Will a UV filter reduce a blue cast in bright sunlight?
Asked 5/13/2011
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I’m seeing a bluish cast across photos taken in bright Texas sunlight with a Canon T3i and 50mm f/1.8. Someone suggested adding a UV filter to cut the blue look. Can a UV filter actually fix this, or is the color cast more likely caused by something else?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
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It would really depend on what UV filter you used. Not all UV filters are created equal, and even ones that are supposedly "high-end" might not function correctly, while some cheaper ones function quite well.
The ultimate goal of a UV filter is to filter out ultraviolet light, which starts around 380nm, and progresses on down to as small as 100nm or so. A quality UV filter will usually stop "filtering" right around 380nm, and be mostly transparent to all other wavelengths of light after that. A poorly designed UV filter may also filter some blue light, and may gradually taper off "filtering" up to around 420nm or so. Really poor UV filters will often also filter some amount of all wavelengths of light, some more green than others, acting as a very slight ND filter as well.
This article provides an excellent review of numerous UV filters. It is a little dated, however its process is very solid, and it covers how well each filter blocks just UV light (or not).
Your Canon T3i is a DSLR, so you do not really need to use a UV filter unless you really need to block excess UV light (most CMOS sensors are sensitive to some degree of UV light, however normal glass as used in camera lenses tends to block most of it.) You can always change the "White Balance" setting of your camera and adjust it more for an orange tint (lower K number). If you would prefer to optically control the color balance of your photos, you could use skylight or coral filters. Skylight filters come in several degrees of tint and will "cool" the tone of light (make it more blueish), while coral filters which also come in several degrees of tint will "warm" the tone of light (make it more orangeish.) Skylight and Coral filters are really a thing of the past these days, as many of the limitations of film no longer exist with digital cameras.
Originally by user124. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user124
15y ago
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Usually, no. A UV filter is designed to block ultraviolet light, not visible blue light. A good UV filter should cut off around the UV range and remain largely transparent to the visible spectrum, so it generally won’t remove a blue cast in your photos.
Some poorly designed UV filters may also reduce a little visible blue light, but that’s more of a side effect than a proper solution, and it can also affect other colors or slightly reduce overall light transmission. In other words, if a UV filter changes the blue cast, it may be because the filter itself is imperfect.
So if your images look too blue, the more likely causes are white balance, lighting conditions, or overall color rendering rather than a need for a UV filter. A UV filter is not the right tool to correct a consistent blueish look.
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