Street photography tip: Filters can create unusual photos

Thursday 18 December 2025, 14:41 by Michiel Heijmans | 1,957 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

In every case, a filter is really a kind of pair of sunglasses for your lens. Filters can remove glare, with a polarising filter, or allow longer shutter speeds, with ND filters.

Nijmegen - f/22, 1/4s, 100 ISO @ 59mm
The first type is still sometimes used in street photography, especially when bright sunlight causes very bright reflections on windows or water.

Playing around with ND filters is less common, but can create some fun effects. Sometimes you see street photos where a subject is standing still, while the cars or cyclists around them have turned into light trails.

An ND filter makes this easier. You often use a tripod for this, because you make your shutter speed so slow that you would probably get motion blur when shooting handheld.

I would still class photos like these as street photography. If you ask your subject to stand still for, say, 30 seconds, or use an object as your subject, you can do some fantastic things with this.

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