as my eyes saw it. Really the purpose of our photography is to take the viewer there, so to speak. And by using these filters I was able to get an accurate representation of the scene as I saw it. Right here, we've got a graduated neutral density filter or grad ND filter. This one's made by Singh-Ray and really it solves one of the great challenges that we face with our photography. And that is balancing exposures. Many scenes that we shoot in landscape photography have varying light from shadow to highlight. And really the challenge that we face is balancing those highlights with the shadows. A good example is a really nice foreground that's perhaps in the shade with a super-intense sunset sky or sunrise sky. And this filter really helps us to balance those highlights and bring the dynamic range or the stops of light into an area where the camera can capture it as our eyes see it. Okay, there's actually several different types of grad ND filters. This particular filter is a two stop soft step grad ND filter. That means it provides two stops of filtration at the top of the filter, and it's a soft transition. So this is really nice for filtering transitions that may be interrupted by trees or mountain peaks. If we don't have an even horizon line, this is a great filter to use or if you're filtering other objects than just perhaps an even horizon line or a sky. We've also got hard step filters. This is a two stop hard step, and you can see that the transition on this is much more abrupt. So this is useful when you're shooting even horizon lines or a filter lines that aren't interrupted by anything that may be unnaturally darkened by this abrupt line. They're great for ocean scapes or coastal scenes. Also good for any other landscape image that might use kind of that even transition line for the filtration. We've also got a reverse ND grad filter here and this is a little bit different in that the most intense part of the filter or the heaviest gradient is right here across the center of the filter. And this is super useful when shooting into the sun at sunset or sunrise. When we're shooting into the sun, obviously the most intense or the greatest light in the picture is right there across the horizon as the sun is rising or setting. So we're able to balance that with this reverse ND grad where we to use a regular grad ND in those instances. We wouldn't quite get the filtration that we need right across that horizon line. And it would also unnaturally darken certain parts of our image towards the top. Perhaps the next most useful filter that I use in my landscape photography is a polarizing filter. And these can be used in a number of different ways, but primarily you're using them to take glare or reflection of water. It really helps the saturation to come through from leaves and other foliage. In addition, it really helps to deepen skies and help clouds kind of pop on those skies. It's important to note when using polarizing filters they're used best at 90 degrees to the sun. So if you think about the angle that you're shooting to the sun, you're going to be able to polarize that light best when you're shooting at 90 degrees to the sun. And it really can make a huge difference in being able to use maybe later light after the sun has been up for some time it can really help to lessen the glare in his scene. And you can also use these at times to slow down your shutter speed, just enough to blur water or maybe to get to pan with a subject as you're shooting them to get your slower shutter speeds. There are a variety of polarizers out there. Everything from color intensifying polarizers to golden blue polarizers. All of them serve different purposes and are very useful in different lighting situations. So it was just a brief look at the different type of landscape filters that I use. We'll be taking a more in-depth look throughout the program and how we can use these different filters and apply them in different lighting situations in different scenes and in different types of images. And really they're going to help you to take your landscape photography to the next level.