Filters

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Name
Mark
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Currently getting into using filters, more of an aid to slow me down, help relax and appreciate the surroundings more.

Currently got the following:
nisi v5 holder
unknown 2 stop soft grad
nisi 10 stop

Looking to expand on this but unsure where to go next, sick of reading now so looking more for experience and opinions

Lee little stopper
nisi nd64
Lee or nisi 3 stop soft grad
Lee or nisi 3 stull full nd

I was just struck on the 3 stop filters but then I read a 6 stop is handy during the day and for rivers and waterfalls. but then I thought, would the 3 stop not be just as good

anyway... haha
 
If you don't want to get both then the 6 stop is probably more flexible than the 3 stop because you can always raise the ISO or open up the aperture to reduce its strength.

Which grads you get depends on what you shoot... hard grads are better for coastal where you have a clear horizon, soft grads for when you don't. The most useful though IMO are Lee medium grads which are somewhere between the two.
 
First i don't want this post to appear negative Mark and I am certainly not anti anyone using grads and this is purely my objective view.
TBH I have found over the last XX number of years i have used my grads less and less. When i got to the point where you would consider its time to replace them I started to evaluate to what degree I used them.
Then you ask yourself do I spend £xxx on replacing them or take a pace back and not just follow any trend of what your supposed to have in your kit. Also consider could that £xxx be spent on something more useful.

If I give you the truth here, when I packed up photography and sold all my film gear, all my filters went with the kit. When I became a "Born Again" digital photographer the consensus of opinion was I needed Grads. Based on film, I thought yes I really need grads. That was probably more relevant then with early digital cameras. So i bought filters.

After the evaluation the reality was that I have used them less and less. The main reasons have been:-

That I found that when shooting with a grad I ended up spending time in post correcting the unwanted areas that were unavoidably darkened by the grad, such as trees, mountain peaks etc. On the whole OK for seascapes etc, but a nightmare around trees for example. I found I could get a much better result by bracketing 2 exposures and blending them in Photoshop. (and i guess if I were honest the more you do that the quicker and more effective you become at doing it, so the resultant was I would spend more time faffing around correcting a shot with a grad than I would blending and to my mind with a better result). The other point that comes into the equation here, is the plethora of tools now available in newer version of PS and Luminosity masks etc etc which make things easier still.

The dynamic range of the cameras now. In many cases I don't even need to blend anything nowadays. The dynamic range is such that it's rare I need a grad.

I guess you have to ask yourself why you are buying them Mark, everyone's situation and type of photography is different. What I'm really saying is don't go buying them because Joe Cornish (bearing in mind he will get given them FOC) and a load of other Togs say you "HAVE" to have them. Make your own evaluation and think very carefully before you part with your hard earned! Don't listen to me or anyone else make that evaluation for yourself.
IMHO if you already have grads fine, they are always a useful part of the armory to get a shot. Stoppers and ND's fine, just carefully consider grads before you leap.

Hope you find this useful.

Just my 2d
 
First i don't want this post to appear negative Mark and I am certainly not anti anyone using grads and this is purely my objective view.
TBH I have found over the last XX number of years i have used my grads less and less. When i got to the point where you would consider its time to replace them I started to evaluate to what degree I used them.
Then you ask yourself do I spend £xxx on replacing them or take a pace back and not just follow any trend of what your supposed to have in your kit. Also consider could that £xxx be spent on something more useful.

If I give you the truth here, when I packed up photography and sold all my film gear, all my filters went with the kit. When I became a "Born Again" digital photographer the consensus of opinion was I needed Grads. Based on film, I thought yes I really need grads. That was probably more relevant then with early digital cameras. So i bought filters.

After the evaluation the reality was that I have used them less and less. The main reasons have been:-

That I found that when shooting with a grad I ended up spending time in post correcting the unwanted areas that were unavoidably darkened by the grad, such as trees, mountain peaks etc. On the whole OK for seascapes etc, but a nightmare around trees for example. I found I could get a much better result by bracketing 2 exposures and blending them in Photoshop. (and i guess if I were honest the more you do that the quicker and more effective you become at doing it, so the resultant was I would spend more time faffing around correcting a shot with a grad than I would blending and to my mind with a better result). The other point that comes into the equation here, is the plethora of tools now available in newer version of PS and Luminosity masks etc etc which make things easier still.

The dynamic range of the cameras now. In many cases I don't even need to blend anything nowadays. The dynamic range is such that it's rare I need a grad.

I guess you have to ask yourself why you are buying them Mark, everyone's situation and type of photography is different. What I'm really saying is don't go buying them because Joe Cornish (bearing in mind he will get given them FOC) and a load of other Togs say you "HAVE" to have them. Make your own evaluation and think very carefully before you part with your hard earned! Don't listen to me or anyone else make that evaluation for yourself.
IMHO if you already have grads fine, they are always a useful part of the armory to get a shot. Stoppers and ND's fine, just carefully consider grads before you leap.

Hope you find this useful.

Just my 2d


Thank you. Very helpful. I'm at that stage at the moment too. Do I or don't i? I currently shoot bracket anyway so other than buying a polariser I think my mind is made up on grads.
 
Currently I'm going through a phase of extreme depth of field with wide angle tilt shift :) The only grad I've been using is a soft 3 stop, for some pictures as it helps reduce the post processing but doesn't eliminate completely. I find it most useful when there is too much movement in the scene between bracketed shots.
 
Thank you. Very helpful. I'm at that stage at the moment too. Do I or don't i? I currently shoot bracket anyway so other than buying a polariser I think my mind is made up on grads.
Hi There just my observations really and obviously dependant on the sort of photography you are shooting. i.e great for seascapes! Don't get me wrong I do not want to put anyone off buying grads. Many togs swear by them, and they are handy, but so long as you are aware of the shortcomings that come with them. Clearly you have to spend a reasonable amount to get good results or else your back into post correcting anyway, and also whats the point of spending £xxxx on a lens then sticking some piece of Ebay glass on the front of it?
I have asked togs out of interest more than anything "How long have you been shooting before you started using grads" some have never used them. Just be aware some of the photographers that extol the virtues of them have a vested interest in the product.

So summing up:-
There is no halfway house with buying grads pay for quality or regret it ( I guess Lee, Progrey and possibly Nisi but i have no experience of the latter). There is no mileage in buying cheapo quality to decide yes or no. There are cheap filters out there that work well (particularly some ND filters) but its a matter of "PROVING" what your buying works before you lash out. Buy Cheap, Buy Twice.
Do you need them? See if you can borrow some from a friend then decide.
How adept are you in post production? This element is valid, because if you are a wizz at PS or LR its an alternative option.
Which comes hand in hand with the question, do you have a modern camera with a high dynamic range.
Also remember if you by them, they are vulnerable. You can scratch them easily and if the holder isn't good they can slip out. They can even blow off cliffs and fall down fissures in rocks:rolleyes::eek:

Just a tip, when you have them, buy yourself a little spray bottle and fill it with lens cleaner or even water. When you clean them flood the filter and wash off any debris before you try and clean them with a cloth (example Seagull crap ruined one of mine:().

Cheers
Steve
 
Step 1: Determine what you want shoot with your filters
Step 2: Buy appropriate filters

:)

Yes, I realise this was not my most constructive forum post....



Actually - I think this is a perfectly good response :)

You first need to figure out the problem to then buy the solution, not the other way around

For me though (like Steve) filters are rarely the solution; the only 2 I have are a 10-stopper and an IR one, grads are pretty much pointless IMO as modern cameras' DR is so great you rarely need them, and if you do then they don't fit the landscape in front of you anyway (ignoring hard grads and seasides that is) - so in hugely contrasty situations I'll go with blending rather than filters

Dave
 
First i don't want this post to appear negative Mark and I am certainly not anti anyone using grads and this is purely my objective view.
TBH I have found over the last XX number of years i have used my grads less and less. When i got to the point where you would consider its time to replace them I started to evaluate to what degree I used them.
Then you ask yourself do I spend £xxx on replacing them or take a pace back and not just follow any trend of what your supposed to have in your kit. Also consider could that £xxx be spent on something more useful.

If I give you the truth here, when I packed up photography and sold all my film gear, all my filters went with the kit. When I became a "Born Again" digital photographer the consensus of opinion was I needed Grads. Based on film, I thought yes I really need grads. That was probably more relevant then with early digital cameras. So i bought filters.

After the evaluation the reality was that I have used them less and less. The main reasons have been:-

That I found that when shooting with a grad I ended up spending time in post correcting the unwanted areas that were unavoidably darkened by the grad, such as trees, mountain peaks etc. On the whole OK for seascapes etc, but a nightmare around trees for example. I found I could get a much better result by bracketing 2 exposures and blending them in Photoshop. (and i guess if I were honest the more you do that the quicker and more effective you become at doing it, so the resultant was I would spend more time faffing around correcting a shot with a grad than I would blending and to my mind with a better result). The other point that comes into the equation here, is the plethora of tools now available in newer version of PS and Luminosity masks etc etc which make things easier still.

The dynamic range of the cameras now. In many cases I don't even need to blend anything nowadays. The dynamic range is such that it's rare I need a grad.

I guess you have to ask yourself why you are buying them Mark, everyone's situation and type of photography is different. What I'm really saying is don't go buying them because Joe Cornish (bearing in mind he will get given them FOC) and a load of other Togs say you "HAVE" to have them. Make your own evaluation and think very carefully before you part with your hard earned! Don't listen to me or anyone else make that evaluation for yourself.
IMHO if you already have grads fine, they are always a useful part of the armory to get a shot. Stoppers and ND's fine, just carefully consider grads before you leap.

Hope you find this useful.

Just my 2d

Very interesting post. I was also in the process of deciding what ND grad filter to get (at the moment baciare of limited budget I was thinking of a 0.9 soft grad) and I think I will go for an hard grad for seascapes. In other situations I will work on multiple exposures.
 
Very interesting post. I was also in the process of deciding what ND grad filter to get (at the moment baciare of limited budget I was thinking of a 0.9 soft grad) and I think I will go for an hard grad for seascapes. In other situations I will work on multiple exposures.
The argument always was for "doing it all in-camera" this was the justification for grads to a certain extent. That's fine for a seascape. However if you have something above the horizon you would have to sort it in Post anyhow.
The the other annoying thing was if you did happen to get it wrong, and you could see the line of the graduation when you threw it up on the screen at home (and lets face it if you can see a grad line exactly on those poxy 3x3 displays on the back of your camera you have damn good eyesight, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration). Then your back in to post with a difficult job on your hands.:eek:

I think as long as your aware of the pros and cons you can work round it successfully.

Thinking about it that would be an interesting poll..... Who has grads and uses them regularly verses Who has grads and uses them for ballast in there camera bags
 
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Slightly off topic perhaps, but does anyone have a link to a good tutorial for blending exposures? I'm not going to go down the grads route and stick to screw in filters only, using LR and PS to fix what needs to be fixed in post.
 
Slightly off topic perhaps, but does anyone have a link to a good tutorial for blending exposures? I'm not going to go down the grads route and stick to screw in filters only, using LR and PS to fix what needs to be fixed in post.
Hi Ian there are a few here https://www.youtube.com/user/SeascapePhotoMastery and also in English English;)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djxrsDT_6YU

A few that are worth a watch as I recall(y) Post Processing Mastery .....

EDIT ooopps didnt realise that would poke up the video thought it would just show the hyperlink, If its not cricket to show the video i'll edit the link out. BTW Post Processing Mastery is nothing to do with me!
 
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Going to keep an eye on this thread. I am partially thinking about moving back to a Nikon DX body and all the filters I have for my micro 4/3rds stuff won't be any good so tempted to just get a couple of screw in filters and blend post production. I am not into mega long exposures.
 
recently I was testing some nd filters from 84.5mm-camera filters..quite unknown brand but after some testing I was like:eek:k,why I haven´t heard of them before?! I´ve got these: 100mm 3 stop soft grad, 3 stop reversed grad and 10 stop ND1024 solid filter..very nice quality,no color cast.. I found out that reverse grad is very useful tool,especially if you´re sunset freak like me
 
I've always been off the opinion that we should only buy something once. There are a lot of cheap nasty filters out there. I also think there is little point in a 0.3 grad. ND filters that I found most useful were the 0.6 Lee Proglass with the 6 stop handy on rarer occasions.

Just as important as grads is planning out what you are shooting and the best time of day to do so at differing angles, perspectives etc.

I haven't used a grad or an ND in a couple of years but neither do I blend. Having said that, by sunset I am far more likely to be in the pub than on the fell.
 
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