Help please re filters

Hi again, been flying a MP for about 9 months now, all gone pretty well so far, taking still pics usually in coastal environments.
I’e been pretty pleased with the results, but I’m wondering now if those results would be any better using any particular filter? Not been using any filters. I don’t actually know much about filters, to be honest.
I don’t want to use polarising as I quite like the shiny sea etc. I’ve played around with one on my stills camera in the past and found little benefit from it.
But my colourisation in the drone pics sometimes seems a bit ‘flat’ even in reasonably good light, and I end up tweaking using Photoshop quite a bit, playing around with the hue saturation settings.
So I’ve been wondering if maybe there’s any particular filter(s) I should be thinking of commonly using?
And if so, any particular make I should go for?
Many thanks in advance!

I don’t really know much about filters but what I do know is that when I use them the colours are more fuller

It’s easier to just post these than go into explaining it :grin:

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Hi, if you’re taking stills and don’t want to polarize then there is really nothing to gain from filters. You’ll get more shooting in raw and editing them. Have a play with the lightroom app and see how you go.

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Absolutely agree! :+1:
You want minimum ISO for image quality, then fastest shutters speed to eliminate the slightest movement/vibration.

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Unless you want to do long exposure that is…

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Thanks all for replies so far. Not what I expected! Perhaps I’m in a bit of a minority being mainly interested in stills rather than vid.
On my stills camera I have what I think is called a daylight filter. Any merit in using one, do you think, on the MP?

UV? Opinion is divided on these. Personally I’m not sure they offer a lot as they’re a hangover from film days. On an SLR they’re useful for protecting the front of the lens if nothing else.

I’ve seen some good work using strong ND filters with moving water.

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Is it a Skylight filter?

I had one on an old legacy lens. I think they introduced a slight tint of magenta but make no real difference on dslr’s which control white balance.

Protect the lens more than anything else as @leeheyes has already said.

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Just reposted this because in a senior moment I called the sensor a filter! Couldn’t find a way of editing my post.

Despite the fact that the MP2 has a larger digital sensor than its predecessor, it is still quite small when compared to SLR digital cameras. With smaller digital sensors a problem called diffraction becomes an issue when using the smaller f stops to control the aperture. Smaller f stops are the large numbers controlling the aperture i.e. f5.6, f8 etc. Most say that the sweet spot for the MP2 is f2.8 or f4 and sharpness starts to drop off above f5.6. So in answer to your question about external filters, a set of ND filters will be useful on bright days to keep your aperture within the sweet spot. They are also useful when taking videos to enable the shutter speed to be kept a a reasonable level. ND (neutral density) filters will not affect the colour or indeed enhance it. The best way to do that is to take RAW images and tweak them in Photoshop or other software.

Just personal opinion, and I’m very much still learning every day myself, but I went from not using any filters to buying a set of Polar Pro’s for the Mavic Air and they were great for cutting down on over-exposure if nothing else. Most pro TV cameras have a built in ND (Neutral Density) filter to allow you to dial down the light hitting the censor. I fly a lot of landscapes in snow and bright sunlight and putting an ND8 or ND16 filter on can reduce the light coming in, allowing you (on a Mavic Pro etc) to dial back the aperture to the sweet spot for crispness. Just my view, I use them as the situation requires. But I might be doing it all wrong too!

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That’s all interesting stuff, thanks all.
For better or worse, what I’ve been doing is framing the shot, then using the histogram display to get the exposure something like right. I probably ought to go back to school at this point and ‘read the effing manual’, because what I then do is shift the histogram around the centre point and take bracketed shots manually, if you see what I mean! I expect the MP would do that for me, would it?
I do have a reasonable knowledge of Photoshop, but I’ve never shot RAW.
I guess to go back my original query, I am delighted with the results the MP usually delivers, but I’m a bit surprised that even in what I would have thought were ideal conditions I can still ‘improve’ the shot afterwards with Photoshop, especially the colour cast.

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I think that sounds great, esp if you’re using sw to stitch bracketed shots into an HDR image, why not bracket manually? I think the auto bracket does one stop up and down of your setup, but manually you could really push the limits!

My only advice would be to enable jpeg+raw in camera then try adjusting the same image first in jpeg, then see how much more you can get from raw!!!

Have fun!

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Thanks again, I might just do that, take jpeg+raw and have a play.
And I’ve just finally splashed out on a set of PolarPro filters, ND4/PL, ND8/PL, and ND16/PL, which sound as though they should help with stuff I generally do.

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I totally agree with @Longstride recommendation on shooting both jpeg and RAW and then learning to use Lightroom or Photoshop on the RAW images - it will make a dramatic difference to the quality of your final images. And it’s not about correcting a badly exposed shot, but about getting the most out of the camera you have

I have to say that I much prefer Lightroom as I find it easier to use, but I know other like photoshop.

This guy does some good helpful videos on a range of photography and videography subjects

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I’ll add to @BrianB comments, by saying it doesn’t even have to be lightroom or a paid app. Google Photo, apple photos, aperture etc or a phone app. So long as you have sliders for exposure, saturation, warmth etc you can really get the best from your photo, even if it’s only a jpeg.

I personally prefer using lightroom on my phone! The free version is still awesome, but using edit masks adds a whole new dimension to your editing possibilities!

But most of all… have fun!

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Raw…

Lightroom Mobile…

Then finally, cropped lightroom Mobile…

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The difference is staggering eh? :+1:t2:

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Indeed it is. I don’t even bother with jpeg anymore. Even hitting “auto” in lightroom gives a better image IMHO

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Ok Lee, if you needed to convince anyone about “ playing around” with a photo, you just sold it to me.
Staggering difference !.
As I may have said in previous posts, I do not play with my photo editing, I can assure you that I will have a crack at it now after seeing your results.

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