I just want to buy some filters, like a graduated filter or special effects, can anyone give me some advice about those filters.

But a polarizing and maybe some graduated neutral density filters after that. Neutral density filters are also good.

Other than those, the other filters are pretty much a waste of money as photoshop can do the same stuff. For example - the soft focus filter or the star effect filter - just use photoshop.

I'm personally a lazy person who doesnt use any filters - photoshop takes care of pretty much everything for what I do.

Any particular manufacturers Noah?

What are the consideration for GND's? As in, what types of shots do their use lend themselves to? ... and so forth.

I have no idea about which brand. I've also never used GND before so I wouldn't know much about those.

.. I don't use filters. Remember?

Yes, however ... you read and have read ... lots of 'stuff'. :o)

Right you are.

I also forget ... lots of stuff.

Ok fine, you win:

There are hard and soft GND filters. I think you'd want a hard GND filter if you go that route since I see your photos normally have flat horizon (sunsets, etc). As for how many stops of light you want the dark part of the GND filter to block is up to you - I'd go with a 2-3 stop if I were buying - but I'm just throwing a number out there. If you go the one filter route, you'll have to use photoshop to do more minor adjustments to get the sky and ground to look 'just right'.

Or if you were really serious - you'd buy a whole set of GND filters, one to nearly fit into whatever situation you stumble upon. Of course this is expensive, and is why I use a tripod and just take 2 differently exposed shots and photoshop the two together. Actually, I havent really done that either ... I'm too lazy for that.

As for brands, no idea. GNDs usually have a holder you slide the piece of glass into - i've heard they're square/recangular pieces of glass. So they don't really screw on.

Polarizing filters are great for getting rid of reflections (off of water or leaves for example). They also darken the blue in the sky just a smidge (if you're pointing the camera perpendicular to the sun) b/c of the water particles in the air which reflect light .. or is it refract. Anyways... I dont use these b/c I can darken skies in photoshop, and i rarely encounter water or trees in my photos. Slim filters are used if you stack a bunch of filters on top of one another - or if your lens is really wide. However, if your lens is made for a 35mm camera and youre using it on a cropped digital camera, you can pretty much stack all you want (within reason). I dont think slim filters have a front thread either.

Neutral density filters are good if you want to slow down your shutter speed or use a wider aperture (the later almost never happens though - you'd have to shoot the sun with a f/.8 lens shooting at ISO 99999999; besides, you wouldn't be shooting full open anyways as you're a landscape type of person). I dont use ND filters (anymore) b/c I can simply wait for a darker time of day to roll around. Also, polarizing filters block about a stop or two of light.

Oh, and get the largest size of filter for your biggest lens - you can always buy a step down (or is it step up?) ring so they fit on your smaller diameter lenses. Unfortunately, when I bought my polarizing filter back in the day, i had small lenses .. i've since moved up and it would be a waste of money to buy some more filters. Basically, dont forget about your future purchases.

As for cheap or expensive? Expensive is obviously better - but I dont know by how much.

I already have a polarizing filter and I don't think that you can get the same results in PS!! The results of using those filters are much better according to the photographer where I did some info about some filters.

*edit*

I was wondering about filters myself. I was looking through a book on landscape photography which had information on each photo featured. For nearly all of them, some kind of filter (sometimes two or three) was used. Mostly:

polarizer
neutral-graduated filter
warm-up filter

It got to the stage I was thinking "oh, you used a polarizer, why not a warm-up?" I suppose experience would tell us when to use a filter and when to leave it off... anyway, I would like to try them myself.

I have to use this link at least once more, timecatcher.com .. whoever is reading this post has probably seen this link a billion times, but just in case you havent, there it is ..

They pretty much say what filter they use in every photo on the site. Might give you an idea for what to buy next.

I personally just like to look at the images.

thats a lovely site Noah:))

If you go to tiffen or hoya filters website, You can download there pdf catalog. It will tell you what filter to use for what.
Always use a uv filter to protect the lens. A lot less $$$
to replace the filter than a scratched lens.

Ed