Do you use filters for Portraits? can you?

Answer 1

Digi Doc has covered a lot of filters, but mostly ones you more than likely wouldn't use in a portrait. You might use a CP filter to have a deep sky, or to eliminate reflections at a lake or in the rain. The usual portrait filters are the softening filters. They come in various strengths, and usually a" little dab'll do ya." You can look at filters at www.bhphoto.com.

If you'd like to experiment, you can smear a bit of Vaseline on your protective filter at the edges. It will give you a sharp center and soft edge vignette. Note, do NOT smear substances on your lens, only on the haze or UV filter! If you smear it all over, you will have the soft and hazy effect throughout the image.

You can also stretch a piece of pantyhose over the lens. You can experiment, black hose gives a very muted, subdued effect, white makes things more contrasty.

I have used a star filter in portraits, when there are tiny light sources to form the stars. The star is also a very slightly softening filter.

There is also a specialized lens called a Lensbaby. It is an odd looking contraption. You adjust it manually to have only a little bit of an image in focus. I have seen intriguing portraits done with a Lensbaby.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

What filters do you want to use?


Digital Photography has made the majority of filters obsolete, as most effects can be achieved in post-processing.

Here are the only ones still useful (in my opinion) in Digital Photography....

- Polarizer
- ND
- UV
- Close Up Lens


All the other effects can be achieved in post-processing with greater ease, more flexibility, and a lot less cost.


Polarizer: - You can get the effect of the color saturation of a Polarizer in post-processing but you can't get the effect it has on reflections (in glass, water, and trees/bushes), so it's still a viable (and one of the most expensive) filters.

ND: Neutral Density - This is most often used when you have a bright day and you want to force your shutter speed to be slow. Mostly for taking photos of running water such as in a river, stream, or waterfall to achieve that smooth look.

UV: - Ultra Violet - This blocks the UV rays from getting to your lens which sometimes prevents a blue overcast on your images. More commonly people use it to protect their lens. These are the least expensive filters generally. While many believe using them for protection is good, the other school of thought is that anything directly on front of your lens degrades your image. So some purists will not use UV filters as protection. As an alternate, they rely on the hard lens shade found on professional lenses.

Close Up Lens: - This is an inexpensive way to take macro shots without a macro lens. They generally come in kits of +1, +2, +4 (works like reading glasses) - and you can combine them together. This is a cheap way to get the macro result, but if you eventually start shooting more macro shots you should invest in a macro lens.

Answer 3

You don't have to, I usually do not. It depends on the effect you are trying to create. And by filter, I assume you mean lens filter and the only filter I would think to use while taking a portrait is a softening filter, which has a haze or foggy finish that softens the image.