How would the use of the following filters affect photographing predominate red rock landscapes in the Southwest: 1) 81 series: 2) Enhancing; 3) Intensifying; 4) Tiffen 812?

-- john j zombek (jzombek@webtv.net), February 29, 2000

Answers

OK, I'll take a stab at it. I tried all of these last fall at Zion NP except for the intensifier. The ones I preferred were the 81 a and 81b. I found that when surrounded by red rock, you have a natural reflector which warms up the light anyway. In the middle of the day was when I used the warming filters and I thought they helped a bit. The Tiffen enhancing filter was a disaster if you get any sky or clouds in the picture. Too much magenta tinged sky and pink clouds for my taste anyway. I tried it on fall foliage here in NH and didn't care for it much there either. The 812 was somewhere in between. I found a polarizer was the most useful for improving the colors and cutting haze as long as you don't overdo it and get those black skies. I used Velvia, a little Provia F and E100VS. I still preferred Velvia which I think can do as much for enhancing colors as any filter, but that's just my two cents worth.

-- cowan stark (cowan@nh.ultranet.com), February 29, 2000.