Grad Filters or Contrast Parameters

[Peter10d]

Can anyone please advise if the use of Lee ND gradutaed filters is likely to produce better results than adjusting the contrast parameters within the cameras settings, where there is a 2 or 3 stop difference between sky and foreground. I do not wish to pay over £100 for the standard Lee filter kit, if there is unlikely to be a noteable improvement.

 

[Les McLean]

Yes

 

[Peter10d]

Thanks Les. Could you please advise on which one between ND 0.6 or ND 0.9 is likely to be the best one to go for. Am I correct in thinking for use with a Canon 10d, I am best to go for hard graduation.

 

[Claire]

Depends what/when you shoot. If in daylight a 2-stop would be fine. For sunsets where the light is very different between sky and land, the more stops the better. I would personally get both, or a mixture of hard and soft grads. You then have the choice to use them separately or stacking them. When I shoot a sunset I use all three of my filters at once - 2 x 2-stops and 1 x 3-stop to balance the light.

P.S. Hard/soft grad depends on what kind of horizon you are shooting and at what focal length, nothing to do with your camera.

 

[Les McLean]

Claire has pretty sound advise, I tend to use hard grads most, but a mixture is worthwhile, I'd be tempted to start with a 0.9 hard grad and build up from there.

Lees are great, Hitech also do grads, and are very good (I use them) and are generally cheaper than Lee Filters.

 

[Peter10d]

Thanks for the info guys, that has given me a good basis of where I should start from

 

[HoppyUK]

Hi Peter and welcome to TP

You should read up on a popular technqiue called HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. It has nothing to do with adjusting the camera presets in the way you have suggested, but it does a similar job to graduated filters by taking several frames at different exposure levels and merging them in post processing (if that's your bag).

Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are both ways of taking a scene with very bright and/or dark areas which would normally be outside the dynamic range of the sensor, and compressing them in to one image.

 

[EMA747]

Peter have a read through this thread I started on ND fliters. http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=161848

A few people said these cheapers ND grads were good. http://www.teamworkphoto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10288

Hope this helps.

 

[Peter10d]

Many thanks for both your comments. The HDR method sounds interesting, and is something I will read up on.
In the meantime, I have noted that many people appear to rate the Hitech filters and the they are certainly a lot cheaper than Lee. Would the filters at 85 size be suitable going down to 17mm wide, or would the 100 size be recommened to avoid vignetting ? Could anyone also advise if a Cokin holder should be used or better to purchase Hitech's own ?