DSLR filters

[Budding Star Gazer]

Hello all, 

I have been looking a light pollution filter for my canon EOS 6D and it seems to be bit of a mine field when trying to rap my head around all the technical aspects of what is filtered out ect, obviously i have some educating to do on that subject so i thought it would be better to just ask. 

What manufacturers make the best general light pollution filter, i live in an urban area with hight levels of light pollution & in my immediate location we have the white light LED street lamps some of which bleed directly in to my garden. 

All help is much appreciated. 

[900SL]

What other equipment are you using? mount, lenses/scopes?

 

[Budding Star Gazer]

Sky watcher adventurer, canon EOS 6D with EF lens 50mm 

[Elp]

Might seem like a daft question but what colour are the clouds/glow on a typical cloudy night? I use this as a very rough guide on the type of lights in the surrounding area causing the glow.

If it's yellowish/orange you have a general prevalence of the old sodium vapour type lamposts which many filters filter out, they won't make them invisible but they'll reduce the colour and gradient somewhat. If it's more white you'll be in trouble as pretty much no filter can filter out LED light pollution as that type of light emits across a broad range of the light spectrum which will overlap with what you're trying to image.

If you're looking into the filters it's good to look at the emission graphs, they'll show you what light passes though, if you compare that to the emission spectrum of the lights in your area you'll get a better understanding of what may work for you. You want a filter which blocks out the light pollution but allows through any other light.

There's a ton of videos on YouTube regarding filters.

From my experience, I found a Skytech CLS-CCD filter very good, the images come out a little blue in colour. I've also got an Optolong L-Pro and L-enhance, both of which come highly recommended by others though I haven't had time to try them myself.

Note by using filters you'll have to expose for longer or have more images to stack to achieve more signal. If the object is high in the sky I tend to not use filters as it doesn't affect the images so much (depends on the local light).

Imaging in light polluted skies is possible via colour camera, the other option is to shoot with a mono camera and narrowband filters but that's a whole other ball game.

[Budding Star Gazer]

Cherrs for the info, we mainly have white LED lamposts around my immediate area, one of which is outside my garden fence and does cast a small amount of light in to my garden but for the most part because of the diffuser is blocked. Overall if i head to our local country part which is elevated above the town we suffer the same orange hue as every town does but not as pronounced. 

I have just purchased the Svbony CLS filter as it states low to mid pollution level, i have noticed that most filter tend to lean towards a colourisation of photos which i'd like to avoid. 

I have been reading about the tri & quad band filters which seem to cover the best of all scenarios while preserving the raw data but as they cost quite a bit and I'm only just starting out i think I'll save my money.

 

I will try some stacks with and without the filter of the same target to see if there is any real benefit at my given location. 

I've also been reading about the filtration for exposing richer colours in nebulae, I'll hold off on that for now but its all very interesting. 

[barbulo]

10 hours ago, Budding Star Gazer said:

i have noticed that most filter tend to lean towards a colourisation of photos which i'd like to avoid.

Bear in mind that you can easily get rid of that colorization during processing; just aligning the three channels. 

[Budding Star Gazer]

2 hours ago, barbulo said:

Bear in mind that you can easily get rid of that colorization during processing; just aligning the three channels. 

Cheers, i have yet to use the post editing software and have a lot to learn there. 

[BobJC]

I'm a relative newbie. I use and would recommend the Optolong L=Enhance filter and I hear good things about the Skytech CLS. With any colour cast, I start with a levels adjustment in post processing to align each colour channel independently and line them up on the histogram. There will be plenty of tutorials on Youtube for for your chosen software. Good luck and clear skies.

[Budding Star Gazer]

The Svbony CLS filter i purchased does not fit the EOS 6D.. Damn amazon strikes again, lesson learned.