Filters in the Digital Age Part III
Special Effects You Can't Create Digitally

There are filters that serve creative purposes which we may not consider as valuable in the digital age. However, there are some effects which even the most sophisticated imaging software can't emulate satisfactorily.

Diffusing Filters

Diffusing filters are often used in portrait and wedding photography more than perhaps any other field. They evoke a sense of softness and romance and are excellent for reducing sharpness in a portrait. This kind of full detail sharpness can actually detract from the image. Diffusing filters reduce the awareness of imperfections in the subject's complexion and for this reason are very effectively used in glamour work.

Without Diffuser filter (above left) and with (above right). Diffusers diffuse highlights,
not the shadows as well, something which again difficult to reproduce authentically
after the shot is taken.

A diffusing filter should never render your image unsharp however as that defeats the purpose. When buying a diffusing filter, check first that it retains the sharpness of the image and only 'blows out' the highlights. You can do this very easily by holding it up to your eye and looking through. The Cokin 820 diffuser is a perfect example of a diffuser that is not too heavy, but beautifully diffuses without removing sharpness.

Again, diffusion is possible using software – if you want to go to the trouble of creating duplicate layers, blurring, manipulating transparency, etc. However, diffusing filters only diffuse the highlights, leaving greater detail in the shadows, and replicating this digitally is quite difficult to achieve. There is little reason to spend time on the computer to create an effect that requires seconds in camera.

Cross Screen Filters

The Cokin Cross Screen filter is yet another within the range for the photographer to seriously consider. Creating a cross effect wherever pin points of light appear, it adds an interesting dynamic to images of city lights, candlelit tables, water scenes and the like. This pleasant effect is difficult and unpredictable to replicate using software and again requires unnecessary post processing time.

Without Cross Screen filter (above left) and with (above right).
This unique effect is extremely difficult to create in post-processing.

Filters and Digital

With the growth in popularity and quality of digital capture, there is the likelihood that certain filters will become less important to the photographer.

Much really depends too on the photographer's philosophy, and this applies to both kinds of capture – digital and film. All kinds of effects can be used in photography. Filters are among them. Effects can be applied in the capture, or in the darkroom, be that digital or traditional. When and how you wish to apply these effects, if any, is up to you. Remember though that image creation can both begin and end in the camera, and filters enable the photographer to do that to a large degree, saving valuable time that could be better spent pursuing the next image.

Photography is an art. It is not just about capturing an image. It's about creating one. To a large degree it should still be about creating them in-camera. Cokin filters are tools that can help you to achieve that.

Shelton Muller is a Melbourne-based photographer and the editor of Total Image and Better Pictures magazines. He can be contacted via his website at www.photographybyshelton.com