Check out this Lens filter for landscape photography!

This surprising filter is amazing for landscape photos

Use lens filters? Want to get incredible landscape photos? Try out this lens filter for landscape photography!

In this enlightening tutorial, Mark Denney shows how this little known secret filter, the Black Mist Filter by NiSi, can take incredible landscape photos.

Try out this lens filter for landscape photography and be surprised by the results!

First, What are lens filters?

A lens filter is an attachable accessory that you scew on to the outside of your camera lens.

What do lens filters do?

Like a magnifying glass that you put in front of your eye to adjust what you see, but instead of magnifying an image, it filters the way light enters your camera lens!

What is the NiSi Black Mist Lens Filter?

This Black Mist Lens filter is most commonly used by portrait or studio photographers, and it alters the way the light enters the camera, making it soft and diffused. 

You can get an 82mm set by NiSi that comes three different ‘strengths’ of the filter:

• Black Mist FIlter 1/8 strength
• Black Mist FIlter 1/4 strength
• Black Mist FIlter 1/2 strength

Why is this lens so commonly used for portrait photography?

The diffusing light effect softens skin and reduces blemishes which makes your editing time later much less.

Same with the contrast, the lens lowers the contrast (the degree of difference between light and dark in the scene) so you don’t have to adjust this as much in editing. 

This filter is also useful in video application, like for youtube. The overall contrast of the scene is more subdued, it softens skin blemishes of the subject and lessens some harshness from the footage.

Black Mist lens filter for landscape photography

When using these Black Mist filters in outdoor landscape shoots you can get the lighting effect applied to nature scenery shots and it’s epic!

The less common use for this filter is in landscape photography, but it works beautifully out in nature, as seen by Mark’s example photos.

This filter works the best when there are natural light highlights coming through the trees, like a sunrise in the distance with trees in the foreground, or sun through clouds.

In trialing the out the different filters, the half strength was overpowering – all you notice is the blooming highlights and it distracts from your overall photo, but the ¼ and ⅛ are beautiful.

Here is a side by side comparison of a scene:

top left no filter; top right ⅛ strength filter; bottom left ¼ strength filter; bottom right ½ strength filter

What is so special about the black mist lens filter for landscape photography?

What was better about using these filters for a nature shoot as opposed to no filter? The light coming through the trees was more soft and exaggerated using this lens filter than without.

The sunlight ‘blooming’ effect, where the light looks bigger but softer compared to the no filter, is incredibly difficult to mimic in post shoot editing. That’s why using a filter like this is really advantageous!

This beautiful diffused atmosphere looks nice and natural when taken using a lens filter rather than trying to add imitation effects later on.

The way this filter subtly effects the contrast by bleeding the soft light into darker shadowy places in the photo is also very helpful if you’re going for that kind of look.

Not just for portraits, the black mist lens filter is great for landscape photography too!

Now you’ve seen the black mist lens in action, you might be surprised that it takes nice soft landscape photos. You might even go out and try your own landscape photos with this filter!

If you want to learn more about photography, read this comprehensive guide to improving your photography!

Which lens filter do you use for landscape photography?

Comment below!