this or that or all? (if my wallet allow me)

[Justin]

hey guys

i'm thinking about buying a couple of 58mm filters for my 18-55 lens. i have a polarizer already. should i pick up a graduated filter, neutral density filter or an orange filter? i just thought about the orange filter after my professor in photography class told us that they use orange filters for black and white landscape shots. oh and is a UV filter a must have?

oh another thing, i've been reading my photography books and magazines and they say you can use multiple filters at once? is there something i should buy or do i just stack 'em on top of one another?

 

[photagraph]

An ND grad is a MUST HAVE for landscapes. UV filters are more or less a protective measure to keep the lens from getting scratched. A polarizer will do you a lot more good. You may want to invest in the larger 77mm filters and use a step up ring. They do cost a bit more but when you upgrade to a lens with a larger diameter you will be very thankful your old filters are useable.

I also wouldn't stack more than 2 filters. At 18mm you may begin to see some vignetting after 2. I have not really had a chance to play around with colored filters. There is a lot you can do now a days if you shoot RAW and tweak the color channels and such. Any filters that manipulate shutter speed (ND, ND grad) often have an effect that is hard to reproduce in post processing. Unless its film your dealing with I wouldn't spend a whole lot of colored filters, soft focusing, special effect filters.