The Tiffen site is a great place to start looking. For examples of what they look like, go here.

BTW, try the filmmaker's trick of stretching an old pair of pantyhose across your lens. Secure it with a rubber band. The more you stretch it, the lighter the effect. Different colours and brands will have different looks so experiment. The only difference between us and them is that they put the pantyhose on the back of the lens.

Mike

You are much better off to apply digital filters to your final photos, then you can choose any effect and not be limited by your original picture.

I use Mediachance's DCE Autoenhance program - it has dozens of digital filters you can preview and apply quickly - no playing around withe levels and such. I often use the blue filters to pump up sky shots and many others make for dramatic lighted shots that you would have a hard time actually creating in the field.

tygrus

I have to slightly disagree with the last statment.

Yes didgital filters can be applied and work very well , but there are many situations that filters applied in fornt of camera will give better results.

For instance. Lets say you have a bright sky with darker foreground. You can shoot for the foreground but your sky will be blown out, and you cant recreate the data that would have been there if it is recorded as white.

IF you put a gradient filter on, you will have a picture that is balanced and none if it is blown out or crushed.

THis is a simple example and there are many others out there.

Lads .. lads .. lads ! It's both - Filming Filters AND Post DigiFXs.

I seriously USE filters while filming to set exposure - NDs and maybe Pola & using Grads to "split" areas of filming to "puch-up" some layer there in front of me. I can THEN use, firstly, more effectively the footage back in my studio, which in turn can, secondly, give me more creative options then when I use/select DidgiFXs.

I do use the odd Tabac filter and Promist Black when I KNOW that IS the look I want - however if there is the slightest possibility to do WITH and WITHOUT I'd do this too!

Love my Formatt Filters . .. Love my Vegas FXs . . . . ! Just let them assist each other - yeah?

Grazie

ps . . love this thread . .right up my streeet!

The most interesting comment I heard on this topic came from a DOP when he was asked why he stuck a filter on the camera when it would have been much safer to do it digitally to the DI. He said that putting the filter on the camera removed the ability to change it later, he wanted what was on the film to reflect how he saw it on the day, not how it felt about it weeks later, perhaps on another continent.
Bob.