Preachdude Loc: Geneva, OH

I am considering the purchase of an enhancing filter. I've known for years that they are used to give autumn colors a "push" in intensity. I'm not talking about so-called "warming" filters that simply lower the color temperature. I'm talking about filters made with Didymium Glass. Recently, I've learned that they are also useful for astro-photography because they selectively eliminate the colors of sodium-intensive lighting that cause most of the light pollution from our cities. According to Wikipedia, "Didymium photographic filters are often used to enhance autumn scenery by making leaves appear more vibrant. It does this by removing part of the orange region of the color spectrum, acting as an optical band-stop filter. Unfiltered, this group of colors tends to make certain elements of a picture appear "muddy." The "Sodium Vapor Process" used in motion picture matte work included a didymium filtering prism in the camera."

The Singh-Ray filters and the Kenko Astro LPR Type II Filters are overpriced. That leaves the Tiffen, Lee, and Hoya filters. Has anyone out there used the Tiffen, Lee, or Hoya filters for fall colors? Which give the best results?

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

If you use Photoshop you can selectively enhance any color you like. I used a red enhancing filter in film days and did not much like the color shift. Checking through a spectroscope I could clear see the notch on the orange. It does skew the whole color balance, making everything appear slightly purplish.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

I tend to agree, I use to use intensifier filters with film cameras (especially with B+W) but today I much prefer using post production. Too many lenses too many filter sizes to carry. I occasionally will use a couple of filters with B+W (orange, yellow and red) but I only have them for one lens.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

You might consider a B+W Redhancer filter for fall color enhancement. I realize B+W doesn't make your list but they make great products. Brass frames are somewhat more consistent in machining and their coatings are second to none. Not sure what coating/s is/are used on the Redhancer but it does allow for the most detailed landscape shots I get. Photographs taken with one are the largest mega-pixel shots I get. (The same shot taken without the filter is smaller.) Best wishes in the light pollution problem. We live near the center of no-where and we still get the effects of unwanted sky illumination. The flatter the terrain the worse the problem. Haven't found a filter to eliminate this problem, yet. I'm sure someone is trying to sell one somewhere, but with no success.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

The only one that I would buy of the three would be the Hoya. And, like someone else mentioned, I would look into B&W. These are the two brands that I normally use and I have never been disappointed.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

I believe B&W only has black and white correction filters in yellow, orange and red.

cthahn

You could probably do the same thing in PS.

CO

I've used the LCH editor in Nikon Capture NX-2 and Capture NX-D. You can target specific colors. You have control over luminosity, color lightness, chroma, and hue. Photoshop probably has it also. I haven't checked.

Using the filter you describe may be even better than using an editor since you filter that color band when you take the photo.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I use the Hoya Red Intensifier filter for cutting down light pollution in my Night Sky images. Well, when autumn color arrives I will try it out there also

Paul Buckhiester Loc: Columbus, GA USA

I have never tried color shifting filters on a digital camera, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to limit what the sensor captures. Would such a filter not reduce your adjustment latitude in post?

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Howard Ross was a good friend of mine and a member of my camera club when he invented the "Enhancing Filter" for photography in the 80s. He was a one-man selling machine (and a great photographer and scientist) and would travel around the country to scenic places where big shooters were to be found to hawk his filter. He sold over a quarter million dollars worth of them to slide shooters before Tiffin stole his idea and marketed their own. I still own 4 or 5 of Howard's Enhancing Filters made from Didymium glass (he was a glass chemist at Ford in the Detroit area). I loved the filters in their day but since Photoshop came along, all mine are coated with 20 years of dust.

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

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Thank you, Paul.... I too agree with you on this point.

I shoot in RAW for the most part, unless it is a sporting event where I have the need for speed on shutter. Canon cameras - four of them.

The only filters that I make use of in the "Digital Age" is a Circular Polarizer and a Variable Neutral Density filter. I do not even use a U.V. filter. I do my color edits in Photoshop CS-5 and too, with NIK Software.

Paul Buckhiester Loc: Columbus, GA USA

James
I do use UVs; and also CP and ND. Have some plastic GNDs but have not tried them yet. I didn't realize they were plastic when I bought them, but I'll give them a try.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

If you're shooting film... sure, go for it.

If you're shooting digital... waste of money. I can "tweak" any color or all colors in a digital image any way I like, in post-processing. I no longer use the bag full of filters I carried around when I shot film. The only filters I carry now are Circular Polarizer, Neutral Density (NOT a "variable) and UV/Protection (which stay off my lenses and stored in my camera bag until actually needed).

I've stopped using Graduated ND too, since learning how much better I can accomplish the same thing in Photoshop.

Even "warming" filters are passe with digital... in fact Auto White Balance, if using it, will cancel out their effect.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD