Do You Use Filters On Your DSLR?

If so, which ones? Why?

I ask because I use a UV on my lense for lense protection. I used to love my polarizer on my 35mm but the pictures don't seem to come out right with the DLSR when I use it.

I use a circular polarizer on my DSLR and do see a difference. I've read around here that other filter effects can be reproduced using graphic design programs so what's the use. As you probably know, a circular polarizer when used incorrectly just acts like a ND filter so it is like having two filters in one. If you do a forum search, you'll pick up on threads asking similar questions.

On my Canon 30D, as long as I shoot in RAW the built in picture style effects can be applied selectively in the Canon software, another reason not to need filters.

I don't use an UV for protection for reasons of optical quality, but I know many people use polarizers (circular, not linear) with great results on Digital SLRs

Like the others have said, a circular polarizer is a very handy filter to have. It's about the only filter that can't be duplicated with software. It will take the glare off of water, glass, wet leaves (but not mirrors or metal) and it can had a bit of saturation. I need a new one since my newest lens has a much bigger mount than my current polarizer.

I also use neutral density filters when I want to get a very slow shutter speed when it's too bright out. An example of this would be to plur a water fall in mid day sun.

A split neutral density filter works great for evening out scenes with more contrast than your sensor can handle. Use them to darken a sky so you can keep the FG elements from blocking up, and the sky from blowing out. This can be done photoshop as well by taking multiple photos of the same scene and expose them differentlty. Expose one shot for the hightlights, and another for the shadows, then combine them on the computer. This can be done with a single shot if you shoot RAW. Just process the RAW file twice. One for highlights, one for shadows, and combine the two.

Another filter that I like the affect of is an intensifier filter. I borrowed one from a friend last year to shoot fall colors and it really made the colors pop. Again, a saturation boost can do this in PS, but I was also shooting film so the filter came in handy with those.

Other than those, most of mine are just extra weight to lug around.

The filters that would be suited for a DSLR are the polarizer and ND filters, both regular and graduated. The graduated filters saves you a lot of work in Photoshop, and there really isn't a way to get the effect of a polarizer in Photoshop.

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Originally Posted by Jason ON

If so, which ones? Why?

I ask because I use a UV on my lense for lense protection. I used to love my polarizer on my 35mm but the pictures don't seem to come out right with the DLSR when I use it.

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Are you using the UV and polarizer together? Are the filters of the best quality? Remember, digital is much more demanding than film.