[Tech] Star Filter - The only filter you will need for Night Photography
INTRODUCTION ^
If I were to ask you 5 years ago what is one of the most expensive gear(s) that you can buy and maintain back then, the answer would have been simple. FILTERS! Lee Filters and B+W Filters used to dominate the Lens Filter market back then with a decent good quality pro grade filter from them easily cost a hundred dollar. Even the best mid range like Tiffen Filters and Hoya Filters doesn't come cheap.
Then you have the budget ones like Cokin, Hitech which offers you the most bang for your bucks filters which are cheaper than the pro grade brand without sacrificing too much quality.
The cost to buy and maintain the filters is high due to the fact that we will always need different filters for different purpose.
Common Types of Filters:
Polarizing Filter to polarize light, reduce reflection Neutral Density (ND) Filter to reduce the amount entering the lens Hard-Edge Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter has a gradient transition from dark to light situation to fit a high contrast scene Soft-Edge Graduated Neutral Density (GND) Filter is pretty much the same as the hard edge GND but has a softer transition between the high contrast sides Night Filter to reduce light pollutions at night
Those are the most common types of filters with the exception of the Night Filter will usually be in a Photographer's bag. There is one type of filter which is quite under-rated and is an absolute must have for generic night photography is the STAR FILTER.
Before we go on, I can hear some of you thinking; "wait a sec here! I can achieve the same effects with my system camera on a high aperture!" Yup, you are indeed right. You can achieve the same effect with a higher F-Stop but what if you want to use a lower aperture for specific purpose? That is where the Star Filter will come in. And don't forget that mobile phone camera nowadays still uses only a fixed low F-Stop aperture.
For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, check out the following photo taken with my Olympus Pen-F with a high aperture. Notice how the strong light sources looked like a Star even without using a Star Filter, that's because of the high aperture setting.
STAR FILTER ^
The name basically explained itself; Star Filter creates star-like effects against strong light source. I know there will be lots of people that will argue against this and instead will prefer a Night Filter to cut off certain spectrum of the light wavelength. The Night Filter although fit situation like Astro-Photography, IMHO, it may be the only situation which suits a Night Shoot.
In the concrete jungle that we are in, artificial light sources coming from all around us are simply too great to ignore. As much as the Night Filter can cut off certain spectrum of the light wavelength, yet again, the artificial light sources are simply too strong to be able to use the Night Filter to filter out most of it.
So how does the Star Filter comes in??? Simply put, the Star Filter diffused the strong light source not by eliminating it but by turning it into star(s). The most types of Star Filter comes in 4-stars / 6-stars / 8-stars. As from the name itself, the number represents how many points of a star it can form from a light source.
Amazing huh? I am not going to go into the technical aspect of how it does that, I am however is going to convince you by showing you the results with some before and after photos then you can judge them for yourself.
PHOTOS COMPARISON ^
Other Samples:
FILTER BRANDS ^
Thanks to the simplicity of manufacturing a Star Filter, you now have access to cheaper and yet good quality brand and not only those prestige top of the list brands that will cost a bomb to buy.
The usual are Lee Filters (most expensive ones), B+W, Hoya, Cokin. Even newcomers like NiSi, Moments, PolarPro sells Star Filters too. There are lots of brands out there, do your research before you purchase them. I am here just to demonstrate that even a decent cheap Star Filter will be able to get the job done.
Due to the simplicity of manufacturing a Star Filter if I were to be very honest, the brands doesn't make too much of a difference unless you manage to get your hands on a plastic filter or with the glass so sub par that you will rather scratch any normal glass to simulate the effects than to slap it on your camera to use it.
CONCLUSION ^
Granted that this unique filter is not for everyone due to the results it produces and especially from very strong light sources, it is still good to have in your camera bag. I find myself reaching for this filter during my night shoot in order to diffuse the excessively distracting light sources from lamppost and etc.
The only thing that was not done from this experimentation is to compare... wait for it... this $10 cheap branded star filter with the branded ones that can easily burn a big hole in your wallet. Maybe in future, who knows.
Maybe you guys can try comparing it and let us know but for now, I am pretty happy with my $10 cheap branded star filter and comfortable enough to slap it on my phone camera and even my mirrorless camera.
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