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Home → Camera Gear Accessories

Lens Filters Explained – New Video Released

By Spencer Cox 71 Comments
Last Updated On September 15, 2020

Our newest video tutorial is now on YouTube, and this one covers the critical topic of lens filters for landscape photography. There’s a ton of information in this video that you may not have heard before, even if you’re an advanced photographer, so go ahead and take a look!

My goal while creating this video was to cover every important thing that I know about filters. It not only introduces each common type of filter, but also goes into plenty of advanced information along the way. If you never knew why magenta filters may be worthwhile for digital photography, or how aperture and focal length affect which grad filter you should buy, I guarantee you’ll learn something new in this video.

In short, it’s the most comprehensive (and highest production value) video that I’ve made so far. I normally try to prioritize a shorter video length, but sometimes that leaves out valuable information, so I decided to try something different this time. I’m still figuring out whether to make more videos like this, or go back to shorter and simpler videos that I can publish more frequently. I’ll probably end up doing a mix of both.

If you found this video useful or you’re interested in hearing about our future videos, you can subscribe by clicking here. And if you’re already subscribed, but are wondering why you aren’t receiving notifications, please remember to click the bell icon beneath any of our videos on Youtube to turn on notifications.

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Filed Under: Camera Gear Accessories Tagged With: Filter, Filters, Landscape Photography, Lens Filter, Polarizing Filter, Video

About Spencer Cox

I'm Spencer Cox, a landscape photographer based in Colorado. I started writing for Photography Life a decade ago, and now I run the website in collaboration with Nasim. I've used nearly every digital camera system under the sun, but for my personal work, I love the slow-paced nature of large format film. You can see more at my personal website and my not-exactly-active Instagram page.

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GW DePauw
GW DePauw
December 5, 2021 5:23 pm

Hi. Can you explain IRND vs ND? Looking to start adding some filters to my bag and am confused about these two. I’m using a canon R6

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Jorge Luis Morales-Estrella
Jorge Luis Morales-Estrella
June 21, 2021 3:04 pm

Just a fantastic tutorial. Thank you Spencer.

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Richard
Richard
April 12, 2021 4:27 pm

Spencer, excellent video. Nan and Anthony hit it spot on. Very informative and a good length. Thanks. ~ Richard

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Gary
Gary
September 29, 2020 1:16 am

Your a true Photographic legend Spencer
What an amazing educator,
Thank you once again
………..Gary
…………………AU

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Blues Dude
Blues Dude
August 7, 2020 10:24 am

Great video that gave enough detailed information on several topics to whet my interest for some in-depth reading. The length was perfect for the topics covered. And you’re an excellent presenter!
One suggestion is to include, at the end of the video, a list of sources (books, videos, websites, etc.) so viewers who want more info can find it.

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John
John
July 21, 2020 8:07 am

Thanks Spencer, you answered a lot of questions I had, including why I’ve been getting flaring patterns in my photos while shooting long exposures. I was using a variable ND filter and turning it completely dark and couldn’t figure out why I was getting these patterns. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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Anna
Anna
July 20, 2020 4:33 pm

Spencer, this was very helpful as a deeper dive, especially with the variety of ND filters. Thank you!

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fabrice
fabrice
July 13, 2020 6:13 am

hello Spencer, again a good video but I would like to clarify one point , can we reproduce what we can do with a gradual filter with Lightroom gradual filter ?
regards
Fabrice

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Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox
Author
Reply to  fabrice
July 13, 2020 2:57 pm

If there’s detail in the sky and you haven’t blown out any color channels, you can reproduce it pretty well with a graduated filter in Lightroom. However, if your sky is blown out, an HDR is the only digital way to mimic what a grad filter can do.

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Gary
Gary
July 13, 2020 2:02 am

Spencer, the longer and more comprehensive format is my preference. Good work!

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Walter Reichert
Walter Reichert
July 11, 2020 11:16 pm

Excellent presentation! Informative!

0
Reply

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