5 Filter Themed Gift Ideas For Photographers

Filters and filter related accessories can make a great stocking filler for any photographer. Universal to any camera, all you need to know is what system they use and the filter thread size of the lens to find the ideal gift for your friend or relative. Here we round up some filter related gift ideas that any serious photographer will appreciate. 

ND Filters

Both Hoya and Cokin both produce ND filters and they are an essential piece of kit for anyone who wants to capture silky smooth water or movement in an image without overexposing it. They are also great for photographing busy places with a long exposure to make people 'disappear' from shots, too. Available in different strengths, we'd recommend going for around an ND200 as a start. The Hoya PROND1000 is the strongest available allowing you exposure times of 25 seconds even in the daytime. 

ND Grads

If the person that you're buying for is a landscape photographer then an ND Grad would be a good shout. Used primarily for balancing out the exposure between the sky and the land to avoid overexposing or underexposing one or the other, they allow you to get a better shot in camera rather than combining two image in photoshop to achieve a balanced exposure. 

They come in two kinds, hard and soft grads. Hard grads have a solid, definitive line between the graduated and ungraduated part and are ideal for seascapes and landscapes where the horizon has a straight line. Soft grads are better for landscapes where there are things on the horizon that otherwise would look odd. They have a gradual change from ND to non-ND sides of the filter and allow you to move the camera up and down to change how dark the effect is. 

Polariser 

Polarising filters are great for reducing reflections and increasing the clarity in a shot. They are also great for saturation, such as saturating the sky, to give a richer blue. A polariser can improve almost any image so will be appreciated by many. The Hoya PRO1 Digital Circular polarising filter is a slim filter designed for use with digital cameras.

Filter cleaner kit

If you're struggling to find out what filter size you need to buy without giving the game away then how about going for a universal gift? A filter cleaning kit, such as those from Lenspen, can be used on any filter and are simple to use, getting rid of all the unwanted smears and dust that can appear on your filters over time. 

Protector Filter

If a photographer has every conceivable effects filter already, maybe a protector filter could be the answer. These filters make it easier to keep your lens clean. Made from special glass designed not to affect the look of the image at all, they are great for making sure your camera lens doesn't get dirty or scratched. Hoya's HD protector uses chemically enhanced optical glass that's said to be 4x stronger than normal filter glass and has an 8 layer anti-reflective multi-coating that's water and oil repellent.