The benefit of this option is you can set the demarcation line dividing the clear from the ND portion of the filter exactly where it will do you the most good for each image. With round filters, you can rotate the filter, but the demarcation line's always going to be dead center.
I use 4x6" rectangular filters made by Singh-Ray (I got that suggestion from seastack) and I have filter holder made by Lee (which doesn't always get used). If you like to shoot wide (I use a 17-40mm zoom on my 5D), screw in filters will vignette. With the 4x6 system, I can stack multiple filters with out worrying about vignetting.
I use 4x6" rectangular filters made by Singh-Ray (I got that suggestion from seastack) and I have filter holder made by Lee (which doesn't always get used). If you like to shoot wide (I use a 17-40mm zoom on my 5D), screw in filters will vignette. With the 4x6 system, I can stack multiple filters with out worrying about vignetting.
im looking into a Lee foundation kit, Lee adapter ring with a Lee "hard" .9 graduated neutral density filter. I think its a 4X6 system......
im looking into a Lee foundation kit, Lee adapter ring with a Lee "hard" .9 graduated neutral density filter. I think its a 4X6 system......
That is essentially what I have. The foundation kit is nice to work with but kinda big to carry around so when I am travelling light I leave it at home hand hand hold the filter.
That is essentially what I have. The foundation kit is nice to work with but kinda big to carry around so when I am travelling light I leave it at home hand hand hold the filter.
thanx for the "chat" and BTW maybe its the case that i havent responded to any your posts but your images llike Point Reyes Summer is such an excellent image! I cant tell you enough how much i like those kind of images!
thanx for the "chat" and BTW maybe its the case that i havent responded to any your posts but your images llike Point Reyes Summer is such an excellent image! I cant tell you enough how much i like those kind of images!
troy
Thanks! That's one of my favorites too. I still am in a bit of disbelief that I managed to come home with that image from that day. Everything else I took that was a complete disaster. I didn't use a grad for that shot as the light was so flat. I did, however, shoot it through a stack of a 0.9 and a 1.2 ND filters (both 4x4" glass made by Formatt) to get a longer shutter time. The total exposure time for that shot was around 20 seconds.
The benefit of this option is you can set the demarcation line dividing the clear from the ND portion of the filter exactly where it will do you the most good for each image. With round filters, you can rotate the filter, but the demarcation line's always going to be dead center.
Love the rectangular filters as Henry is recommending; I use Hi-Tech Another advantage is you can slide the filter down to cover the entire lens for longer exposure times in daylight, for instance. These have saved my a$# more than once.
Love the rectangular filters as Henry is recommending; I use Hi-Tech Another advantage is you can slide the filter down to cover the entire lens for longer exposure times in daylight, for instance. These have saved my a$# more than once.
Troy, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
I used a Singh-Ray Galen Rowell GND filter (3 stop hard) to get this image. 3 stop soft would have been better, but I only had a 2 stop soft. I wanted the extra stop.
I slid the filter down in the p-style cokin holder for wide angle, and used no other filter. I was able to turn my P-style holder at an angle and shift my ND "line" downward to angle it somewhere just above the treeline on this shot. With 3 stops, it's visually clear in the viewfinder what your doing. Otherwise, the green trees would have just appeared black as the sun controlled the exposure setting on aperture priority.
Troy, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
I used a Singh-Ray Galen Rowell GND filter (3 stop hard) to get this image. 3 stop soft would have been better, but I only had a 2 stop soft. I wanted the extra stop.
I slid the filter down in the p-style cokin holder for wide angle, and used no other filter. I was able to turn my P-style holder at an angle and shift my ND "line" downward to angle it somewhere just above the treeline on this shot. With 3 stops, it's visually clear in the viewfinder what your doing. Otherwise, the green trees would have just appeared black as the sun controlled the exposure setting on aperture priority.
wow,, thats what i like to see!
so let me ask u a question.... I bought a hard Lee GND, I didnt go with the soft only because I was "told" that when 1st learning how to use a GND, its better to use the hard type with the assist of the DOF button to gauge its placement. Now a friend of mine, in a clas im taking just posted this question -
"While driving through the mountains today, I began wondering how one uses a GND filter in a situation without an obvious straight line delineation between sky and earth. Since mountains tend not to provide a straight line between sky and mountains, but since they're often in a situation where you would like to expose for them so as not to lose detail in the shadows, but also to get the sky, do you just go ahead and use a GND filter, causing the peaks of the mountains to be impacted, or ???? Or is this one of those times to take an exposure for the sky and one for the mountains and combine them?
If it had been bright, if you were to use a GND, where would you put the line? Or is this where a soft instead of hard filter works better? "
wow,, thats what i like to see!
so let me ask u a question.... I bought a hard Lee GND, I didnt go with the soft only because I was "told" that when 1st learning how to use a GND, its better to use the hard type with the assist of the DOF button to gauge its placement. Now a friend of mine, in a clas im taking just posted this question -
"While driving through the mountains today, I began wondering how one uses a GND filter in a situation without an obvious straight line delineation between sky and earth. Since mountains tend not to provide a straight line between sky and mountains, but since they're often in a situation where you would like to expose for them so as not to lose detail in the shadows, but also to get the sky, do you just go ahead and use a GND filter, causing the peaks of the mountains to be impacted, or ???? Or is this one of those times to take an exposure for the sky and one for the mountains and combine them?
If it had been bright, if you were to use a GND, where would you put the line? Or is this where a soft instead of hard filter works better? "
how would u answer this question?
troy
Hey Troy, let's see, the higher the stop value (3,4,5), the more obvious the line is going to be of course. a 1 stop, barely visible, a 2, somewhat visible, a 3, definitely visible, typically through your viewfinder.
Use the tools you have, your eyes. Watch the viewfinder carefully as you slide the filter up or down, as required, then rotate left to right if necessary to achieve desired cut point.
I'm relatively a newbie to this myself Troy. I bought the two Galen Rowell filters a bit ago, but hadn't had ideal situations to try them yet. So, really, this was my first attempt with them. I was pleased with the effect!
It actually was brighter than my image indicates, that's the thing, I stopped the sun down some to even the exposure with forground. :-) If I had it to do over again, maybe 2 stop was the right filter, really, but I am learning.
As far as the straight line question, well, there are obvious circumstances where the straight line will not work. I was in one of those situations here. But was able to angle my filter to suite the shot mostly.
The other thing that can be done is you could "bracket" shoot, at 2 or 3 settings with a filter, and 2 or 3 settings without a filter. Then you could HDR, and combine images to get the WOW factor, stacking images in photoshop, and cutting away the harsh sky for example in an image without a filter, and use the mountains from that image, and combin with an exposure setting image that has a good sky. In effect, you can accomplish most of what you can do with GND filters with bracket exposures and selective editing. But that requires a lot of time and effort, and skill. Above, all I did to my shot, was sharpen a bit, adjust highlights and overall image characteristics, and it was ready.
Let me know if other questions, I'll be glad to try to help. But like me, you will just have to get out and experiment, and learn the hard way in the end. :-)
Troy, the ability to raise and lower the Graduated ND as you look through the viewfinder is the reason that the rectangular filters in the Cokin P mount or the Lee holder is so superior to the round screw in filters where you have no say.
It is almost impossible to see the demarcation line as you look through the viewfinder unless you move it up and down real time - then you can see the demarcation and place it where you want it.
Andy used to have a frame of me holding a graduated ND in my left hand in front of my lens as I looked through the viewfinder. I rarely use a filter holder for rectangular filters unless the shutter speed is less than 1/60th second or so. I just free hand them, works like a charm.
If you exposure is going to be longer than 1/60th I would suggest mounting them in an appropriate filter holder like the Cokin P.
I like the Galen Rowell 3 stop GND as well. Good choice and excellent demonstration in the lovely image.
If you exposure is going to be longer than 1/60th I would suggest mounting them in an appropriate filter holder like the Cokin P.
I prefer the holder, but don't always carry mine with me. This was shot with the Galen Rowell 2 stop soft hand held at 1/15s:
I really would have preferred a 3 stop soft, but 2 stop is what I have and I didn't think the 3 stop hard would work for this shot. I did bracket the shot as well so I may yet go back and pick up the foreground from a different exposure.
Comments
I'm not using them yet, but I have one on backorder.
I think for landscapes with a bright sky, it's the ticket.
Basking in the shadows of yesterday's triumphs'.
You're better off buying rectangular filters and using the Cokin system to attach them to your camera. Cokin makes grad-grey filters which are decent, but some folks prefer glass. Tiffen, Hi-Tech & Singh-Ray all make filters in Cokin's popular "P" size.
The benefit of this option is you can set the demarcation line dividing the clear from the ND portion of the filter exactly where it will do you the most good for each image. With round filters, you can rotate the filter, but the demarcation line's always going to be dead center.
B&H Photo-Video
im looking into a Lee foundation kit, Lee adapter ring with a Lee "hard" .9 graduated neutral density filter. I think its a 4X6 system......
That is essentially what I have. The foundation kit is nice to work with but kinda big to carry around so when I am travelling light I leave it at home hand hand hold the filter.
thanx for the "chat" and BTW maybe its the case that i havent responded to any your posts but your images llike Point Reyes Summer is such an excellent image! I cant tell you enough how much i like those kind of images!
troy
Thanks! That's one of my favorites too. I still am in a bit of disbelief that I managed to come home with that image from that day. Everything else I took that was a complete disaster. I didn't use a grad for that shot as the light was so flat. I did, however, shoot it through a stack of a 0.9 and a 1.2 ND filters (both 4x4" glass made by Formatt) to get a longer shutter time. The total exposure time for that shot was around 20 seconds.
Love the rectangular filters as Henry is recommending; I use Hi-Tech Another advantage is you can slide the filter down to cover the entire lens for longer exposure times in daylight, for instance. These have saved my a$# more than once.
Website
Troy, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
I used a Singh-Ray Galen Rowell GND filter (3 stop hard) to get this image. 3 stop soft would have been better, but I only had a 2 stop soft. I wanted the extra stop.
I slid the filter down in the p-style cokin holder for wide angle, and used no other filter. I was able to turn my P-style holder at an angle and shift my ND "line" downward to angle it somewhere just above the treeline on this shot. With 3 stops, it's visually clear in the viewfinder what your doing. Otherwise, the green trees would have just appeared black as the sun controlled the exposure setting on aperture priority.
so let me ask u a question.... I bought a hard Lee GND, I didnt go with the soft only because I was "told" that when 1st learning how to use a GND, its better to use the hard type with the assist of the DOF button to gauge its placement. Now a friend of mine, in a clas im taking just posted this question -
"While driving through the mountains today, I began wondering how one uses a GND filter in a situation without an obvious straight line delineation between sky and earth. Since mountains tend not to provide a straight line between sky and mountains, but since they're often in a situation where you would like to expose for them so as not to lose detail in the shadows, but also to get the sky, do you just go ahead and use a GND filter, causing the peaks of the mountains to be impacted, or ???? Or is this one of those times to take an exposure for the sky and one for the mountains and combine them?
If it had been bright, if you were to use a GND, where would you put the line? Or is this where a soft instead of hard filter works better? "
how would u answer this question?
troy
Hey Troy, let's see, the higher the stop value (3,4,5), the more obvious the line is going to be of course. a 1 stop, barely visible, a 2, somewhat visible, a 3, definitely visible, typically through your viewfinder.
Use the tools you have, your eyes. Watch the viewfinder carefully as you slide the filter up or down, as required, then rotate left to right if necessary to achieve desired cut point.
I'm relatively a newbie to this myself Troy. I bought the two Galen Rowell filters a bit ago, but hadn't had ideal situations to try them yet. So, really, this was my first attempt with them. I was pleased with the effect!
It actually was brighter than my image indicates, that's the thing, I stopped the sun down some to even the exposure with forground. :-) If I had it to do over again, maybe 2 stop was the right filter, really, but I am learning.
As far as the straight line question, well, there are obvious circumstances where the straight line will not work. I was in one of those situations here. But was able to angle my filter to suite the shot mostly.
The other thing that can be done is you could "bracket" shoot, at 2 or 3 settings with a filter, and 2 or 3 settings without a filter. Then you could HDR, and combine images to get the WOW factor, stacking images in photoshop, and cutting away the harsh sky for example in an image without a filter, and use the mountains from that image, and combin with an exposure setting image that has a good sky. In effect, you can accomplish most of what you can do with GND filters with bracket exposures and selective editing. But that requires a lot of time and effort, and skill. Above, all I did to my shot, was sharpen a bit, adjust highlights and overall image characteristics, and it was ready.
Let me know if other questions, I'll be glad to try to help. But like me, you will just have to get out and experiment, and learn the hard way in the end. :-)
Glad my image helped to drive home the point.
Doug
It is almost impossible to see the demarcation line as you look through the viewfinder unless you move it up and down real time - then you can see the demarcation and place it where you want it.
Andy used to have a frame of me holding a graduated ND in my left hand in front of my lens as I looked through the viewfinder. I rarely use a filter holder for rectangular filters unless the shutter speed is less than 1/60th second or so. I just free hand them, works like a charm.
If you exposure is going to be longer than 1/60th I would suggest mounting them in an appropriate filter holder like the Cokin P.
I like the Galen Rowell 3 stop GND as well. Good choice and excellent demonstration in the lovely image.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
I prefer the holder, but don't always carry mine with me. This was shot with the Galen Rowell 2 stop soft hand held at 1/15s:
I really would have preferred a 3 stop soft, but 2 stop is what I have and I didn't think the 3 stop hard would work for this shot. I did bracket the shot as well so I may yet go back and pick up the foreground from a different exposure.