The Most Appropriate Filters for Sky Photographing

Sky in landscape plays one of the important roles, while it sets the mood, gives dynamics. But our intentions can be spoiled by rainy weather or white spot instead of blue sky at the final photo.

By the way, do you know that if you apply light filters during shooting, sky color can be later on not only recovered, but also painted into another color?

Rainy Day Shooting

During such shooting it is better to use color gradient light filters while in the other case sky will be gray or milky-white.

“Digital” Sky

Digital cameras matrix has a very limited ability of over-lighting reflection. Gradient light filter is a filter partially colored, for example, into blue, red, etc. Boundary between colored and colorless zones has gradually diffused form and frequently goes at the centre of the filter, but there are filters with boundary in another proportion.

Colored Gradient Filters

Gradient filters are not only round-shaped. Some can be rectangular-shaped (e.g. Cokin and Singh-Ray). The advantage of the latter filters is the possibility to arrange the limit of boundary between colored and non-colored regions wherever, not only at the centre. So, using gradient filters we can make the sky with any color we want.

Neutral-Gray Gradient Filter

These filters are similar to color gradient ones. A part of the filter, colored into neutral-gray, influences the color by no means; it only weakens brightness of its “part”.

Polarization Filters

They help to saturate the sky color a little bit. They don’t work in rainy weather. Polarization filter applying has vivid limitations. For example, nothing can be done with the sky that is situated opposite the sun. Somehow this situation will be solved via Bluehancer filter.

Thus, as you can see, today not only cosmonauts, but photographers as well, conquer the sky. If we act correctly and implement simple methods, then we will be able to change the sky to our taste easily. Thanks gods and humans, modern technologies allow us to do so! :)