White Balance/ND Filters/Polarizers

Skippy

Okay you clever people......... yeah I know your smart .....I think :scratch :wink

I've been looking at the Yosemite images lots of you have been posting, and I also have viewed the post that was asking what you'd be buying after your trip to Yosemite.

Many of you talked about ND filters and Polorizers.
I have two ND Filters that I use when doing IR shots with my Sony F828.
I mean I use two ND4 and ND8, but their thread size is only 58mm.

My trip to Montana is coming up really fast, and I was wondering if I should get one for my 77mm sized Canon 24mm, and also my 70-200mm has the same size thread, so it could be used on both.

Then the other thing I dont understand with all this is White Balance, if you use Aperature Priority and Auto White Balance ...does the camera already know how to balance it out? or do you have to change it to some other setting :huh :dunno

Now I feel the need to tell you at this stage that I am NOT BLONDE :rofl
Sometimes it's hard to believe but it's true :lol4 :lol

So I guess what Im asking is should I get an ND filter, or a Polorizer :dunno
If I get a ND which one :dunno ND4 ? ND8? or some other one?
Orrrrrrrrrrrr should I get a graduated one :dunno
I'mmmmmmmm sooo confused :nod I am :nod ......but I know you people are smarter than the average bear, so go ahead make me more confused with your replies :rofl I can handle it :rofl

Nice Blue Sky's is what I'd like to see in my shots....... Skippy (Australia)

wxwax

They all handle different things, skippy.

The White Balance is the color temperature of your image. It's a setting in your camera. Most cameras do fine with auto white balance in the outdoors. It's artificial light that gives them the shakes.

A neutral density filter doesn't change the color temperature. It's entirely neutral. It just cuts down on the amount of light coming in to the camera. It allows you to do longer exposures. It's most often used to shoot long exposures of water, which turns smooth and creamy, sometimes misty, if you have a long enough exposure.

A polarizer also cuts down the incoming light, but in a different way. As a result, it can make blue skies even bluer, make green things look greener, and it cuts out the glare from water. It's a nice filter to use in clear sky, sunny conditions.

I hope this helps.

Nikolai

I'm not the mastah
NDs are handy when you want to decrease the amount of light. This is usually done to achieve the longer exposure times, for instance to get those "silky smooth streams". There may be other reasons (like get the buildings and "ghost" the traffic/people), but the physics remains the same - you'll get longer exposure times. Obviously, you better to use full manual mode and set the biggest f-stop value you can, otherwise it kinda does not make sense to bring on the filter if you are not closing your aperture fully.

You can stack NDs together too, to acieve the combined effect. Be warned, that this will slightly limit your FOV, bringing some vingetting, so you can't use wide range of your zoom lens (and deal with it later in post if you use prime).

Also, multiple NDs usually shift your white balance and camera's embedded software may not necessarily cope it nicely, so you better use manual WB set.

CP, while it also "eats" some light (usually at least half a stop, sometimes a full stop) and can serve the same purpose as ND, has a very different primary goal. Being a "polarizer" it can hide or reveal certain reflection/translucency effects. Primary subjects are skies (translucency), still water (both) and glass(both). By rotating the ring (and thus changing the orientation of the filter) you can get very nice effects, including (but not limited) to the following:

• skies can look "deeper"
• you can kill/enhance reflection from glass/water
• you can reveal "tension patterns" in semi-transaprent objects, such as (tinted) car windows, doors, etc.
• you can get interesting "rainbow" effects on certain reflective surfaces (such as LCD monitors, and such)

As to your main quesion - what to bring - I'd say - bring them all. Filters do not take much space/weight, so what's the purpose of having them and not using them?:-)

Hope this helps, at least until the gurus pitch in..

Cheers!

Nikolai

Man, you're fast!
OTOH, you're like 3 hours ahead of me:-)
Cheers, partner!

Andy

1. shoot raw and don't worry about wb - leave it on auto on your 20d

2. yes, get a few 77mm filters... i have a 10-stop nd filter, it's great for daylight shots where you want to slow the shutter speed down, to get smooth waterfalls

3. yes, get a 77mm c-pl filter. get one with no front threads, a "slim" one.

4labs

andy wrote:

1. shoot raw and don't worry about wb - leave it on auto on your 20d

2. yes, get a few 77mm filters... i have a 10-stop nd filter, it's great for daylight shots where you want to slow the shutter speed down, to get smooth waterfalls

3. yes, get a 77mm c-pl filter. get one with no front threads, a "slim" one.

Andy any reason for a "slim" one besides the obvious? My 85mm lens has a hood that screw on to the filter and actually makes it quite easy to turn the filter.

Don't ya need the front threads to stack? I was blonde once..lol

Skippy

Brand Names ????

andy wrote:

1. shoot raw and don't worry about wb - leave it on auto on your 20d

2. yes, get a few 77mm filters... i have a 10-stop nd filter, it's great for daylight shots where you want to slow the shutter speed down, to get smooth waterfalls

3. yes, get a 77mm c-pl filter. get one with no front threads, a "slim" one.

Now next big question, is there a difference in quality in brand names??
Like ARROW, HOYA, etc ?????
Theres a big difference in prices, is this just because of BRAND Names, or is there clearly a difference in Quality ??? Skippy (Australia)