ND Filters - Soft/Hard/How many stops?

[Dave Wolfs]

Hello everyone,

What are the most common ND filters and strengths used for Landscape work.

I shoot mostly sea scapes, so I am wondering if I will get more use out of hard or soft filters?

Initially, I had thought I would get a 1,2,3 stop hard set, but now I am considering a 2,3 hard and 2,3 soft set.

How often would a 1 stop ND get used?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[eosGD]

I use 8 stop nd filter
--
Proud owner of the 5Dust.

 

[T3]

If you shoot seascapes (flat horizon), I'd go for the hard ND grad. If you're shooting mountainscapes (generally not a flat horizon), I'd go for the soft ND grad. 2 and 3 stops are fine. I never bothered with 1 stop ND grads.

You can also shoot two exposures (one for the foreground and one for the sky), and blend them in post-processing.

Hello everyone,

What are the most common ND filters and strengths used for
Landscape work.

I shoot mostly sea scapes, so I am wondering if I will get more use
out of hard or soft filters?

Initially, I had thought I would get a 1,2,3 stop hard set, but now
I am considering a 2,3 hard and 2,3 soft set.

How often would a 1 stop ND get used?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Dave Wolfs]

Thanks for the advice.

I think hard is the way that I am going to go, if I find a need for soft I will pick it up later.

I have done several blens, some are successful, but I find it to be more of a pain to make it look completely natural especially with moving water.

Dave

 

[Afzal Ballim]

WIthout being controversial, what advantage does a grad ND have on a digital camera? Can't you get the same effects in post processing.

Just curious to see if I should be reconsidering my strategy (the only filters in my bag these these are CPs).

--
http://www.digitalphotoplayground.com

 

[eosGD]

I have a 2-stop soft and a 3-stop hard, used for various types of landscapes. It probably depends mostly on what kind of photographs you shoot, but

I recommend getting a 3-stop soft and a 4-stop hard.

I find 2-stop soft is not enough for during the day. And usually when I do water, it's at sunset, and that's when the sun is wicked bright and 4 stops seems useful.
--
Proud owner of the 5Dust.

 

[eosGD]

get a good polarizer if you don't have one. I find myself shooting with the polarizer more during the day than with graduated ND filters...

the polarizer darkens the blue sky and makes clouds stand out more and less exposed.

only time I use graduated nd filters are when I have my wide angle lens super wide, with lots of sky in the composition (bad for polarizers), when shooting at an angle that makes polarizer effect nothing, or sunset photos
--
Proud owner of the 5Dust.

 

[Jim F.]

WIthout being controversial, what advantage does a grad ND have on
a digital camera? Can't you get the same effects in post processing.

Just curious to see if I should be reconsidering my strategy (the
only filters in my bag these these are CPs).

--
http://www.digitalphotoplayground.com

not only is pp a PITA but if there's any movement in the shot there's a good chance that your two images won't line up. I think many of us have been moving back to, or using for the first time, ND grads.

It's actually much eaasier to get the shot right the first time, in the camera, than to start messing with PS later to fix what you didn't do right in the field. if I could avoid PS all together, I would, but I suppose it's a necessary evil.

I handhold my grads now, so for the extra 30 seconds it takes to place it in front of the lens and align it, I save 10-20 minutes (easily) in pp.

As for which grads, I use a 2 stop soft and 3 stop hard, but I think I'd like to add a 2 stop hard and 3 stop soft. I don't think 1 stop is going to be very effective or helpful most times.

A 4 stop might be interesting too, but they are expensive.

http://www.singh-ray.com/grndgrads.html

 

[Dave Wolfs]

It takes too long, and when working with water it is not trivial to do.

If I take 20 shots, thats 20 blends. Much easier to do in the field.

 

[Dave Wolfs]

I could see the 1 stop being good for stacking. Lee does not make a 4 stop, and I have read that 4 stops are not always color neutral.

 

[jerryk]

I thought that I could do it all in PP, but after playing around with it the HDR method only works in certain situations. Movement is the killer. So if you have trees, plants or grasses, and even a hint of a breeze motion shows up. Same issue with wave action.

As a result I just got a Cokin P size holder, adapter rings, and have some Singh-Ray ND Grads on order. I ordered the 2 stop soft and 3 stop hard.

jerry

--
jerryk.smugmug.com

 

[Ben_Egbert]

I thought that I could do it all in PP, but after playing around
with it the HDR method only works in certain situations. Movement
is the killer. So if you have trees, plants or grasses, and even a
hint of a breeze motion shows up. Same issue with wave action.

As a result I just got a Cokin P size holder, adapter rings, and
have some Singh-Ray ND Grads on order. I ordered the 2 stop soft
and 3 stop hard.

Me too, 3 soft for mountains and 2 hard for seascapes. Probably need to add one reverse for sunsets, maybe a 2 hard.

jerry

--
jerryk.smugmug.com

--
http://www.pbase.com/roserus

Ben

 

[Ben_Egbert]

It takes too long, and when working with water it is not trivial to
do.

If I take 20 shots, thats 20 blends. Much easier to do in the field.

Saw a guy at Snake river overlook last year with a 1Ds-mk2, using stacked ND grads and taking 7 step brackets for later HDR. I watched him do it, and the 7 shot brackets were really fast. But talk about the time in post processing, espcially considering that he did this for an hour or so.

--
http://www.pbase.com/roserus

Ben

 

[jerryk]

Why the reverse for sunsets?

--
jerryk.smugmug.com

 

[Ben_Egbert]

Why the reverse for sunsets?

Hi Jerry, took me a while to figure it out, I always thought just turn it over. But a reverse is dark at the divide line and gets lighter as it goes up. A sunset is brightest at the horizon, and darker as you look up, so the filter is made to darken the bright horizon.

Hope I have gotten this clear. Maybe others can explain it better.

--
jerryk.smugmug.com

--
http://www.pbase.com/roserus

Ben

 

[Sky Walker]

At one time I was a proponent of blending, but have since gone back to ND grads. I find that PP is a PITA and too time consuming and, as others have said, not suitable for all conditions.

On a FF camera and a 17-40 lens, I use a Cokin Z-Pro holder, so as to avoid vignetting. I am using Lee 2,3 hard and 2,3 soft (100mm x 150 mm) with this set-up (I don't use Cokin ND grads, as I have found them not to be neutral).

Sky

 

[Dave Wolfs]

How often do you use your hards vs. soft?

 

[jerryk]

You explained it very well. I was also under the impression you could just turn it over.

jerry

--
jerryk.smugmug.com

 

[GazzaJagman]

Dave, i was one of the first guys here to go back to ND grads. I was really unimpressed by PP and I just wasn't getting the results that I wanted. The Dynamic range of DSLR's in generall is simular to Slide film, so my thoughts were; Slide film techniques must apply! I use the Lee 100mm system and it's Vignette free up to about 15mm full frame. The 130mm filters can just about do 12mm at a push.

I started with a Lee set of 3 hards (0.3-0.9 = 1-3 stops). Then I bought a set of Softs and now I'm playing with colour grads too.
Here's a few examples:



This uses a Coral grad on the bottom half and a Mahoganny on the top, plus a 2 stop Hard



This uses a Lee Sunset orange grad and a 2 stop ND grad



and that's a Lee Pale pink with a 2 stop Hard ND grad



This is a Lee Coral and a 2 Stop Hard ND Grad

I hope you like them.

Gareth
--
http://www.pbase.com/gazzajagman

'Science is what we dream of, technology is what we are stuck with' Douglas Adams

 

[Gordon S Walker]

Shoot in RAW. That's good for two stops in a lot of shots.

Process the RAW file at -2 stops, -1 stop, +1 stop,+2 stops. Use these as a base for combination shots and for 90% of the time you'll get a good result.
For the other 10%, there's Mastercard.

In my experience, the only filter you can't emulate in PS is a polariser, mostly.

And before anyone says it, it's not ALWAYS possible in PS.
--
It's an L of a life, this photography lark

http://gordon-walker.fotopic.net/