Church Photography Filters: 4 Types And How To Use Them

Though church photography is extremely rewarding, it can be very technical, making it somewhat challenging. Lens filters initially seem intimidating, but they are easy to understand and can help you get excellent results.

Four types of church photography filters include; the neutral density filter, the polarizing filter, the UV filter, and the diffusion filter. Church photographers commonly use these four filters to enhance their images.

Keep reading as I teach you how to use these to take stunning images.

The Neutral Density Filter

The neutral density or ND filter is a staple for photographers of every style. These filters are so standard that if you ask any intermediate or professional photographer, they will most likely have at least one in their kit.

The neutral density (ND) filter is used to reduce the amount of light reaching your camera’s sensor. The easiest way to think about ND filters is that they are non-tinted sunglasses for your camera. This means they reduce the light hitting your sensor without changing the colour of your image.

ND filters excel in bright environments where you want a slow shutter speed or a wide aperture. Let’s say, for example, you want to take a long exposure but it’s a bright, sunny day. In this case, all you would need to do is to put an ND filter on your lens and set your desired shutter speed.

The strength of ND filters is measured in two ways; optical density numbers and stops of light. The optical density number is often listed as “ND” followed by numbers indicating the strength of the filter.

The most versatile type of ND filter for church photographers is the variable ND (VND) filter. The VND allows you to change the intensity of the filter, increasing or decreasing the amount of light hitting your sensor.

The idea of stops in photography is complex to explain so, for this article, I’ll give a brief, simple, explanation. One “stop” can be thought of as equal to either halving or doubling the amount of light hitting your camera’s sensor by that amount. Taking shutter speed as an example, going from 1/100 to 1/200 would mean reducing your exposure by “one stop.”

The Polarizing Filter

The polarizing filter, though technically a neutral density filter, is incredibly useful for church photographers. This is another filter that is used across various types of photography and is great to have in your kit.

The polarizing filter reduces glare, reflections, and haze by changing what light is allowed to hit your sensor. By adjusting the filter, you can restrict light coming from particular directions or angles. They also boost the saturation and contrast of your image.

The effect of polarizers is more consistent when the light comes from a flat surface because the angle at which the light hits your lens is uniform.

In general, polarizing filters reduce the light hitting your camera’s sensor by two stops, though it may differ between brands and filters.

The UV Filter

The UV filter is interesting because it doesn’t add value to your images, but most photographers use them. Not only do photographers use UV filters, they often have them on every lens that they own.

The ultraviolet (UV) filter restricts ultraviolet rays from hitting your lens. It is worth noting that UV light is invisible to the human eye, though it can give you a bad sunburn.

No, photographers do not use these filters out of fear of a sunburn on their lens, though we do use them for protection. UV filters are often used to protect a photographer’s lens from dust, water, dirt, and any other harm that may come to the front glass.

Though it is important to protect your gear in shifting weather conditions, it is also important that you know how to shoot in all types of weather. I wrote an article outlining what church photographers need to know about shooting in different weather conditions.

Other than physically protecting your lens, these filters may have some undesired effects. Before I list them, it is worth noting, that these effects are so minimal they could be called negligible and it is up to you to decide whether or not protecting your lens is worth the quality loss of your image.

The first possible issue is a possible bluer white balance. I won’t dive into the science behind why that is, just know that if you are shooting in RAW format, this will not be a big issue for you as the white balance can be adjusted in post-processing.

The next possible issue is that you will lose sharpness in your image. Every time you add extra glass in front of your lens, your image will lose sharpness. Now, this can be mitigated in one of two ways; you can just not use a UV filter, or you can use more premium glass.

Higher-quality glass will result in less quality loss, though lower-cost filters still have barely noticeable effects. Unless you are pixel-peeping, you likely will not notice the difference in sharpness.

The final possible issue is called “ghosting.” This occurs when the incoming light bounces off your sensor, off the back side of your filter, and goes back to your sensor. This issue is not constant, you may notice it once in a while, often, or never. Again, it’s up to you to weigh the risks and make the call.

The Diffusion Filter

Diffusion filters are the most fun to use of the filters on this list. There are many types of these filters; white halation, black halation, warm halation, black resolution, atmosphere, and the list goes on.

These filters diffuse the incoming light giving your image a soft, dreamy haze. A common misconception about these filters is that they blur your image, this is not true. Though they do lower the contrast of your image and disperse the light, they do not affect the focus or sharpness of your images.

Diffusion filters come in different strengths, determining how much of an effect they will have on your image. In general, the lower the denominator, the more of an effect the filter will have. For example, a diffusion filter with a strength of 1/8 will have a weaker effect when compared to the same filter with a strength of 1/4.

Many street photographers use Tiffen’s Black Pro Mist filters for night photography as it has a cool dreamy look to their images.

Portrait photographers like to use various diffusion filters to help soften the skin of their subject, as super sharp, detailed skin is often not flattering.

These filters can be a lot of fun to play around with and can make for some amazing photos for your church to share. Check out my article where I explain how to take photos for your church’s social media.