It was a very overcast day and had been raining. No filter. I just shut the aperture down and shot aperture priority and set the iso to 50 so that the shutter stayed open a long time to give the running water that creamy look. I rarely shot with filters. Almost never.
You can use the shadows/highlights tool in Photoshop to help it a bit. It posterized it a bit but made it look a little like a painting.
Inexpensive filters can have several problems including a color cast to the glass itself, the polarizing foils in a CPL and the same with ND Filters. In addition they need to be plano-perfect or they can have a slight optical effect. They also add two surfaces that can cause reflections and refraction. Filters should be multicoated and nano coated on top of that would be preferred.
I see we came from the same era. I always made do with a Soligor spot meter, though, and kept the Zone System in mind, even when shooting 35.
Here's adding another vote to that. If folks are going to use filters, they should get the absolute best quality they can.
I see your points. I only see adding two more lens. As for filters I think I'll just order a nice one. I'm mindful of my gear. Only time a filter might have saved me was a tree branch poked my filter. Everyone has OCD to some level but this would be my ocd. I have a bit of it with tools. I view tools as crude or precision. I take care of my machinist with care I would never give a spud wrench. I view a camera lens as precision tooling...Just for light. Still you get my point.
