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04/06/2012 10:54:25 PM · #1 |
I'm looking at getting an ND Filter for doing some landscapes, long exposures with water kind of stuff.. I want to get the best ND Filter for the job. I'm not to sure about the gradients ... I saw a 4 and an 8... not sure which would be better? it's for my 18-200 (72mm) lens.
any suggestions? |
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04/06/2012 10:55:44 PM · #2 |
| Oh, also... I know Hoya is the best... but i'm not looking to spend the $120-150 for the filter... I'm going to get some cheapy from Japan or Taiwan .... or a vivitar |
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04/06/2012 10:57:22 PM · #3 |
Do you want a straight ND filter (allows longer exposures) or a Graduated ND filter (helps even out bright skies with darker foregrounds)? How much do you want to slow down the shutter?
I have a TIFFEN graduated ND and circular polarizers (58mm) I got from B&H for maybe $100 for the pair. I also picked up a second (linear) polarizer used for about $10 -- combined with the other polarizer you can get about four stops of ND effect:
2 sec/edited  4 sec/unedited 
Message edited by author 2012-04-06 23:06:28. |
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04/06/2012 10:59:31 PM · #4 |
| Hmmm, this is a good question GeneralE.... I think I want A graduated. |
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04/06/2012 11:30:42 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Maver:
Hmmm, this is a good question GeneralE.... I think I want A graduated. |
I don't think your will find a graduated ND filter very useful in the price range you are talking- which would be for a screw-in filter. The challenge with them is the point of transition is in the middle of the filter when your horizon might not be (shouldn't be ideally). They can certainly help some, but you might need to zoom out and crop to get the transition point in the right place. A sliding rectangular GND filter such as the Lee company produces is more ideal as you can slide the transition to where it needs to be within a perfect comp. But they are very pricey to setup a system, I am doing so now and it's painful!
If you can get maybe a 3-stop solid ND filter it would be useful for slowing things down to get a nice effect. Add a polarizer to the mix and that would get you an additional stop. Do try to get the best filters you can within your budget though as this will help with accurate color, flaring, etc.
Message edited by author 2012-04-06 23:31:17. |
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04/06/2012 11:32:52 PM · #6 |
| Graduated ones are nice and work great, but don't get one that screws on, as you severely limit yourself for how you can compose your shot. As for what strength, you have to consider how much you want to extend your exposure and then go from there. More opaque= more expensive, but a 3 stop filter will generally do the trick for you and be more reasonable in general use, being that it's not as dark and specialized. |
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04/07/2012 12:33:19 AM · #7 |
When out at a GTG I noticed  jdannels using a hand held graduated ND filter to knock down bright clouds and went in search of one. I ended up buying a Cokin P-Series Graduated ND Grey G2 Full (ND8) at my local camera store for about $35, a rectangular piece of plastic that is big enough to cover a 95mm Bigma side to side and long enough to put the split at the top quarter down to the bottom quarter. The filter comes in a protective plastic box and this little unit is in my camera bags at all times.
It won't do the job for waterfalls or super long exposures to clear traffic or the like, but it rules for landscapes.
You can pretty much see where the filter line is in this shot, where the clouds go boring and white, so hills are tough, but seascapes and desert images are easy.
Message edited by author 2012-04-07 00:39:37. |
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04/07/2012 07:17:39 AM · #8 |
| for difficult scenes and landscapes why not just bracket the exposure and combine in post. i can see an ND filter for a daytime long exposure but you can surely accomplish a graduated filter effect in PP. |
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04/07/2012 12:10:11 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by mike_311:
for difficult scenes and landscapes why not just bracket the exposure and combine in post. i can see an ND filter for a daytime long exposure but you can surely accomplish a graduated filter effect in PP. |
You are correct that you can do a lot using bracketed exposures in PP to improve a dynamic range hurdle Mike. But that can take a lot of time and possibly never get done. And when bracketing, you can only guess in the field whether the scene you are bracketing will really be that special after all the post work. Once you have your graduated filters setup for a scene (which does take some time to be sure) it's boom boom boom- dynamic scene harmonious right there before you in one frame on your LCD.
I recently spent a weekend shooting out at the coast with a friend who has pretty much the same camera and lens assortment as me. I had a 10-stop ND filter, a Circular Polarizer, and a 1-stop screw-in GND filter (pretty much useless). He had filters similar to me, but also had a Lee GND set (4" X 6" plates). He spent more time mucking around with his setups to be sure. But after shooting each evening we reviewed our images on our iPads and while with many scenes I had a bunch of bracketed images I could only hope to piece together later, he had a bunch of fully realized single exposures to look at then and there. This sold me on doing more with filters to get the scene right "in camera". I now have the kit and need to go through a learning curve to implement it, but I will get there and be spending much less time with PP in the future. Some scenes just won't fit well with a GND filter system I know, but very many will :)
Message edited by author 2012-04-07 12:12:04. |
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04/07/2012 01:13:12 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by Brent_S:
...after shooting each evening we reviewed our images on our iPads and while with many scenes I had a bunch of bracketed images I could only hope to piece together later, he had a bunch of fully realized single exposures to look at then and there. |
I find it intensely interesting that folks can adopt remarkably different, almost diametrically opposite philosophies, both of which can produce "the goods." On the one hand, there's the philosophy of accomplishing something as close as possible to your final vision in the camera. On the other hand, there's the reasoning that the as-captured image is just the raw data (literally) that we use to create the vision. If that means bracketed exposures, multiple pano frames, dark frames, flat frames, what have you, it's all data. If you haven't guessed, I subscribe to the second school. I find that in the vast majority of cases, I have much more flexibility by combining in post than by acquiring a single "golden" image. It is more work in post, and probably at least as much in the field (for different reasons).
The two types of filters I do carry are a circular polarizer and high-strength ND filters (6-stop and 10-stop). The ND filters enable long daylight exposures that cannot be duplicated in post, and the polarizer also yields resuolts that are not easily or accurately replicated in software. For all other things, it's bracket and stitch. I don't find this workflow to be onerous, but it does have the effect that my "end of the day reviews" leave non-photographers wondering "what the hell was he shooting??" Often family/friends will want to see what I've come back with, and if it's been a "landscape kind of day" the unprocessed product is, well, rather uninspiring to the uninitiated, LOL.
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04/07/2012 02:33:03 PM · #11 |
my landscape images tend to be bridges and structures which are notorious for having a very wide dynamic range. i have though about getting a set of filter but i really don't think i'd ever use them unless i was a shooting the ocean or something else with a fairly level horizon.
i would love to be able to not have to combine my images in post, as you are correct, the results can be unpredictable (black and white comes in handy here).
i guess its just the nature of our subjects. |
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04/07/2012 03:24:09 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by mike_311:
my landscape images tend to be bridges and structures which are notorious for having a very wide dynamic range. i have though about getting a set of filter but i really don't think i'd ever use them unless i was a shooting the ocean or something else with a fairly level horizon. |
I find that I have that view of most specialty tools that I have gotten by without for years. Until you work with a lens baby, or a tilt shift, or a graduated ND, it is hard to imagine why you would spend money and bag space on something you can do in post. Once you use them you find some tools are not your cup of tea, and some become essential. |
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