help with fillters!

woody12

woody12

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paul
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Hi, i'm really into and enjoying landscapes and feel i really some filters to improve the quality of the final image. But i'm lost at what would be best to start from. I've done some research and think although the lee filters are best are really out of my reach at the moment. Looking at cokin series to start with. What do i really need just to start out with as a complete beginner in landscapes? I would be very happy and grateful for any help or pointers. I have a nikon 3100 with 18-55mm lens and 35mm lens. Thanks
 
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Youll need a holder, adapter ring to fit your lenses and your choice of filters.
Most usefull are hard and soft ND grads.
Ideally you'll want a selction of each in different strengths. I use 0.6 and 0.9 grads the most. Dont use the 0.3's a great deal.
You might also find some standard grads usefull if you want to blur water etc.
 
I'm not sure that you'd want to use a filter holder with your kit lens. The holder would rotate as you focus. Could make using the filters a bit of a challenge. You'll be fine with the 35mm though. Either way, you need a 52mm adaptor, holder and whatever filters you'd like. Typically for landscapes you'd mainly use Grad ND (to darken/retain sky detail) and/or a circular polariser. I'm not sure how the latter works with cokin kit but hopefully somebody will be along soon to help out.
 
Its easy with the kit lens, apply the holder, focus, lock it and then slide the filter in. Just make sure you dont knok the focus ring as you do it.
Cokins polariser uses some weird teeth things, only ever saw on once.
 
TCR4x4 said:
Its easy with the kit lens, apply the holder, focus, lock it and then slide the filter in. Just make sure you dont knok the focus ring as you do it.
Cokins polariser uses some weird teeth things, only ever saw on once.
Click to expand...

I can vouch for this (on 18-55 kit lens).

Woody- if you're on a budget (like me...), you need a 52mm cokin p adaptor ring, cokin p holder, and probably the hitech range of filters. (all on ebay)
 
TCR4x4 said:
Youll need a holder, adapter ring to fit your lenses and your choice of filters.
Most usefull are hard and soft ND grads.
Ideally you'll want a selction of each in different strengths. I use 0.6 and 0.9 grads the most. Dont use the 0.3's a great deal.
You might also find some standard grads usefull if you want to blur water etc.
Click to expand...

For blurring water you'll want some ND filters, not graduated ND filters, if you're keeping cost down Cokin do a 3 stop quite cheaply

TCR4x4 said:
Its easy with the kit lens, apply the holder, focus, lock it and then slide the filter in. Just make sure you dont knok the focus ring as you do it.
Cokins polariser uses some weird teeth things, only ever saw on once.
Click to expand...

On P series Kood make a CPL which drops in the very back slot (eg closest to the lens) before your grads, I had it when I used P series, it worked pretty well.
 
markmullen said:
For blurring water you'll want some ND filters, not graduated ND filters, if you're keeping cost down Cokin do a 3 stop quite cheaply
Click to expand...

That's what I meant! Should retread before posting! No such thing as a standard grad!
 
Ive bought a lee holder and am waiting for the big stopper to arrive (if ever). Next ill be after a grad or two.
There seems to be two main types of grad; hard and soft.

Is there a consensus for which is more useful? Of course each has it's uses.

Would it depend of whether you're using crop or FF?
 
Ross_Curtis said:
Ive bought a lee holder and am waiting for the big stopper to arrive (if ever). Next ill be after a grad or two.
There seems to be two main types of grad; hard and soft.

Is there a consensus for which is more useful? Of course each has it's uses.

Would it depend of whether you're using crop or FF?
Click to expand...

Hard grads are normally used where the horizon is straight,or level....whereas soft grads are used where the horizon is not straight,as in mountain type landscape shots.if you intend to buy just the one type,then the soft grads will be the most useful,as they can be used for any situation.
 
I thought that the suggestion from Lee is that on a cropped sensor soft grads take up too much of the image and that hard grads were better.

There was a really long thread on this a couple of months ago. FWIW I use a hard grad on my 5D and find it fine for landscapes and seascapes.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I thought that the suggestion from Lee is that on a cropped sensor soft grads take up too much of the image and that hard grads were better.

There was a really long thread on this a couple of months ago. FWIW I use a hard grad on my 5D and find it fine for landscapes and seascapes.
Click to expand...

I've not read that anywhere..so apologies if I've mislead in any way.at the moment,I only have a lee 0.6 ND grad and a 0.6 ND,so will give the grad a go on my next landscape shoot :-)
 
Well it seems that Lee have updated their website (it is really good now!) but the text from the old website is still on Speed Graphic's website.

Available in soft or hard graduations. On full frame format, soft is more generally useful, but photographers specialising in landscapes where there is often a sharp dividing line between sky and foreground (e.g. seascapes) will usually prefer a hard graduation. For smaller sensor formats, Lee recommend using a hard grad set for most scenarios.
Click to expand...
 
Craikeybaby said:
I thought that the suggestion from Lee is that on a cropped sensor soft grads take up too much of the image and that hard grads were better.

There was a really long thread on this a couple of months ago. FWIW I use a hard grad on my 5D and find it fine for landscapes and seascapes.
Click to expand...

Not true - the grad effect is the same. The thing that makes most difference is field of view, and very wide lenses make the grad line appear harder. With telephoto lenses, any grad becomes almost invisible.

You can also get a slightly harder grad effect with higher f/numbers than low ones, but it's not huge. These are basically depth of field effects as the filter is pulled slightly more or less in focus.

There is also a difference between one make of hard or soft and another's interpretation of it. Some of the cheaper ones vary a bit batch to batch too.
 
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