What I do, religiously, is use my lens hoods. Hiding that front element in the bowels of a lens hood offers adequate protection on all my lenses, even the super wide. In 30 years of snapping, I’ve never trashed a front element. Maybe I’m just lucky, but when I see a photographer not using a lens hood, it’s akin to riding a motorcycle naked, you are just asking for pain and misery. What’s not to like about a lens hood? It is your friend for increased contrast and flare reduction / elimination. The only time it’s a pain is when you are using a polarizer that you have to turn, a deep lens hood makes this tricky.
What filters do I use? The list is much shorter than it used to be. I no longer carry the 81 and 82 warm up / cool down filters. In round filters I have a circular polarizer with step down rings for the odd lenses that don’t have 77mm threads. The polarizer is arguable the one filter that photoshop can’t emulate. You might get the sky to look like a polarizer has been used, but there is no way to remove reflections from water and see the stream bed beneath. Reflection control is where this lives along with sky control. Much easier to get it right in camera than faff about in photoshop later.
I have a Lee system holder for Cokin “P” size filters. I don’t use Cokin filters, but use neutral density filters from Lee. No colour cast and when you need to slow your shutter speed down, it’s the most practical way. I haven’t used them for controlling depth of field in portraiture yet, but I’m going to as soon as I get a chance. I also have a set of graduated ND filters from Sing-Ray. Expensive bits of plastic, but they do a fantastic job of controlling contrast. Yes, I do use HDR, but there is nothing wrong with getting it right in camera. It’s often more subtle and can really make a shot. What I don’t have is a hood for the square system. What I do is use whatever I can find (reflector, mini soft box etc.) to shade the assembly from direct sun. It works.
More to come……
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