10 Minute Crash Course: Using Filters for Landscape Photography

Oct 12, 2020

DL Cade

Photographer Nicco Valenzuela recently published a helpful “crash course” that covers everything you need to know to get started using lens filters for landscape photography. The video covers everything from the two main filter ‘formats,’ to the three main filter ‘types,’ to the various situations where you might want to use each filter for the best possible results.

As the headline implies, this isn’t a video for intermediate or professional users. Rather, it’s meant to serve as a quick-and-dirty beginner’s guide that covers all of the basics in one place, answering common questions like:

What’s the difference between circular and square filters?
What are the different “types” of filters available and what do they all do?
What should I look for when purchasing a filter/filter system?
When should I use each type of filter?
When and how should I use multiple filters at once?

Here’s just one before-and-after example from the video, showing how a Neutral Density filter can enable beautiful long-exposure shots that would be difficult (if not impossible) to capture in any other way:

If you’re just getting started in landscape photography, a decent set of square filters—or even a circular polarizer and screw-on ND filter—can open up a wide range of new possibilities and help you capture images that would be otherwise impossible. But if you don’t know where or how to jump into the great big world of lens filters, this video is a great place to start.

Watch the full beginner’s guide/crash course for yourself up top, and if you want to dive much deeper on this subject (and beyond) check out this free 3-Hour tutorial on travel and landscape photography that we published back in January.