Presented in a superb ‘easy access’ padded case to protect your filters when out and about, this filter set is astonishing value for money and a ‘must have’ in your filter armoury.If you have ever viewed the work of JACK CARDIFF - the British genius cinematographer who filmed such notables as Marlene Dietrich; Marylyn Monroe; and Audrey Hepburn - and changed cinematography forever - and you wonder how he achieved the ‘vividness’ of colour (watch ‘The red shoes’; ‘My Fair Lady’; or ‘Breakfast at Tiffanies’), well – with THIS fabulous collection of two essential GENERAL PURPOSE FILTERS; a MIRAD CORRECTION FILTER; and three GRADATION FILTERS – a word that here means a colour filter that GRADUALLY FADES FROM THE COLOUR at the EDGE of the filter down to CLEAR at the half way point of the filter - you will be able to apply his secret of ‘colour space’ and ‘colour harmony’ to create truly STUNNING photos.The filters are used by screwing the filter mount onto the front of your camera lens and they have a dual-thread design so that you can add ALL the filters and ‘blend’ them by rotating the active part of the adjustable filters to place the selected effect where you want it so as to create some spectacular imagery as well as create wonderful ‘vignetting’ (watch the ‘must-see’ film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ to see how vignetting is used to highlight ‘characters of special significance’.An important point to note:- BLUE filters absorb (remove) GREEN and RED light- YELLOW filters absorb BLUE light- GREEN filters absorb BLUE and RED light- MAGENTA (purple) filters absorb GREEN light- CYAN (turquoise) filters absorb RED lightThe two GENERAL PURPOSE filters are:- A UV (ultra violet) filter to kill glare to enhance your outdoor efforts. As there is never a need to remove it, put it on FIRST as it also affords very good protection for the camera lens.- A CIRCULAR POLARISING filter which you attach and ROTATE to ENHANCE HIGHLIGHTS (such as eyes or the ‘bling’ on jewellery) or SUBDUE REFLECTIONS (so that you can shoot creatures swimming underwater in rock pools for example). This should be put on LAST!The GRADATION FILTERS - which you attach and ROTATE to achieve the effect you desire - are:- A NEUTRAL DENSITY (grey) filter to enhance contrast so as to bring out clouds against grey skies.- An ‘ORANGE’ filter to enhance skin-tones and capture candle-light and truly stunning sunsets when shooting outdoors – which can also be pressed into service to bring ‘warmth’ to the pallid skin tones of ELDERLY people whilst allowing younger members in the frame to be left ‘unfiltered’ (set the filtration to the right or left side of the frame and then compose your people accordingly).- A ‘BLUE’ filter to enhance the contrast between blue sky and cumulus (white fluffy) clouds on monochrome (black and white) panchromatic (sees all colours) film. It can also be used with colour film to achieve the same striking effect – however - the clouds will lose their ‘glow’ at the bottom. Hold it up; look through it; and make a ‘value judgement’ – or simply take two photos – one with filtration – one without.Filter COLOURS work INDEPENDANTLY of each other so they can also be pressed into service to change the OVERALL COLOUR SPACE to create a certain MOOD - so EXPERIMENTATION is the way forward to bring your own ‘colour space expression’ by MIXING the filter colours – both top and bottom and overlaid over each other – whilst also experimenting with the colour palettes of the COSTUMES and SETS just as Jack Cardiff did back in the nineteen fortiesASIDE: Purchase The boxed set of Powell and Pressburger DVD’s and check out the differing moods of ‘The Red Shoes’ (now fully restored from the original ‘Technicolor’ negatives by Martin Scorsese and available on BluRay); ‘Black Narcissus’; and ‘Tales of Hoffman’ (beautifully sung in English and featuring the extraordinary balletic talents of Moira Shearer) – all done by changing the COLOUR SPACE.You also receive a ‘blue’ MIRAD CORRECTION FILTER.Before I describe it to you and how to get the best from it, here is a little insight into MIRAD SHIFT.MIRAD CORRECTION is all about changing the COLOUR TEMPERATURE (shade AND hue) of ALL of the colours in the scene to bring the colours observed under different ARIFICIAL LIGHTING conditions to their ‘correct’ ‘daylight’ colours when shooting under various types of artificial lighting.Mirad ‘colour shift’ is expressed in ‘Wratten numbers’ – a word here that means ‘filter classification’ (developed by Eastman Kodak).In a nutshell: ‘80 series’ ‘Wratten’ are BLUE COLOUR TEMPERATURE CONVERSION FILTERS to INCREASE the temperature of ‘warm’ light sources such as tungsten (3200 Kelvin - yellowish) so that the subjects look like they are filmed in DAYLIGHT (blue sky is around 5500 Kelvin) – so reds become more purple; oranges become green; greens becomes turquoise; and dark blues become light blue.Conversely: the ‘85 series’ Wratten are AMBER COLOUR TEMPERATURE CONVERSION FILTERS to DECREASE the temperature of ‘COOL’ light sources such as blue skies (5500) or FLOURECENTS (4200 Kelvin) so that the subjects have a ‘warmth’ that looks like they are filmed INDOORS, so the CONVERSE happens - reds become blacker; purples turn red; yellows become orange; turquoise becomes green; and blues become darker.Here are a few Wratten values to bring comprehension.To achieve a MIRAD SHIFT to convert the yellow light of TUNGSTEN lamps (3200 Kelvin) to DAYLIGHT (5500 Kelvin) when shooting under a TUNGSTEN light source requires a WRATTEN 80A.To achieve a MIRAD SHIFT to convert the greeny-yellow light of a FLUORESCENT (4200 Kelvin) light source to DAYLIGHT (5500 Kelvin) when shooting under FLUORSECENT lights requires a WRATTEN 80D.Conversely:To achieve a MIRAD SHIFT to convert DAYLIGHT into TUNGSTEN light when shooting in DAYLIGHT using ‘INDOOR’ film, requires a WRATTEN 85B.Euston we have a problem!The ‘funny blue colour’ filter that you receive does NOT have the Wratten value marked on the filter so although it is a colour correction filter for correcting ARTIFICIAL lighting – supermarkets, indoor venues, your home, and so on – I am ‘best-guessing’ that this is a WRATTEN 80D filter for correction of FLUORESCENT (4200 Kelvin) to DAYLIGHT (5500), so should you have need to convert the yellow light of TUNGSTEN to DAYLIGHT when shooting under a TUNGSTEN light source, you will require a WRATTEN 80A!Should you use this filter to shoot under TUNGSTEN lighting the MIRAD SHIFT will be INCORRECT – your photos will have a ‘green’ look to them and the skin tones will look awful – as though the people have DIED and become ZOMBIES (which may appeal).From harsh swashbuckling blues to soft romantic oranges and purples – armed with this ‘must have’ kit there is PLENTY of scope for you to get SERIOUSLY creative dear reader. On top of that, you also receive a LENS HOOD (used to cast shadows over the lens so that you can eliminate ‘flaring’ when shooting ‘against the sun’ in strong sunlight); a LENS CAP to protect the filters when mounted on the camera; and a LENS CLEANING CLOTH to maintain your filters in tip-top condition, as well as a superb carrying case.If you are entering the world of photography or cinematography and you aspire to be like JACK CARDIFF, then two publications that will really ‘bring on’ your photography are:‘The working camera – the world’s first pop-up guide to photography’ by Professor John Hedgecowe and the celebrated pop-up artist Ron Van Der Meer. ISBN 0 – 207 – 15340 – X (available from Amazon). There isn’t a BETTER guide to taking photographs ANYWHERE! Here, through imaginative amazing FULLY-ANIMATED pop-ups of STUDIOS and more, you will learn pretty much EVERYTHING you need to know about taking STUNNING pictures with vibrancy and attitude.‘Cinematography theory and practice’ by Blain Brown, ISBN 978 – 0 – 240 – 81209 – 0 (available from Amazon). Here you will find pretty much EVERYTHING you could wish to know about cinematography in one handy volume – and it comes with a great DVD that shows you HOW TO DO IT – covering everything from composition to lighting. It doesn’t get any better!A cautious warning dear reader. Should you own a DIGITAL camera, with this filter set you will swiftly discover the HUGE limitations of the digital medium. These include: totally confusing the FOCUSING MECHANISM when attaching the polaroid filter to subdue unwanted reflections; bring sparkle to the eyes, or bring up ‘bling’ on jewellery and so forth; not having the facility to MANUALLY SET the all-important ‘hyper-focal’ distance to obtain stunning pin-sharp pictures; not having the facility to SEE (preview) the depth-of-field PRIOR to pressing the shutter; not being able to see the image on the screen in bright sunlight; and ‘missing’ fast-action shots because of the slow speed that the camera takes to capture and SAVE the image to the memory card.To overcome ALL of this nonsense, for a VERY modest outlay, all you need to do is purchase a HIGH QUALITY 35mm ANALOGUE (film) camera such as a CANON A1 (fabulous) or a CANON AE1 (superb), together with a 25mm-to-70mm ZOOM lens so that you can ACURATELY set the CORRECT focal length for the image as well as PREVIEW the shot.A superb BOUNCE-FLASH (so that you can bounce the light off the ceiling so everything looks natural and Mirad Shift filtration isnt required) is the CANON SPEEDLITE 199A – and to learn how to get the best from it, obtain a copy of ‘Mastering flash photography’ by Susan McCartney (ISBN 0-8174-4545-5 – available from Amazon)Once you have familiarised yourself with such a camera and used the amazing publications to guide you all the way whilst you learn how to ‘drive’ the camera and practice composing, all you then need to do is purchase a roll of 200 ASA FUJI film (Jessops – who will also process the film for you in under an hour); load it into the camera; set the camera ASA to match the film ASA (200) to get correct exposures, and start CREATIVE photography.Oh – the anticipation as you wait for your beautiful photographs – photographs that you can then have printed on CANVAS (A3 is good – A2 is FABULOUS) so that the light shines THROUGH the canvas when its hung on the wall and then ‘bounces back’ to bring YOUR beautiful image ALIVE!BE WARNED! Once you ‘go analogue’ you will find it VERY addictive – and you will be hooked for LIFE. Please don’t blame me – I am merely the messenger!Have FUN and happy shooting!