ND Graduation Filters

[Geoff Port]

Could some kind soul point me in the direction of an explaination of Graduation filters please? Have done some searching with limited results.

[ameerat42]

GRRRR! I'm usually pretty grufffff, but I tried "Graduated ND" in Google and got places straight away.
Then I tried just "Graduated" in the AP Advanced Help and got a few references.

In neither case did I look further into them.

Maybe because I'm so - well, as I said above.
Am. (Really Grufffff!)

[arthurking83]

Here's one thread already...

filters help

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GRRRR! I'm usually pretty grufffff, but

......

Maybe because I'm so - well, as I said above.
Am. (Really Grufffff!)

Nup! I reckon you're just gruff!

either that or you're gett'n ready early for Pirate Day or sm'thn like that .. me hearrrrty!

[outstar79]

Here's where I got mine:
http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod2623.htm

[William]

They work like sunnies fitted to the , Usually top half or top third of your lens when doing Landscapes , Really helpful if doing Sunrises or Sunsets , In fact a must if you want some FG detail , They balance out the exposure evenly over the whole image , Make sure you get the Adjustable ones that slide up and down in a holder , Not the round screw on ones , There is Cokin, Lee, Singh-Ray, Hi-Tech and others , They come in different shades of filtering , Some even have the dark bit in the middle especially for Sunrise (Reverse Grad) , Hope that helps

[Geoff Port]

Hmmm, not sure what the GRRRR and gruff speak means. Maybe I've upset you ameerat. If so I apologise. I did try an AP search and found hits but they were of no help. Should have looked in Google first I suppose but didn't think of it.

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Thanks William. Spot on.

[outstar79]

Hmmm, not sure what the GRRRR and gruff speak means. Maybe I've upset you ameerat. If so I apologise. I did try an AP search and found hits but they were of no help. Should have looked in Google first I suppose but didn't think of it.

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Thanks William. Spot on.

You'll get used to Am and his "Grrrrreat humour"

[ameerat42]

Could some kind soul point me in the direction of an explaination of Graduation filters please? Have done some searching with limited results.

(Geoff, I could not possibly fit into such a kind category, even by default.)

Nup! I reckon you're just gruff!

either that or you're gett'n ready early for Pirate Day or sm'thn like that .. me hearrrrty!

(Some good ideas.)

Hmmm, not sure what the GRRRR and gruff speak means. Maybe I've upset you ameerat. If so I apologise. I did try an AP search and found hits but they were of no help. Should have looked in Google first I suppose but didn't think of it.

Geoff, you did nothing at all.

You'll get used to Am...

(That's about it.)

Am. (trying to be a kind soul - better make that "sole").

BTW, thanks for those threads, too guys.

[Sifor]

Personally I've noticed quite a bit of magenta colour cast when stacking 2 Cokin Grad NDs (although that can be dealt with in PP).

The Singh Ray reverse GND is looking mighty fine.. although at $120 + 60 shipping I couldn't justify that for a filter..

[welly]

Could some kind soul point me in the direction of an explaination of Graduation filters please? Have done some searching with limited results.

The top half of the filter is more opaque than the bottom half. There are two main types of graduated filter - hard and soft graduated. The hard graduated has a pretty quick transition between the transparent and less transparent sections, the soft graduated has a longer transition. The hard graduated filters are better for scenes such as beaches or where you can see a clear horizon, the soft grads are better for scenes such as mountains.

You can also get different levels of graduated ND filters - 1, 2 and 3 stops (generally) - the lower the stops, the more light is let through. So if your scene has a stronger contrast between the foreground and background then you'd want to use a 3 stop filter, for example. If there's just a light contrast difference, then a 1 or 2 stop might be suitable. Basically you need to meter this to find out which stop filter you need to use.

Cheaper filters such as Cokin are not true ND (neutral density) and are just painted grey. This has the result of adding purple/magenta cast to your image. Hitech filters are more expensive than Cokin, still has that purple cast but not as bad as Cokin. Lee and Singh-Ray tend to be very neutral and if you have the money, are the ones to go for. I guess you can get away with the cheaper ones and polish up afterwards in post but "you buy cheap, you buy twice" is the mantra I go by!

I started with Hitech which were great when I was first getting into landscape photography as I didn't want to commit to paying big money for my gear but now shoot with Lee filters. The filters are amazing and the whole system is great. I can stack two or three filters (or more) without any concern plus stick my massive 105mm polarising filter on the front and not have to spend the rest of the evening in photoshop cleaning up the image!

[Mark L]

Try this Saint Grrrrreoffffff. .....http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...ty-filters.htm

You'll get used to Am and his "Grrrrreat humour"

Ah, it's humour. I hope you're sure.
Ma.

[Geoff Port]

Thank you all for this very useful info (and Ameerat I think it's just Grrrrrrrrouse!)