hi, not sure wat's the diff between filters and polarizer.. but read that they can enhance city and scenery shots? any recommendation to go with my D80 + kitlens 18-135mm?
budget .. i don't know.. $50-80?
tia
Yeah I was about to post a similar question for my d80 too, think I'll tag together with this thread...wanted to have filter to enhance the saturation of my picture and a blue sky with saturated forground. Would circular polarizer does the trick or GND?
A polarizer is a filter. Check out the Cokin (a filter company) website
here, there is a lot of useful information regarding filters.
Also, there are whole books on filters with regards to photography in the library, Wikipedia also has a short list of filters and a small introduction as to what each of them do. I think I've said this before, I've seen so many threads whereby new people ask questions which are easily answered in their own time and with minimal effort, not fed up but just rather bemused. I suppose the mods could sticky up a filter thread but no one would read it anyways.
A lot of filters can enhance city/landscape shots, but in the digital age you'd probably want to get stuff which you
cannot replicate in Photoshop, gone are the days when you needed warmup filters, etc with film. But well:
1) CPL - circular polariser. Don't worry about the other type of polariser, I have NEVER seen it before, so just ask for a CPL when you get your stuff. This does two main things - reduce glare/reflection from non-metallic surfaces, and this first thing is therefore linked to the second - which saturates colours (due to cut off of glare) and increases contrasts in the sky wherever applicable.
2) ND - neutral density filters. These are filters which are well, neutral in colour and basically block off some light such that you can lengthen your exposure timing. Mainly used to smooth out water, or to capture wave spray, etc. A lot of things can be done with long exposures, like people trails, etc.
3) GND - graduated neutral density filters. These are similar to ND filters but they are graduated, i.e. with varying degrees of light cut-off. These are to ensure equal exposure of highlights and shadows (if you do not know what this is, please read up more first), such that you get to retain details in both of these extreme ends of the light captured. Particularly useful for landscapes, especially for those where you have a foreground which is not as brightly lit up as the sky.
Another filter whose effect cannot be replicated in PS would be an infrared (IR) filter - can check out the IR section of Clubsnap for more info.
Learn to find out things for yourself, you will enjoy it much better than getting spoonfed, really. Part of the experience of photography is crashing through the jungle of information - and there is much available everywhere these days, with the Internet, Singapore's relatively well-equipped libraries..
Cheers!