Taking Better Pictures - Part 14
Using Filters for Special Effects
If you're looking for a simple, inexpensive way to add pizzazz to your photos, look no further. The answer is as close as your nearby photo dealer. there you'll find a wide array of special-effects filters to fit your camera. Filters guaranteed to take ordinary scenes and turn them into extraordinary photographic events.
     Filters come in one of two types-either as individual screw-on models that fit common lens barrel widths or as part of an integrated filter system adaptable to nearly any width lens. But it's not filters' sizing that makes them spectacular. It's what they can do to spice up a scene.
     Soft focus or diffusion filters add just a hint of mist to a shot, making them ideal for photographing everything from moody waterfront scenes to couples in love. They're a particular favorite of wedding photographers. Multiple-image filters can take a single subject and break it into from two to six multiple images, depending upon the particular filter. They're used extensively in show biz and advertising photography.
     Spot-in color filters feature a clear center with a colored outer area so that the subject comes out true to color while the foreground and background have a strangely unique other-world tint to them. Half-and-half filters are half colored, half clear so that you can photograph a perfectly normal foreground scene against a sky of red, green, or yellow. Starburst effect filters take any solitary point of light (like a street lamp orautomobile headlight) and turn it into a shimmering explosion of light. Sepia filters turn an ordinary roll of color film into a panorama of rich, antique brown straight out of a bygone era. Great for portraits and photographs of old buildings.
     If these aren't enough to whet your appetite, see your local photo dealer. There you'll find dozens more just waiting to add spice to your shots.