Spec me a Graduated ND filter

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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Raymond
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I need something for sunset/twilight shot. A square one.

I am not sure what number I need, what would the one to go for normally if i just get one?

Lee or Hitech?

Oh, the other thing I shoot is a night shot of venues.

Like this

YibDwot.jpg


As you can see, the sky is black, because if i expose for the sky the tent would be blown out. I would need a sort of filter for that too....I guess backwards the way a sunset works.

And perhaps the typical use like

OTHQsiQ.jpg
 
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For sunset you might be better off with a reverse grad, but for general use, then I agree a 0.9 Lee will do you right.
 
Clue is in the name!

It starts of lighter at the top and gets darker towards the middle, then clear for the remainder. During a sunset, the brightest light is on the horizon, so a normal grad has the dark bit in the wrong place. The graduated section on a reverse grad is reversed to solve this.
 
TCR4x4 said:
Clue is in the name!

It starts of lighter at the top and gets darker towards the middle, then clear for the remainder. During a sunset, the brightest light is on the horizon, so a normal grad has the dark bit in the wrong place. The graduated section on a reverse grad is reversed to solve this.
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I see....

Well, a normal one to me is dark to light...so reverse to me sounds like light to dark....which is just upside down lol So that's not really "reverse" :lol:
 
Not quite :)

In a reverse grad the darkest part is at the centre of the filter rather than at the edge.
 
I guess most people start with softs and then add hards later. Hards only really work well with straight horizons like a seascape, so softs are more useful IMO.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Do I really need the holder? I was thinking free styling by hand holding....
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No you don't. I have seen images of folk using blue tack, gaffer tape you name it but having looked at your kit list are you really going to "go cheap and cheerful"?

On the subject of hand holding a filter I suppose it is fine for short exposures but not for the longer ones. At the end of the day you can pick up a decent holder for around £50 and the holder will last you a lifetime with a little TLC.

If you are very new to the topic of filters have a look here http://www.leefilters.com/ and all will be explained :)


Andy
 
Keebsuk said:
No you don't. I have seen images of folk using blue tack, gaffer tape you name it but having looked at your kit list are you really going to "go cheap and cheerful"?

On the subject of hand holding a filter I suppose it is fine for short exposures but not for the longer ones. At the end of the day you can pick up a decent holder for around £50 and the holder will last you a lifetime with a little TLC.

If you are very new to the topic of filters have a look here http://www.leefilters.com/ and all will be explained :)


Andy
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It's not about my kit list lol My kit list has nothing to do with it, this is for 1 shot in a shoot and I am thinking handholding might even be more flexible and convenient if it works. Sometimes I just don't have the luxury to set it all up. I need the shot done ASAP that's all.
 
Keebsuk said:
No you don't. I have seen images of folk using blue tack, gaffer tape you name it but having looked at your kit list are you really going to "go cheap and cheerful"?

On the subject of hand holding a filter I suppose it is fine for short exposures but not for the longer ones. At the end of the day you can pick up a decent holder for around £50 and the holder will last you a lifetime with a little TLC.

If you are very new to the topic of filters have a look here http://www.leefilters.com/ and all will be explained :)


Andy
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You could get away with that using soft grad, but with hard it will be dead hard :D

Straight horizon - hard grade
very curved horizon (buildings, people, etc) - only soft is possible.

Pic 1 - merge 2 exposures in PS. No filter will help you there.
 
If you do handhold, you can get away with a hard grad in most situations, as you can "feather" it with your hand, by moving the filter up and down quickly.. Just be careful not to bash the camera or lens. Tbh I had a set of softs and hards, but sold all the softs as I rarely used them. I found the darkest part of the graduation was too small, on the hards its much darker for more of the filter.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Do I really need the holder? I was thinking free styling by hand holding....
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It's perfectly possible to use a ND grad without a holder. I've been doing it for the last...... ooooh...... 15+ years!

Much easier with a tripod, obviously, but even hand held it's possible.

There may be occasions when you wish you had a holder but in my opinion these are out-weighed by the advantages of hand-holding.....which are - simplicity, speed of use, less "stuff" to carry round and fiddle with, etc.

Re: hard v soft -

I've only ever used hard-edge ND's. It is said that the darkest section of a soft-edge filter occurs right at the top of the filter so around the centre the ND is quite "faint". I have been tempted to try a 3stop soft but never quite got round to it! In most cases you can get away with hard grads.
 
Sounds like I will just get a 0.9 LEE Hard grad for now.

If I need it, I will get the holder and the correct ring for the lens lucky that most L glass are either 77 or 72mm so I don't need many !

Obviously if I am feathering then I won't use the holder at all !
 
ive been given a a holder and a couple of ND filters but not a graduated one, could i just hold ione of the filters halfway along the holder (along the line of the horizon) to act like a hard edged filter or will it look a load of crap :suspect:

myself i cant see why it woudnt work at least to an extent:thinking:
 
That might work. Depending on the strength of the filter the horizon might need to be totally horizontal, though.

Even on a hard-edge grad there is a narrow transitional area.

Depth of field also matters. At wide apertures (eg f5.6)and with telephoto lenses the transition zone will be less obvious than with wide-angles and at narrow apertures (eg f16) .
 
My advise would be to avoid hard grads until you know you need them. Softs are by far the most useful imho, especially if you have trees in the shot which take up the large proportion of the height of the frame; a soft grad creates a much more natural looking graduation in the tones. Further, Please don't become part of the "stick the strongest grad filter I have on the front because the sky looks bright" brigade. You're a professional. Take the 5 seconds to meter from the highlights, midtones and shadows and work out what grad you need. Photos that have the sky darker than the ground frankly look terrible, imho.
 
jerry12953 said:
A 2 stop hard might be your best bet for starters........

But I would definitely back you up over your plan to start in a small way and build up a "kit" if you find it would be useful in practice.
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The shots (or just shot) I want this for is the twilight shot of the venue. Sometimes if I am too bust inside or in winter time it becomes night where i would need a harder 3 stop filter. I rather do it once in camera than PS job 2 photos together. It doesn't need to be like bright blue sky, just need to give a hint of a dark blue instead of black.

The shot is normally taken on a tripod so I can hold the filter.
 
Woodsy said:
My advise would be to avoid hard grads until you know you need them. Softs are by far the most useful imho, especially if you have trees in the shot which take up the large proportion of the height of the frame; a soft grad creates a much more natural looking graduation in the tones. Further, Please don't become part of the "stick the strongest grad filter I have on the front because the sky looks bright" brigade. You're a professional. Take the 5 seconds to meter from the highlights, midtones and shadows and work out what grad you need. Photos that have the sky darker than the ground frankly look terrible, imho.
Click to expand...

I understand what you are saying, hence I am asking which is best and tbh, this thread is giving mixed answers with regard to soft and hard grads.

I could buy them all but I am trying not to throw money away, I mean I got on fine for 3 years of weddings, I just want to improve this one shot so want to spend the money to the exact purpose that it is needed for.
 
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