What are the best filters for landscape photography?

For landscape photography, polarizing filters excel in enhancing sky contrast and reducing glare on water or foliage. Neutral Density (ND) filters allow longer exposures, capturing motion like silky waterfalls. Graduated ND filters balance exposure between bright skies and darker landscapes, ideal for sunsets. Experiment with brands like Lee or Hoya for quality results. My personal tip: invest in high-quality filters to maintain image sharpness. Play with filters' effects to capture breathtaking landscapes, emphasizing natural beauty.

In my experience using polarizing filters adding extra sharpness to the water for example and making images more vivid. Conclusion is really depend on what lenses you use but overall i’d give it a go.

I've been film making for a while now. In addition to polarizing filters, graduated neutral density (GND) filters are invaluable for landscape photography, especially when dealing with high-contrast scenes. GND filters help balance exposure by darkening the brighter areas of the image, such as a bright sky, while maintaining proper exposure in the foreground. Additionally, experimenting with color-enhancing filters like warming or cooling filters can add a distinct mood or tone to your landscape shots, enriching the visual storytelling and ambiance of the scene. Understanding the nuances and applications of various filters empowers photographers to creatively manipulate light and enhance the narrative within their landscape compositions!

The Polarizer's main effects are removing glare from reflective surfaces and darkening the sky. They also remove haze and intensify rainbows. By eliminating shine on reflective surfaces, the object’s true colors can show through, which increases color saturation. The CPL removes the reflection on water to show rocks and plants beneath the surface. The same principle applies to all shiny surfaces like windows and metal. The CPL also darkens the sky, thereby increasing contrast between sky and clouds. However, this effect only works 90 degrees in either direction from the sun. The Polarizer blocks 1-2 stops of light so only use it if you need it.

The ND filter is a dark piece of glass that blocks light, thereby increasing exposure time. When you block light reaching the sensor, you can use a longer shutter speed to deliberately cause motion blur like silky water and blurred clouds. ND filters are available in 1 to 15 stops of light blockage. Their naming convention reflects the fraction of light that’s transmitted. A ND2 transmits ? of the light, ND4 ?, and so on.

ND filters are great if you want to add more “cinematic” view to your images and use less shutter speeds with higher ISO, might need a tripod but really depending on the style of your photography. Personally i like to use variable ND filters for video production rarely for photos. Key is more you shoot more you’ll know!

ND filters are a must for some landscape work, especially for selective focus–using larger apertures– or motion enhancement of water or clouds. However many ND filters are not quite neutral so be prepared to color grade in post to match your white balance with images without the filters.

The GND filter has a shaded top part of the filter to equalize exposure when the sky is much brighter than the foreground This was essential gear in the film days when you had to capture good exposure in all parts of the photo in a single shot. Today, better results can be achieved by bracketing shots, then blending the sky exposure with the foreground in Photoshop. However, if you don't want to bracket and blend, the GND is a good option. The drawback of the GND filter is that the shaded area is often misaligned with the foreground. This causes mountains or objects that protrude into the sky to have telltale “burnt tops” that reveal that a GND filter was used.

In the days of film, having a set of hard and soft grad filters with multiple densities was a must as our film, usually color transparency was the final product. But today with the dynamic range of most newer sensors, HDR techniques and post-processing making can lead to better results without the hassles of using these filters and without the tell-tail artifacts of a lineal blend across the image. It's been years since I've used my set and don't miss packing them today at all!

UV filters is a must, first of all i use them as a protection for my glass and of direct sunlight in the lense as it can damage/burn your sensor also i love the flares they give depending on the angle of composition. Again is an individual preference. Try before you buy ;)

UV and clear filters are primarily sold as protection against scratching your lens, and are often bundled as freebees. Optically, they add nothing, but can detract. They can pick up flare when shooting directly at lights, including when shooting the night sky. The extra layer of glass can also cause aberrations and degrade image quality, especially the cheap ones included with lenses. The notion of filtering UV rays is antiquated. Modern digital cameras and lenses are already UV calibrated and don’t require a UV filter. In lieu of protective filters, it’s better to trust your lens cap and nurture your equipment. High-quality cameras and lenses render such sharp resolution that adding unnecessary glass can degrade it.

Back in the days of film a UV filter did help, especially on color transparency film where the processed film became the final product. However today, they are a moot point and have a slight potential to degrade the image since they usually just add two more surfaces to attract debris and add to flare and ghosting. On some lenses, they actually will make it impossible to achieve sharp focus so test before use if you must use these filter.

These were another staple of the film era, but are now useless with digital photography. It’s better to adjust the color tone in post processing than adding a layer of colored glass to your lens.

In all reality, LB and color filters are a thing of the past for digital except maybe on a monochrome camera or on an IR converted camera which in that case an IR passing or visual cut-off filter may be called into use. The fewer filters you use, the better, IMO!

About all I carry today are a couple of ND and a circular polarizer for my largest diameter lenses along with stepping rings to attach the larger filter to smaller diameter lenses. My work that once required dozens of filters and adaptors is now a few filters and a few rings to adapt them to just a few zoom lenses today. Less stuff to drag along, more enjoyment, less stress, better photos!

As aerial photographer i shoot alot above the earth surface while flying under the canopy or in a freefall, is unique perspective and most likely above 2500ft(is max drone altitude) is unrepeatable. You can go to my profile and check my latest work where we jumped during the expedition in Venezuelan jungles near the Angel Falls and we been lucky enough to see Ayantepui fully open in sunrise colors. Travel more, shoot more and most important love your work, only like this you gonna produce real ART.

If you own lenses with different filter sizes, you don’t have to buy filters for each of them. Instead, just get one set of filters in a standard size and attach step-up rings to each lens. I recommend using at least 77mm filters because this is the standard size for professional filters. You can also future proof yourself by using 82mm, the largest standard filter size.