Have you wandered through the filter aisle enough times to want to know just what, exactly, the deal is with those things? You’re in luck! Here’s a rundown of the most common filters you’ll find for lenses in photography. Browse our extensive selection on our website, or come on back into one of our stores for another walk down the aisle.
Bonus offer: Through May 18th, 2025, select Tamron lens purchases will include a FREE ProMaster 67mm HGX filter! (That’s the best kind.) CLICK HERE to find out which lenses are eligible.
Almost all filters are threaded and screw into the front of your lens. You’ll have to make sure you get the correct size, which is the diameter of the threading in millimeters and is usually indicated on the front of the lens with the ø symbol (e.g. “ø58”). This is why some manufacturers make note of the fact that certain of their lenses share a filter size: you don’t have to get multiple polarizers to cover them all! Note that it is possible to adapt larger filters to fit on smaller lenses using what’s called “step-up rings.”
There are also certain filter systems that require a correctly-sized holder but allow the actual filtration element to be swapped out (or moved, as you might want to do to shift where this graduated ND filter lands in the frame).
Filter types
Circular polarizer (CPL)
Polarizers are really neat—unlike protective filters, they can be extremely satisfying to use. Like magic, you can take complete control of reflections, inject extraordinary vividness into skies and other richly-colored areas, and blast away haze. Polarization is also one of the few things that you absolutely can not replicate in post-processing—it’s an analogue process, and three seconds of effort before the shot could save you hours of headache trying to come close to the intended effect later. Click here for a more in-depth explanation with real-world examples.
Close-up filters
As you will have already guessed, close-up filters allow you to create a larger image of an object on your film or sensor. This won’t give you the same results as a proper macro lens, but a little boost can go a long way when you’re working with the tiny delights.
Color filters
Colored filters can be used for special effects, but are most commonly used for black and white photography. In case you’ve never noticed it, when you select “convert to black and white” in your image editing program of choice, you are presented with adjustments that can brighten or darken the conversion of certain colors in the image. Colored filters are a manual/optical way of doing the same thing when you’re shooting black and white film (or just in black and white mode).
Neutral density (ND)
There are a few different kinds of ND filters, but (as you might guess from the name) they all do the same thing: reduce the transmission of light into your lens, typically quantified by number of stops or “filter factor.”
- Simple ND filters offer a single amount of light reduction across the entire frame.
- Solar filters are essentially extreme ND filters with at least a 15-stop reduction required for safe solar photography—essential for eclipses!
- Variable ND filters offer a convenient, versatile alternative. By utilizing multiple polarization layers, the density of the filter can be increased or reduced within a range (1.3–8 stops and 5.3–12 stops are the ranges available in the latest ProMaster line, for example). One filter can stand in for several, allowing preparedness for unknown lighting conditions, and you can adjust the light coming into the lens in real time while filming as another vector of creative video control. They are not quite as optically excellent as a solid single-density filter, although good quality VNDs are still excellent.
- Graduated ND filters allow you to dodge and burn in real time, with the amount of light reduction not being even across the whole frame. GNDs with hard lines are useful for situations with extreme exposure conflicts across a horizon line, though most have more of a gradient to support a natural look.
- IR ND filters are the pinnacle of optical quality. These fixed-density filters reduce visible light transmission as cleanly as you please and extend that same effect to the infrared range, preventing unexpected variations in coloration when in situations that offer a bit more infrared light than usual or when using very dark NDs.
A side note on neutral density filters
If you’ve struggled to capture a band playing in a dimly lit bar or your kids running around with their friends one winter evening, it might seem impossible that too much light could be a problem for the photographer or videographer—nevertheless, it can be!
The name of the game is control. With ISO, any adjustment can change the noise in the image (and for every sensor there’s a minimum sensitivity). Aperture will always affect the depth of field. Shutter speed can allow pinpoint-frozen moments or a blending of whole minutes of activity. What if you have a vision regarding those secondary characteristics, but your ideal combination is not possible to achieve in conjunction with the basic element of a correct exposure?
The classic example of a subject with which you might need a neutral density filter—that is, a filter with optically neutral characteristics outside of affecting the amount of light transmission*—is that of a languidly flowing river on a very bright day. Shot in auto, you’ll get a very crisp, still image of the river, but somehow that might not capture the softness and isolated movement of the scene. You’d love to get a smoothed-out river, but your ISO can only go so low and your aperture can only get so narrow (not to mention the fact that you won’t find peak lens performance at f/22), so you can’t slow your shutter speed as much as you’d like. You see where I’m going with this? If there’s too much light… get rid of some
* This terminology goes back to black and white film days, when you might use colored (non-neutral) filters to affect the shot.
Protection
A good protection filter, in an ideal scenario, should be completely unsatisfying. That sounds a bit funny, but the goal is to keep the front element of your lens pristine, while doing as little as physically possible to the image, so the better it works, the less you notice it. And this is not just a sneaky up-sell… I’ll never forget the image, seared into memory, of my camera falling lens-first onto a tile floor. I never use a new piece of glass without protection now. (The happy conclusion of my story: I did have a filter on the lens. The filter was toast, but the lens was completely unharmed.) Replacing a protective filter, even a very high-quality one, is much less expensive and requires much less time than repairing or replacing the lens itself. Cheap insurance!
Special effects
There are numerous other filters designed to alter the light in specific ways—some turn points of light into brilliant stars with a set number of points (kind of like an astigmatism), some soften the scene (this one will look a lot nicer than Vaseline on the front element, let me tell ya), others are more esoteric… many of these effects can be achieved in post-processing, but they are much more quickly and easily achieved optically.
Ultraviolet
Last, but certainly not least, a UV filter cuts light in the ultraviolet range. It’s essentially invisible to the naked eye, but (like infrared light) can cause an unnatural cast in images or video, in this case a slightly bluish one. Sensitivity to UV light can vary by type of built-in filter* or film stock—yes, don’t forget film! The UV filter brings what your camera sees more in line with what your eyes can see. This is especially true when the sun is unusually strong and/or at high altitudes. Since I live in sunny, mountainous Colorado, I actually use UV filters as my protective filters, which is a pretty common preference around these parts, but it’s worth noting that they are not strictly the same.
* Digital sensors are almost all highly sensitive to UV light, and therefore are equipped by default with a UV filter.
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