Every time i pack my camera bag, besides UV filter which already mounted on my lenses, I will make sure CPL and ND 8 filters are packed.

UV filter is a must in order to protect your glasses from scratches but try to avoid those filter do not have HMC because cheap filter might cause ghosting image in some focal length and some lighting situation. Many people think Hoya HMC filter is expensive. In fact, Hoya HMC price is not much different with Hoya standard filter.

Another filter is CPL, it allow you to capture the blue sky, enhance the saturation and cut through the reflection which you can’t achieve through post processing.

This Picture captured with Hoya CPL to enhance the blue sky.

This Picture captured with Hoya CPL to cut through the water reflection at the bottom.

Another filter is ND (Neutral Density) filter, it can help you to slow down the shutter speed during bright day bright in order to achieve special blur effect in day time.

ND8 has been used to achieve the slow shutter in order to get the misty effect of the water current.

For this picture, I have used ND 8 to get 15s to make the water reflection as smooth as mirror.

Hope this short article can help our readers to decide what filter they need to use or buy.

Want to know what is the different between Standard vs HMC filter? Check out here for detailed explanation