Are their any good color filters for DSLR lenses?

H

harmonica44

I was thinking of getting some filters that would be give me certain color looks. Like a blue steel night look and a golden yellow sunlight look. I've been looking online, but in my experience from filters I have bought before, you have to be careful of how they are made cause of unwanted lens flares.

Are their any for DLSRs that are actually really good and pro, and for a good price?

Thanks.
 
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yes... google "Tiffen Filters" Then either match to the thread size of the lenses you've got, or get one the size of your largest lens thread size, and buy step up rings for all of your lenses to get them to that thread diameter.

Google really does hold many of your answers (I do get a kick out of the fact that CPF's google link comes back here though). Here's a search using your own question you've asked here (including the quotes to make it a phrase search on google) "color filters for DSLR":

https://www.google.com/search?q="color+filters+for+DSLR"&oq="color+filters+for+DSLR"

http://www.bhphotovideo.com
specifically: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/Filters/ci/16041/N/4026728367

As a side note: It's not required by any stretch of the imagination, but you should consider upgrading your membership here. You've definitely benefitted from being here and have become a regular part of this online community. It would make it easier for you to post example when asking questions.
 
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Okay thanks. I did do a search and find sites before, but I want to make sure their are not any hidden catches such as unwanted lens flare. Every peace of equipment I buy their is always some hidden disadvantage that I find out later, could have been avoided, had I known before and would have bought something else.

So I want to eliminate as many hidden disadvantages as I can before purchasing, especially since the last filters I bought have bad lens flare. Or like how I find out the last lens I bought does not focus close up, cause it's not a macro, so I should have gotten macro, etc. It's not that I don't want to research. It's just websites don't tell of the hidden catches, you find out later after you already bought it.
 
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If you add glass, you add another piece that can flare if you hit it directly with a light of any sort (same without the filter as well -- light shouldn't be pointed directly at the lens). another piece to watch out for is if you stack too many screw on filters, you can get darkening of the corners of your frame called "vignetting"... You can alleviate this by using filters quite a bit larger than your lens, and having step up rings (as few as possible) widen the angle you can use before causing "filter burn" (vignetting caused by filters). another solution is to use drop in filters that are even larger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stj4ZXyvWoI
 
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Buy a Mattebox, get some 4x5.65 Schneider Filters. There are tons of filters available, you just have to research.

Schneider Sapphire Blue offer a cold indigo blue look, Storm Blue filters add a little gray and green to blue tones to give a 'stormy' look... Schneider Coral Filters warm overcast days etc, Gold creates a warm effect, Schneider Sahara Gold creates a rich warm tones with a more technicolor look. There are also Amber filters and much much more to enhance a scene and give it a warm or cool look.

Here's a link: https://www.schneideroptics.com/ecommerce/CatalogSubCategoryDisplay.aspx?CID=56

Yes, they're not cheap, but if you want something that will give you good results, do it the proper way. You have not stated a budget, so it's hard to tell what you need!

You can eliminate flares by using a mattebox and drop in filters and making sure that you use the correct donut or lens adapter ring, so no light is hitting the filter from the back!
 
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Okay thanks. As far as the prices go, I will get the filters if I must have them to get close to a look I want, and nothing cheaper works. I will need to make sure I set some of the budget aside from that. Thanks. Are their any other hidden catches I should know about with those filters that they don't go into?
 
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Nothing hidden, it's a metal ring with a piece of glass in it that thread onto your lens.

Like lenses, some are more expensive and use better glass... cheap ones work just fine.

My polarizer cost $25 and works like a champ.
 
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Honestly... although ChimpPhobiaFilms doesn't say it unless your really doing some serious deep colour filters (beside ND & Polarizers) doing it in post is the less complicated method of adding some colour tint to your film.

"Says the guy who just graded to shoots on two different cameras that were shot over 4000km apart in two different countries by two different DOP's, just to look the same look in colour and grain... it took 10 minutes" but it does take practice... and the right software, and honestly they may of not been able to match due to the extreme settings/filters on one which was shot at night and the other filter free in the daytime.
 
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Okay thanks. The reason why I ask about filters though, is that when I try to color correct to a blue look in post, it adds noise. I did some test shots at night under a tungsten white balance, then tried to color grade to make it look more blue, and the noise is really heavy. So I thought blue filters during shooting would produce less noise. Perhaps I am color grading wrong.

I used curves, and added more blue, then took away the red and green in the other curves, till I had the blue I wanted. But still a lot of noise. Am I doing it wrong, and is their a way that doesn't add noise?
 
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harmonica44 said:
Okay thanks. The reason why I ask about filters though, is that when I try to color correct to a blue look in post, it adds noise. I did some test shots at night under a tungsten white balance, then tried to color grade to make it look more blue, and the noise is really heavy. So I thought blue filters during shooting would produce less noise. Perhaps I am color grading wrong.

I used curves, and added more blue, then took away the red and green in the other curves, till I had the blue I wanted. But still a lot of noise. Am I doing it wrong, and is their a way that doesn't add noise?
Click to expand...

Try just adding a coloured filter in post using different layer modes (overlay, colour, hardlight etc), and play around with layer masks to apply the tint to the highlights or shadows (known as split toning), rather than messing with rotating the colour channels/gain

Using physical lens filters will also reduce the amount of light entering the lens, which varies according to thier transmission %. As well as introducing a risk of artifacts (like ghosting and flares), stronger filters will lose you more light, and therefore cause even more noise to result. Using different layer modes in post are not nearly as destructive.
 
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I'd suggest tinting your image using the wheels before heading into curves, depending on the look you're wanting to achieve.

Also, how much are you pushing your curves?
 
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I have to push the blue curve quite far, as well as the red. The blue curve I push to the far top right, from the far left. The red curve I pull almost all the way down. The green only needs to be adjusted slightly. But doing this gets me a lot of noise.

When you say use the wheels, do you mean the hue wheel, or the three way color corrector? I tried that but I can't really get the look I want with those wheels.
 
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Okay thanks, I've seen what you mean. I cannot find these color filters to use alternatively in Premiere Pro, that were mentioned. If I google Premiere Pro color filters, I cannot find the specific ones. I used the three way color corrector, but that is only giving me a grey at best, and cannot get blue out of them it seems.
 
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Can we see a Pic so we can help you more directly? Adding color to push the blue more toward neutral rather than boosting the existing channels and exposing the noise.

If you add a color solid of the complementary color to the one you're trying to get rid of, you should be able to push the image across the color wheel without increasing the amount of noise in the image. Playing with the transfer modes and then adding a touch of brightness to compensate may get you where you want to be.
 
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Sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy64EeF-jJ4

The first shot is how the color is at night under a tungsten balance, and the other shots have been graded to give a more blue look. I like the color of the third shot the best, but it has noise in. I also think that sucking out the red, desaturates the image as well, and when I add saturation, noise comes with that as well as when adding blue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGJoSx7V9bg

You can't see it as much on youtube compared to a bigger screen though.
 
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The grain you're seeing after correction is because you're shooting under a sodium vapor light. We've covered this before, there's nearly no data in the non-orange for the camera to record, so bumping those up to levels that will read as natural can render the image extremely grainy.

Your solution here as there is to:
A) Not shoot under sodium lights
B) bring your own lights that do carry color spectrum that can be recorded
C) Just be ok with the orange images that you will invariably get from shooting under sodium vapor lights.

That said, the color correction isn't bad on youtube, other than its lack of saturation (which pushing will increase the grain significantly). But for playing in larger, more HDey formats, you'll want to have better control over the light and use elements that put out a much wider color spectrum than sodium vapor lights do. White light is not white... it's comprised of all the other colors which, in combination, read as white. In the camera, it's specifically Red, Green, and Blue recorded as black and white representations of those 3 separate channels. If you only give the camera Red to record, you'll have to jack up the other 2 past their breaking point to see white at all. That's what's happening here.
 
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