I remember back in the 1980s these things were all the rage - to an almost ridiculous extent (I lost count of the number of landscape shots "improved"/faked/spoiled by graduated tobacco filters). In these days of digital photography and kind of jiggery-pokery which can be achieved on the computer after the event, I assume that there's little use for such tools any more.
But what about people who still shoot on film? Sometime a graduated ND filter might come in useful (although film, having AIUI a wider dynamic range than digital, doesn't suffer quite so much from blown-out skies or dark foregrounds). And a subtle starburst can add a certain je ne sais quoi to an otherwise run of the mill urban street screen or the like, or a soft filter to a portrait. But IMO the gimmicky image manipulation filters/effects such as the more out-there ones amongst those reminisced upon on this web page:
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/experimenting-with-filters-from-the-eigh...
should probably never have been given space in any self-respecting photographer's outfit case.
I understand that you can still buy Cokin and other brands of square filter. But I can't recall seeing anyone using one recently.
Is anyone on this forum using Cokin or other square filters? Anyone have any other views/opinions?