Filters are basically special pieces of glass which screw into or are mounted infront of the your camera lens and add varying effects to the final shot. Most filters are designed to be used with  SLR type cameras and their larger medium format and large format cousins there are very few filters made for the basic point and shoot type cameras. With the advent of digital the use of filters has lessened as the effects can be added at the processing stage through popular manipulations programs.

There are hundreds of different kinds of filters to produce an equally large amount of effects. Most coloured filters (red, orange, green, yellow. etc.,) are made for black and white photography but can also be used with colour films for unusual effects. Red filters are very good for bringing out dramatic skys and blue/green filters are used to clean up skin in portraits. 

Filters commonly used with all films are UV and skylight filters. They are used to eliminate ultraviolet rays but most importantly they are commonly used for the protection of the actual lens and have minimal effect on the final image . The use of this type of 'protection' filter is recommended as they stop the valuable lens being scratched and are much cheaper to replace. Close-up filters that provide an inexpensive way to do macro-photography are again popular but a price is paid in image quality. If you do use a point and shoot type camera, try holding one of these filters up in front of the camera lens as you shoot and see the different kinds of results you can get. Remember, if you use an orange filter with colour film, the entire photograph will come out with an orange tint, however this can make for great sunset shots!

Colour temperature filters are used with colour film to add either a cooling or a warming effect to the photograph. Another type of filter is the Fluorescent filter. This filter is generally pink and designed to correct the unnatural greenish tinge of fluorescent lights.

One more important filter is the Polarising Filter which is used to preferentially pass light waves vibrating in a particular plane. The polarising filter cuts down reflections from polarised light sources such as the sun. By removing surface reflections, they can produce an exaggerated colour saturation in images. These filters usually come in a rotating mount and need to be rotated while observing the image to obtain the required effect. A frequent question is whether to use a circular or a linear polariser the answer is easy if you use an auto focus lens then the circular polariser is used and the linear version is used for manual focusing lenses.

Some filters may also be available as thin gelatin filters. These are intended for special uses in studios and are too flimsy and easily damaged for normal camera use.
 

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