Warming UV v Skylight

[pibrahim]

Howdy all,

I read somewhere the opinion that 'warm light is almost always attractive' and looking at various photos, I've decided that I'd like to get an 81B warming filter. Rather than have a separate filter to take on and off, I'd like to combine it with a UV filter - I know that Tiffen make a warming UV fiter and I assume that others do too.

My question is - is a skylight filter the same as a warming UV filter? If not, how exactly do they differ with regards color tone?

[Rhys]

Howdy all,

I read somewhere the opinion that 'warm light is almost always attractive' and looking at various photos, I've decided that I'd like to get an 81B warming filter. Rather than have a separate filter to take on and off, I'd like to combine it with a UV filter - I know that Tiffen make a warming UV fiter and I assume that others do too.

My question is - is a skylight filter the same as a warming UV filter? If not, how exactly do they differ with regards color tone?

You don;t need coloured filters. Photoshop can change the colour besides auto-white balance will automatically negate coloured filters on the camera.

A 1A filter is transparent glass with no colour. A UV filter is slightly brown but is designed to eliminate UV light.

[pibrahim]

True, but I'd rather have the color effect applied 'at source', rather than have the hassle of going through all my photos one by one in Photoshop. Presumably using a defined white color balance (i.e. outdoors) will offset the problem you mentioned, yup?

I have a Hoya UV filter already but by all accounts, the filtering of UV does virtually nothing to the picture quality and they're used just as protection really. I therefore figured that I could use an 81B warming filter as protection instead. I just wasn't sure if skylights were the same though.

[Rhys]

True, but I'd rather have the color effect applied 'at source', rather than have the hassle of going through all my photos one by one in Photoshop. Presumably using a defined white color balance (i.e. outdoors) will offset the problem you mentioned, yup?

I have a Hoya UV filter already but by all accounts, the filtering of UV does virtually nothing to the picture quality and they're used just as protection really. I therefore figured that I could use an 81B warming filter as protection instead. I just wasn't sure if skylights were the same though.

UV cuts out the excess blue haze from outdoor photos. They're not just protection filters. A straight protection filter is simply a Skylight 1A.

Most people will shoot RAW so filter effects should be able to be applied globally by setting the correct white balance post exposure.

An 81B will reduce the light coming into the camera by 1/3rd of a stop so it's not a great idea.

On the lens with a digital camera, use only:
1. 1B if you're paranoid
2. UV if you have lots of UV to deal with.
3. Polariser
But make sure they're Hoya SMC filters.

Post processing is best with all digital images. That way if the effect is wrong, you can change it to the right effect without being committed.

[ReF]

True, but I'd rather have the color effect applied 'at source', rather than have the hassle of going through all my photos one by one in Photoshop. Presumably using a defined white color balance (i.e. outdoors) will offset the problem you mentioned, yup?

I have a Hoya UV filter already but by all accounts, the filtering of UV does virtually nothing to the picture quality and they're used just as protection really. I therefore figured that I could use an 81B warming filter as protection instead. I just wasn't sure if skylights were the same though.

you can do what you want, but just a thought: wouldn't having to adjust WB all the time be about as much trouble as having photoshop apply a warming filter to all your pictures using a batch process? might be asking for trouble if you don't shoot in RAW.

[cwphoto]

Forget the filter PJ, AWB will just over-ride it anyway. If you wanna warm them up just adjust your Kelvin down the scale a little - easy to do in batch.