Should you apply filters to nature pictures?

I take a bunch of pictures of trees and snow and everything with my iPhone (well, the best as I can with an iPhone camera) and I always debate whether or not to add filters (the vivid, vivid warm, etc.). How genuine is a pic after I apply some filters? Should I just do with increasing the light and the colors? Or should I leave them natural and untouched?

No no no!

Try a bunch of filters: I like the black + white pics of nature myself…

Make copies of the pics and apply the filters to the copy. This way you which you like better and can always keep the original one.

Since it's your image, it's your choice. No picture is truly "genuine" anyhow. If you wind up with something that you're happy with, then that's what you should be concerned about.

Granted, this is your pictures and do what you wish to do best. Understand that once you put any filter to modify your photo, you've mode such and it's no more a "natural picture." Those in the know understand what a digital photo is taken in the RAW or mode to take advantage of things to enhance, one hopes, the shot.

Does the photo match what was in your mind's eye when you took the shot?
No? Will a filter cause it to be a better match?
No? Don't apply the filter
Yes? Apply the filter

Are you going for a fine art presentation?
Yes? Knock yourself out. Go crazy. Artistic vision is your license. But many will not view it as "natural".

Many are under the illusion that a camera takes a copy of a scene that is "natural". This is mistaken. If you are shooting raw, the image from the sensor is "natural", meaning that no processing was done on it. However, it reflects the engineering choices made in the design of the sensor (or film), not the way the eye perceives a scene. In general, it will appear flat and lifeless. If you are shooting jpegs, then the raw image is post-processed in the camera based on whatever settings you have in the camera and it is based on what the manufacturer's engineers think is an ideal shot. So this is not "natural" either.

It might surprise you to learn that the image on the human retina is about as good as what you would see if looking at a scene through a piece of wax paper. The brain "post-processes" the image to give us the representation that we think we see.

On the other hand, if you didn't have an image in your mind's eye when you took the shot, then knock yourself out. Go crazy.

You do what you think is best to please yourself.

They're your photos… Do what you want.

First, do you know what filters are?

Do you know WHAT filters are for? UV filter, circular Polarizer, Neutral Density and Graduated Neutral Density, etc?

Do you know WHEN to use filters, when not to?

Look up photography filters on the Internet, then visit Youtube.com and look up Photography Filters videos.

Try it like it or turf a potential lesson in the

Making so good luck!

Very best wishes

Mars

Source. Study.