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Photoshop blending = End of NDGrad Filters?

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J.Tech

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Im always fustrated with blown highlights or dynamic range of scenes outdoing my camera sensor's pick up.

Im currently considering buying a few Cokin type ND graduated filters to allow me to pick up the details in the sky while still keeping the detail in the foreground.

I have done a thorough search but has not come up with a firm conclusion on wot to do.

Please let me know what your opinion is regarding this issue. Thanks!
 
My opinion is to get the ND graduated filter. Blending is fine for a lot of situations, but I've seen some examples over the years that make me think the filter produces better output.

I'm curious to see what other say too because I'm definitely not an expert.

scott
J.Tech said:
Im always fustrated with blown highlights or dynamic range of
scenes outdoing my camera sensor's pick up.

Im currently considering buying a few Cokin type ND graduated
filters to allow me to pick up the details in the sky while still
keeping the detail in the foreground.

I have done a thorough search but has not come up with a firm
conclusion on wot to do.

Please let me know what your opinion is regarding this issue. Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
CS2 has an option to blend two images to get the best of both, so you will get sky detail from one and foreground detail from another. Not got it yet, but someone posted a sample recently on here and it did look impressive.
 
As the others have said, there are so many situations I use it in that if I had to blend two photos together for every time I'd used the ND grad my mouse would have worn down to dust with the friction..

You wont regret getting the filter and seeing the results before you take the shot. While your at it get two, especialy if you are getting the P120.
--
Nikon D70
Ancient history, Fish, Birds, Beasts, Monkeys and Botanics:
http://www.kenwilliams.tk
 
this might resolve the issues i'm having atm, because its soooo damn sunny - the sky is so bright and the ground becomes under-exposed.

i can fix in photoshop, but it takes longer to do - and perhaps i'm still losing image quality by not actually having a 'correct' image to start with...

any filter recommendations? is there just one type of ND filter?

--
P

http://www.pbase.com/dr3amz
 
Yea absolutely with you there. But at the same time ive seen some excellent blended images posted by members on this forum.
 
It appears that everyone agrees that ND filters are definetely the way to go? Would that be right?
 
Ik have ndgrad filters but i don't use then anymore.

I shoot raw. When the sky is bleached out is make to jpegs with differend exposure. Give them both a layer in The Gimp and make a gradient mask. It works for me.

But i am surely not a professional.
--
Of all things i've lost, i miss my mind the most.
 
You will lose image quality if you are brightening up the darker areas in the photo. Of course putting any more glass in front of your lens lowers image quality by some degree and filters leave you more prone to flare. IF you keep the filters clean and scratch free you wont notice any difference in most conditions.

One thing I do notice is that sometimes if the light hits the grad at certain angles I get a purplish red cast near the top of the photo. Maybe more expensive filters like Lee dont suffer from this.

I use cokin P series grads, just the grey grads P120 and P121, sometimes the sky is so bright I stack them to get a decent balance. I will have to get a hard grad filter though too because I sometimes have to push the filter down so far that it starts making the subject at the bottom of the frame dark at the top.
--
Nikon D70
Ancient history, Fish, Birds, Beasts, Monkeys and Botanics:
http://www.kenwilliams.tk
 
Here's a link which should be of interest. It blends bracketed exposures to create a greater dynamic range.

http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml

Graduated filters still have their place, though as mentioned somewhere above doing multi exposures and graduated masks can achieve similar results, or playing with levels and curves on different layers and blending between them also works. I find using graduated filters can be fiddly as you need to use dof preview to check what is going on, can be hit and miss.

Here's a shot with three exposures and graduated masks to combine them.

 
I think it depends on workflow preference. If you like to do as much as possible in camera, go with filters. If you're using a tripod then it won't hurt to bracket just in case you want to do a digital blend. I personally like using filters but to be honest a good digital blend is hard to beat. Its super smooth as you put the transition exactly where you want it.... ie you can blend around objects that you want excluded from the sky exposure such as trees or buildings.

As for the Cokin grads......... bear in mind they aren't actually ND filters. Simply grey in colour. For the most part this works fine but in certain instances you'll get strong colour casts on the filtered part of the image. Also I find the cokin filters scratch really easily. I keep mine in a dedicated filter pouch and am super precious about handling them. God knows how but they end up with loads of little scratches on them. They won't show up in images but scratched plastic in front of a nice lens is only ever gonna degrade image quality.

As for using tools in photoshop to blend ........ you really can't beat having one exposure as one layer, the second exposure as another layer, and erasing with a soft edged airbrush to get the blend between the two. Gives more control and a better result.

If you do go with filters don't forget to use to DOF preview button to help position the grad.

Best of luck.
 
I used to use the same grads on my Minolta A1 (Cokin A's) these were fine to a point, but I too found myself pushing them furhter and further down to kill the blowing out of the sky, but at the same time loosing detail lower down, i now shoot RAW, bracket & blend, i find that this gives me most pleasing shots 99% of the time, though that said it is harder if you shooting into direct sunlight

example of a blend shown below, with the sun behind me, metered for the sky in manaul, then set a bracket to the equiv of -0.7



--
Simon

Check out the face behind the text at http://www.pbase.com/image/27670744

On fotopic http://gallery55230.fotopic.net/
 
I did quite a few pictures using HDR (not PS CS2).

It is good in certain situations, unusable in others.

The very basic constraint when using HDR (which is not there when using ND filter) is that the scene must be absolutely static.

If you have a wind moving tree branches, grass, whatever, you're quite lost with HDR.

Few samples:
With HDR effect visible:





And one looking more naturally:



Marian

--------------------------------------------------
Marian Harustak
nature photography galleries on
http://www.harustak.sk

only when the last tree has died
and the last fish been caught
and the last river been poisoned
will we realize
that we cannot eat money
 
I'm not familiar with the feature set on elements, but I presume you can work on layers and have quick masks. If that is the case you can do all you need.
 
Were these done by making multiple exposures of the image from 1 NEF or actually from multiple shots.

I feel im back to square one again not knowing to get the filters or to save myself the money.. :S
 
I can blow away the results of the ND filter you buy with photoshop...and its simpler than changing a filter...or trying to perfect your filter technique.

1. Take the shot in RAW.

2. Process two shots...one exposed for highlights (sky etc)

3. Process one for shadow detail.

4. Put one over the other as layers.

5. Put a layer mask on the top layer (the little icon on the layers pallet that is a grey square with a circle on it)

6. Click on the layer mask you just created and drag the gradient tool across where you want your ND graduation to begin and end. A smaller drag will create a hard graduation.....ah longer drag will make asoft graduation.

It's that simple...if you dont like the first placment...just click and drag agin...it will erase the first try and place the second in place.

I have also found that if you have a complex horizon (like say a valley floor with a v shaped sky) you can do it with multipul layers.

Roman
--
http://www.pbase.com/romansphotos/

http://www.romanjohnston.com
 
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