Bringing landscapes to life with drop-in filters

With its dramatic waterfalls and towering peaks, there's nowhere quite like Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, but recreating the atmosphere of such a place takes technical mastery and creative flair. When he was working in the Scottish landscape in 2020, British photographer Guy Edwardes reached for his lens filters as they allowed him to capture those breathtaking views and moody skies using exposures of one second or more.

"Rather than just freezing the moment, it brings it to life a little," says Guy, who specialises in landscape and nature photography. With two decades of photography experience under his belt and a client list that includes publications such as Amateur Photographer, PhotoPlus, Outdoor Photography, Country Life and BBC Countryfile Magazine, Guy is also the author of two books on improving your photographic technique and runs workshops sharing his skills with others.

Since his early days of shooting on film cameras, Guy has used lens filters – glass or gelatin elements that go in front of the lens and alter the dynamics of light entering the camera – to balance colour, darken a scene, reduce haziness from UV light or create a soft focus effect, for example.

When shooting on film cameras, Guy used graduated neutral density (ND) filters to control high-contrast scenes such as a bright sky with a dark foreground. "But as soon as I switched to digital, I started to use exposure bracketing in-camera [creating a series of pictures with different exposure settings] to achieve a higher dynamic range," he explains. "I then blended them together in post-production software to achieve the optimum image."

Guy's kitbag now contains a polariser, a variable ND filter and three solid ND filters – 3-stop, 6-stop and 10-stop – to go with his Canon EOS R5 and beloved EF lenses, which he uses with the Canon Drop-In Filter Mount Adapter EF-EOS R.

Guy has always been a Canon shooter, but he made the move to mirrorless in 2020 – specifically because he was so impressed with the Drop-In Filter Mount Adapter EF-EOS R. Canon offers three types of filter – a clear (CL), a circular polarising (C-PL) and a variable neutral density (V-ND). You can also use third-party filters with the mount, which is weather-sealed against dust and moisture and perfect for shooting on location.

With a V-ND filter you can achieve exposure bracketing without having to change filters, by keeping your camera settings the same and just turning the filter to give each frame a different exposure. Canon's model can be adjusted from ND2.5 to ND500 equivalent. Being able to set your ISO and exposure and then shift the filter to the correct brightness makes the process easier and means you can be "more precise," adds Guy.

There are many benefits of the adapter, but one of the most important for Guy is the fact that it allows him to use extreme wide-angle lenses with his filters – including his favourite lens, the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM. "These types of lenses tend to have front elements that you can't attach normal filters to. There are some really cumbersome third-party filter holders that would work but it was just impractical to use them," he says.

Previously, if he'd been shooting with the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM on his DSLR, he would "end up with a filter system about the size of a dinner plate to cover that wide angle. It was huge, heavy to carry and really expensive." With the Canon Drop-In Filter Mount Adapter EF-EOS R, the filter is placed at the back of the lens, making this much easier and more portable.

Being able to use these lenses with his filters has unlocked many more creative possibilities. "The human eye sees something equivalent to a 40-50mm lens. If you go to 11mm, it's a vastly different scene," says Guy. "If you're photographing well-known locations, or locations that have been photographed a lot, a wide-angle can make your images stand out by enhancing the depth in the picture. You can shoot with something quite large in the foreground, but then your distant focal point will be much smaller. It helps to draw your eye through the scene."

Drawing the eye is what landscape photography is all about. At its finest, it doesn't just document a scene, but inspires a sense of wonder and awe – and for Guy, drop-in lens filters are the secret ingredient.