Filters (a little help please!)

Bennp2000

Bennp2000

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Paul
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Hi
I'm looking at getting a set of soft grads to go on the front of my 17-40 (which sits on a FF sensor).

Can anyone advise me as to whether the Cokin P series will hard vignette at the wide end?

Its really time I bought a set but as usual funds are limited so throwing money at Lee isn't really an option. I'd also love to use it with a 10 stop filter of some kind.

My friendly local store suggested that a screw in Dorr filter would likely be cheaper than the Hitech Pro Stop IR or the Lee Big stopper. Anyone have any thoughts?

I'm open at looking at any brand really.

Thanks for taking the time to look.
Paul
 
On full frame you'll need 100mm filters, Cokin Z Pro, Hitech or Lee.

You don't need to buy every filter at once, you're better off building up your collection with higher quality filters over time than buy crap filters and degrade the quality of a good lens and body. I'd get a 3 stop hard edge, and possibly a 2 stop soft edge to start with.
 
Its 45 quid per 100mm filter from Hitech (for example) and the kit of 3 is £113, so the saving is pretty minimal, especially when you throw in a holder and wide angle adapter ring (which I'm assuming I'd need for the 17mm end).

Why did you sugest the 3 stop hard and 2 stop soft? I'm only familiar with using soft.
 
Bennp2000 said:
Its 45 quid per 100mm filter from Hitech (for example) and the kit of 3 is £113, so the saving is pretty minimal, especially when you throw in a holder and wide angle adapter ring (which I'm assuming I'd need for the 17mm end).

Why did you sugest the 3 stop hard and 2 stop soft? I'm only familiar with using soft.
Click to expand...

I'd rather 2 stop hard and 3 stop soft. And def. 100mm
 
Bennp2000 said:
and why those preferences?
Click to expand...

I personally find them the most useful. I shoot (or at least used to shoot until weather became permanently awful some time last year) seascapes and that means nice and flat horizon line. In such case you can drop in a hard grad, or for a sunset I even choose reverse hard grad. 2 stops are usually nearly right to balance sky and sea or pebbles. 3 stops may be more for dark valleys, rocks, etc.
Soft is more useful when the transition is a lot less defined between dark and bright areas. For example there may be very uneven horizon line or any other case where hard grad just doesn't make any sense (this should become fairly obvious)

Any finetuning is done in lightroom, and this is where you can play with colour 'filters' fix under or over graduated sky, etc.
 
thank you. I don't tend to go near the Sea and I'm usually in some sort of alpine environment, softs seem to lend themselves to this I guess. I guess with a two stop there's still room in the RAW file to darken the sky down a little more.
 
mountains are probably the most difficult subject with filters. You are probably right thinking about soft, and in daytime this should indeed suffice. 2 stop soft is fairly weak - it only reaches 2 stops at the very edge. For that reason I only ever used 3 stop one.

The problems start shooting a sunset or sunrise towards the light. Due to the very nature of soft grad and the source of light you will probably be blowing the horizon area. The only alternative may be manual exposure blending.
 
which is pretty much what I've been doing now. Two exposures and then a layer mask with a gradient on it to mimic a grad or paint it in if more complex.

I'm just about to go travelling for a bit (in 3 weeks) so I thought it was about time to start getting it a bit 'closer' in-camera.
 
also wondering the same thing with my 17-40. I plan to buy a 85mm (Cokin P sized) 3 stop soft and just hold it up against the lens when I need it. It'd always be on a tripod so I'll have hands free to do that.

I have got a set of cheap filters that is said to be on Cokin P system when I was on crop. the filter WILL vignette heavily on 17-40mm.
 
markmullen said:
Or a reverse grad.
Click to expand...

This will only work with a straight horizon, so no good for mountains... (except mountain top panoramas)

wuyanxu said:
also wondering the same thing with my 17-40. I plan to buy a 85mm (Cokin P sized) 3 stop soft and just hold it up against the lens when I need it. It'd always be on a tripod so I'll have hands free to do that.

I have got a set of cheap filters that is said to be on Cokin P system when I was on crop. the filter WILL vignette heavily on 17-40mm.
Click to expand...

That won't work unless you really don't care about image softness and graduated where it shouldn't be. If you have to ask I tried it with my Lee kit when I couldn't be asked to pull out adapter ring :cuckoo:
 
daugirdas said:
That won't work unless you really don't care about image softness and graduated where it shouldn't be. If you have to ask I tried it with my Lee kit when I couldn't be asked to pull out adapter ring :cuckoo:
Click to expand...

Oh :(

Those bigger and more expensive 100mm are the only way to go?
 
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