UV Filters Enhance Image Quality
After making the arduous climb up the hill overlooking Paradise Harbour in Antarctica it's an absolute thrill to slide down, in a fraction of the time.
A high quality UV filter will protect your lens from scratches and, if kept clean, can enhance the quality of your photos.
I’ve been fortunate to have travelled and photographed extensively on six continents across our amazing planet. I always do what I can to ensure my camera and lenses are kept in great condition.
Part of the way I protect the lenses I use and ensure great quality in the photos I make is to employ a quality B+W UV filter on the front of each lens I use.
B+W Filters | The Best Filters I've Ever Owned
B+W filters are the best filters I have ever used.
B+W filters are made in German by Schneider, a leading manufacturer of high-quality professional view camera lenses.
I'm happy in the knowledge that, unlike cheaper plastic filters, B+W filters won't lessen the quality of my high priced Sony lenses.
Made to the highest standards, from arguably the world's best optical glass, I prefer the B+W filters that incorporate the B+W F-Pro filter mount resulting in a thinner design.
B+W claim this thinner design helps prevent vignetting, even on wide angle lenses, including most 24 mm focal lengths on full frame camera bodies.
B+W filters are made to last and are encased within a brass ring to ensure that the filter thread won't become cross threaded.
That’s a problem that sometimes occurs with cheaper filters, utilizing plastic threads, that have been screwed on too tightly to your lens.
A monkey with a large piece of fruit in the Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali.
Why I Use And Love My B+W UV Filters
Theoretically a UV Filter is attached to the front of your lens to block the adverse effects of Ultra Violet (UV) radiation.
While UV is beyond the visible spectrum, meaning we can't actually see it, it can have an adverse effect on our photos.
Problems traditionally resulting from the adverse affects of UV light include the following:
Bluish color cast
Loss of sharpness
Over exposure (i.e., images record lighter than they otherwise would, resulting in potential loss of delicate highlight detail)
A sublime view, early in the morning, above the clouds on Huangshan (i.e., Yellow Mountain), China.
More Reasons To Buy A Quality B+W UV Filter
Traditionally UV Filters were particularly useful where UV radiation is high, such as when photographing distance mountain views at relative high altitudes.
Modern DSLR and Mirrorless cameras do a good job at reducing the adverse effects of UV light, though film cameras can still benefit from the UV blocking capabilities of a quality UV filter.
Because the filter is clear no exposure adjustment is required. You can make photos without a second thought.
In practice a UV filter is usually employed to protect the front element of your lens from scratches, fingerprints and foreign bodies including the following:
Dust
Sand
Salt water spray
A dirty filter will likely result in reduced contrast and a loss of image sharpness. Regardless of the filter that’s on the front of your lens, do ensure that it’s kept clean.
Photos that include light sources (e.g., street lamps, sunrise, sunset) can exhibit a blooming or spreading of the light and a smearing of color. These issues can become worse with a dirty filter on the lens.
Remembering to keep both the filter and the front element of your lens clean is, therefore, essential to extract the best quality from your lens.
Use Filters With A Multi Resistant Coating
High quality filters incorporate a special Multi-Resistant Coating (MRC) which provides the filter with a water and dirt repelling coating.
This special coating helps keep the filter cleaner for longer and, when cleaning is required, makes it easier to achieve.
An MRC coating also reduces internal reflections between the filter and the front glass element of your lens.
This level of protection can reduce the occurrence of flare and ghosting in photos, a reason some folks give for not employing a UV filter in the first place.
How to Reduce Flare in Your Photos
I keep a B+W filter on my lens at all times. Usually it's a UV filter but, when it’s time to attach a polarizing filter, the UV filter is removed.
As a general rule it’s poor practice to stack traditional, screw-in filters on top of each other. By doing so you’re increasing the amount of flat glass surfaces that light has to pass through before it even enters your lens.
Because of a flat, reflective surface most filters are susceptible to flare. This makes it essential to reduce the likelihood of light reflections forming on the filter that’s placed in front of your lens.
The best ways to reduce such reflections are as follows:
Use a high quality filter with a Multi Resistant Coating (MRC)
Keep that filter extremely clean
Use a lens hood, also called a lens shade, to place the front facing element of the filter into shade
Photograph with the light behind you
Should You Use a UV Filter?
There’s debate over whether or not you should employ a UV filter on the front of your lens. I belong to the camp that says you should.
However, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.
At the end of the day, while there are pros and cons to consider, whenever you use a UV filter or not will be dependent upon your own personal preference. And I think that’s just fine.
The world’s full of uninspiring photos that were made by folks who approach photography in a really meticulous way.
No doubt some of the greatest photos have been made with pretty average technique under less than optimal conditions with equipment that’s poorly maintained.
Technical concerns are important but, ultimately, it’s the communicative power of a photo that makes it memorable.
Most folks simply don’t care how you made your best photos and wouldn’t even think to ask if you had a filter in place when you did.
Never underestimate the power of emotion in photography.
Is it any wonder that many of the best photos made are created by people with a passion for their subject and an intense desire to communicate their experience of the world around them?
Think about great sports, war, portrait and landscape photos. The emotion they elicit is at the heart of their success.
The Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry is a perfect example of just such a photo.
Whether or not you purchase and regularly use a UV filter is, of course, completely up to you.
My advice, should you choose to do so, is to buy a really, really good one. That’s the reason I use and recommend the German made B+W UV filters.
One thing I’m sure of is that you'll be courting poor quality results if you use a cheap, low quality UV filter.
Unless you’re photographing in a sandstorm, and don’t want to damage an expensive UV filter, or are actively trying to induce flare and sunspots, it makes no sense to use a cheap, low quality UV filter.
As a general rule, after spending good money buying a great camera and a quality lens, it seems like folly to add inferior quality glass in front of your camera’s lens.
