Virtuoso wrote:.

Hi,.

I am kinda a photography newbie and am just taking my first plungeinto the wonder world of filters. Can you suggest what filters aregood as a start-up kit?.

Basically I plan to use them for:1) landscape sunset shots2) waterfalls or moving water shots.

Mostly landscape.  .

Thanks.

I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this thread.

Yes it is..

The best general purpose filter for landscape photography is a circular polarising filter which helps eliminate glare, reflections, and results in rich, saturated colours to blue skies and green foliage:.

Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_filter.

For moving water shots a slow shutter speed is often required to get the dreamy blur effect (which means a tripod). In bright light it can be difficult to get a low enough shutter speed (e.g. in bright sunlight, at ISO 100, 1/15 sec would require about f/45 which your lens probably won't do - and would cause serious diffraction effects anyway even if it were available). So a neutral density filter could help, cutting out 2 stops of light. But a circular polarizer also cuts out some light and can double as an ND filter to start with..

I'd suggest therefore, for landscapes, a circular polariser and a tripod - and see how you get on..

Best wishesMike..

How do you decide what filter size to get? Get the largest and a step down ring? What about thin mount filters?..

Filter sizes... sort of tricky.

If you have several lenses and they are very different in size, buying a big filter and a step down ring means there's a good possibility of snagging the sticking-out part of the filter..

So, two filters, one for each lens, is a good idea..

For very wide lenses, even if the overall size is similar, you need to check that the ring itself does not cut off light getting to the edge of the lens. This cutoff effect, called vignetting, is one of the reasons that there are some very thin filters..

Me? I have a polarizer for my wide-angle to normal lens, because that's the one I'd use most for landscapes, etc., and do not have one for the telephoto lens..

That will change when I get a new telephoto lens if I think I'll use it for sports on a hard surface (race tracks have glare) or are taking boat shots on water controlling glare again being the goal..

Best solution is however to get a filter for each lens size..

BAK..

My wide angle lens has a diameter of 77mm. How much do you think I could step this down before I have vignetting problems. I was thinking about a singh-ray polarizer so I can't afford a bunch of them...

Thanks .

So I get a polarizer and that can double as an ND filter? How about those sunset shots? what do you reco?.

This is also my problem as my lenses have different diameters ..