So regarding filters...

[MikeandReneePlus5]

...Bryan Peterson (author of "Understanding Exposure") speaks highly about his "FLW Colored Magenta Filter" that he can't live without for sunsets and such, but I was reading my Canon T2i manual last night and it seems you can adjust white balance to add magenta (or green etc.).

does this give the same effect as a filter?

Does this render colored filters sort of moot?

I suppose GD and ND filters and polarizers are still used/needed though.

 

[photo_chick]

I think colored filters still have some use with digital if you're using them to affect the exposure of that color. Diminishing a particular color from entering the lens can allow you to expose longer for other colors without blowing out the one you are blocking. But they're pretty obsolete for color correction, warming, color tinting, etc.. all of that can easily be done in editing.

 

[wbeem]

You should experiment a bit. Next time you go shoot a sunset, try playing with the White Balance on different shots. Run through all of them. We can try to explain it to you, but nothing really has as much impact as seeing the results for yourself.

Many people use these techniques in combination with a gelled flash, though. For example, use the FLW filter to get the great sky, but flash your subject with a green gel to compensate and have him/her come out normally.

Another method is to use a a CTO gel on your flash in concert with a incandescent white balance - turns the sky deep blue while the warm filter keeps the skin looking human.

 

[racreel]

Does this render colored filters sort of moot?

I suppose GD and ND filters and polarizers are still used/needed though.

I've never used colored filters, so can't really comment on those. The others would definitely still be used. I use my graduated neutral quite often, usually to keep the sky from being blown out.

 

[OKW Lover]

With the big exception of polarizing filters, almost everything else can be done in todays photo editing software, IMHO.