Filters: Love them or Hate them

It's pretty obvious that everything in my blog is my opinion, and my opinion is not necessarily fact. I may think I'm right, but if another photographer has a totally different way of getting to the same place, then I  take my Beret off to them

So, here it goes - back in the day, when we had 52, 62, 72, 82, and 95mm threads, and shot 3 different types of black and white and color film, we had lots of filters. At the end of that era, my attitude was that any additional air glass surface that was put in-between the lens and the subject it could have a tendency of degrading the image. So, I consider less is more. Or, minimalistic filtration. I believed it, taught it, and damn well thought I was right.  I never really believed a UV filter should be used to protect the lens. Today, many people would say that with Photoshop and high-end digital photography, you don't need filters. I personally try to do almost everything in camera, with a minimal amount of Photoshop. I may have come to that decision because I'm not as proficient as others with Photoshop. Or, it just could be that's the way I was brought up in photography. When it comes to filters, I only use Singh-Ray filters- their high-intensity, Gold-N-Blue, the Vari-ND, and I am looking forward to the new Vari-ND. On a previous blog, I made a rig to use the Variable Polarizer, the Vari-ND for video. My good friend Carl Saiver, of Sartek Industries,  looked at what I made and said something to the effect of, "you have to be ___  ___ kidding!" He removed it from my camera and said that he'd have something for me in a week.  A week later what appeared was a simple, elegant design for variable focusing and changes in filtration from either the left or right side with no noise or movement, and it's super smooth. Just want to let you know about my friend Carl - he's a genius! Carl's a world-class engineer, designer, and underwater maven. I strongly recommended going to his website.  He makes some of the greatest lights in the world. Also, don't forget to check out Singh-Ray's filters you may be pleasantly surprised.   To all the ships at sea, I'm signing off.

http://www.sarind.com/

http://www.singh-ray.com/