Experimenting with ND filters, feedback needed

pkhona

All,

I am a hobbyist and started experimenting with some ND filters. I got 2 stop Lee GND soft filter. Used that to take some of pics off coastline. Let me know what you think and what can I do to improve on these in future. Camera I have is E520 from olympus and lens used was kit lens of 14-42 mm.

Also feel free to browse my gallery and critique it.

Thanks in advance for your time,


Regards,

Purvesh
http://pkhona.smugmug.com
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[IRG]http://pkhona.smugmug.com/Landscapes/LandScape-Picutres/Halfmoonbay-lee-filter-test-1/782549538_ePwzs-XL.jpg[/IMG]

DonRicklin

Aside from you ND experiments, you should take the time to straighten the horizon on most of these.

Don

RuiMLopes

I assume that you used the filter so its darker side was placed over the lower part of the pictures... actually, from what I see on 1st and 2nd pictures, your shutter speed was low enough to allow the "milky" effect on the foreground water, which would had lead to overexposure without the filter. However, it seems that it has also darkened the rocks. May be you should recover that on PS...
The upper side on the 1st. picture seems to have the right exposure, but would also benefit from some extra contrast.
I also agree that the horizon is tilted... Some sharpness would also be welcome....
I hope that you don´t mind... I did some adjustments and here is my approach:

SimpsonBrothers

Add a polorizer to that ND, and bracket.

pkhona

Thank you all for valuable feedback..

Yes - agreed horizon is not level could have straightened that out in PS.

Rui, this looks excellent. I used the dark side to cover entire lens (luckily have a good size filter) and that covered near foreground of rocks too.

I was thinking of polarize filter along with warming filter, in fact was in two minds to go either with singh-ray variable ND duo that has warm polarize filter bolted on top of ND filter or have multiple Lee's instead. I decided going lee filter route as it would give me more flexibility.

Do you think singh-ray will be worth it ?

astockwell

1st thing, like said, check your horizons, and make sure when composing with filters on, that you have enough light coming through for auto focus to work right. Sometimes I have to compose and focus with the filter off due to the lack of light sometimes in the morning or evening when I am shooting. That being said, the point of a ND grad is to control contrast in a shot, IE a dark foreground, and a bright sky. So don't slide the grad so far down into your holder. You didn't need to in this case by the looks of the sky. In this case you should almost have the bottom edge of the filter at the bottom edge of the lens if that makes sense. Then think how you want the water to come out...Misty or with some texture...1-3 seconds works for texture, and anything over basically 10 seconds works for the misty effect. So once you determine that, you stop down or up to achieve the shutter speed you want. I usually shoot in manual BTW, rarely in anything else. I want full control over the scene, and don't want the camera doing the work. So if you change your filter placement a bit, you are able to bring those shadows up a bit, and if you set shutter right, you won't blow the sky. Also, shoot in RAW!!!!. I can't emphasize this enough. You can pull way more recovery from a RAW, than you can with a JPEG. Also, you can control White Balance in post, so the warming effect of the polarizer (that Singh Ray is way over priced in my opinion) isn't needed. Just add a warm tone to the white balance later. Shoot in Auto, or as close to the WB you think is right. I almost never use a polarizer for my seascapes, I don't think it is needed. Waterfalls and such are a different story. Also look at doing a sensor cleaning, there is some dust in these shots. That third shot is really a good start, but what I mentioned about the AF is evident here. The foreground looks really out of focus. Check out my website, and feel free to ask me questions. I use grads everytime I am out, and don't believe in using HDR for my work. Most of my shots have what grad I was using when shot. As of late I have stopped putting all that up on my site, but my older stuff has what I was using along with EXIF in the remarks.

-Andy

Ladukebob

pkhona wrote:

Thank you all for valuable feedback..

Yes - agreed horizon is not level could have straightened that out in PS.

Rui, this looks excellent. I used the dark side to cover entire lens (luckily have a good size filter) and that covered near foreground of rocks too.

I was thinking of polarize filter along with warming filter, in fact was in two minds to go either with singh-ray variable ND duo that has warm polarize filter bolted on top of ND filter or have multiple Lee's instead. I decided going lee filter route as it would give me more flexibility.

Do you think singh-ray will be worth it ?
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I just purchased the Singh Ray Vari-ND Duo and have used it only one evening shooting a creek. While the Singh Ray is pretty spendy, it works really well. Once I have the polarizer dialed where I want it I auto focus then adjust the ND where I want it. And because I was testing the limits I was shooting with it cranked all the way to the full stop and shutter speed of about 6 seconds and it worked great. Glad I bought it! I know I'll use it a lot while shooting water or anything else I can find that's in motion.

pkhona

astockwell wrote:

1st thing, like said, check your horizons, and make sure when composing with filters on, that you have enough light coming through for auto focus to work right. Sometimes I have to compose and focus with the filter off due to the lack of light sometimes in the morning or evening when I am shooting. That being said, the point of a ND grad is to control contrast in a shot, IE a dark foreground, and a bright sky. So don't slide the grad so far down into your holder. You didn't need to in this case by the looks of the sky. In this case you should almost have the bottom edge of the filter at the bottom edge of the lens if that makes sense. Then think how you want the water to come out...Misty or with some texture...1-3 seconds works for texture, and anything over basically 10 seconds works for the misty effect. So once you determine that, you stop down or up to achieve the shutter speed you want. I usually shoot in manual BTW, rarely in anything else. I want full control over the scene, and don't want the camera doing the work. So if you change your filter placement a bit, you are able to bring those shadows up a bit, and if you set shutter right, you won't blow the sky. Also, shoot in RAW!!!!. I can't emphasize this enough. You can pull way more recovery from a RAW, than you can with a JPEG. Also, you can control White Balance in post, so the warming effect of the polarizer (that Singh Ray is way over priced in my opinion) isn't needed. Just add a warm tone to the white balance later. Shoot in Auto, or as close to the WB you think is right. I almost never use a polarizer for my seascapes, I don't think it is needed. Waterfalls and such are a different story. Also look at doing a sensor cleaning, there is some dust in these shots. That third shot is really a good start, but what I mentioned about the AF is evident here. The foreground looks really out of focus. Check out my website, and feel free to ask me questions. I use grads everytime I am out, and don't believe in using HDR for my work. Most of my shots have what grad I was using when shot. As of late I have stopped putting all that up on my site, but my older stuff has what I was using along with EXIF in the remarks.

-Andy

Hi Andy,

Thanks a lot for explaining the picture in detail. First of all I saw your site and pictures are simply amazing.

Problem with these pictures that I faced was that sea was getting washed out even at high stops for 3 to 4 second exposure. Hence had to reduce the light from the fore ground too. What would be best approach in such cases ?

RuiMLopes

pkhona wrote:

Hi Andy,

Thanks a lot for explaining the picture in detail. First of all I saw your site and pictures are simply amazing.

Problem with these pictures that I faced was that sea was getting washed out even at high stops for 3 to 4 second exposure. Hence had to reduce the light from the fore ground too. What would be best approach in such cases ?

I am not a HDR lover. However, sometimes HDR is the only way to get everything well exposured. Merging 5 bracketed frames in an appropriate software, would (in general) had result.
The other way, since you own a ND (I assume graduated filter??) is to place the darker part over the part that you suspect that will turn out "washed out" (the water). However, in this case, you´d need (as I did) to recover shadows on the rocks (doing the appropriate pp). Sometimes the use of two graduated filters together may work but you may risk to get vignetting...
Anyway, with such exposure time (to get the "milky" look on the water) requires the use of a tripod and remote.

This is a recent one using a "moderate" HDR:


I hope this helps.

pkhona

RuiMLopes wrote:

I am not a HDR lover. However, sometimes HDR is the only way to get everything well exposured. Merging 5 bracketed frames in an appropriate software, would (in general) had result.
The other way, since you own a ND (I assume graduated filter??) is to place the darker part over the part that you suspect that will turn out "washed out" (the water). However, in this case, you´d need (as I did) to recover shadows on the rocks (doing the appropriate pp). Sometimes the use of two graduated filters together may work but you may risk to get vignetting...
Anyway, with such exposure time (to get the "milky" look on the water) requires the use of a tripod and remote.

This is a recent one using a "moderate" HDR:


I hope this helps.

Thanks Rui ...very apt suggestions. I will experiment more this weekend and post few more pics..

This picture is great..
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