Ultra-Violet Haze Filters

The sensors (or film) behind your lens are sensitive to any UV rays that tend to come in with the light.  We can’t see the UV rays but our cameras can. UV rays affect the pictures we take by messing with the contrast and causing a haze effect.  So what do we do to fix that? Get some filters, generally the interchangeable kind so that we can switch them as the occasion demands.

Although, nowadays most digital cameras have a built in infrared blocking filter.  However, that is not the case with all cameras and having filters are still good to keep in mind if nothing else to protect the front element of your lens. One type of UV based filter is the haze filter.

The haze filter is similar to a UV filter but it isn’t quite the same. A UV filter is colorless, while a haze filter has a sort of tint to it.  Not only do haze filters reduce the UV rays exposed to the CCD, but also reduce some of the blue that the haze causes.

Generally you use the haze filters in aerial and marine photography, which would make sense seeing as how the blues could be overpowering without a haze filter.

I’m to get your photo the way you want em, get out your haze filter and use it.