Cokin Z Pro ND grad kit experiences

[NRandall]

My first set of ND Grads , the Cokin Z-Pro three filter kit, arrived today with the holder. The filters are designated 121 L M and S.

Are there any tips from others on the use of these, such as things to look out for?

I am aware of the colour cast issue for example and am wondering if this is correctable?

I will have a play with these for a while and think about adding to these incrementally.

[ricktas]

I have this kit and use it quite a bit. I would say the colour cast issue is caused by an issue with the way the camera determines the white balance for the scene, I have only ever had it happen once, in dappled light at a waterfall. Others experience it at sunrise/sunset when the light spectrum can obviously challenge the camera's white balance calculations. As long as you shoot RAW it is usually quite correctable in post processing.

All I can say in the way of tips is practice and learn. The more you use them the more you will learn how to use them more effectively and which one(s) to use in any situation.

Enjoy!

[NRandall]

Thank you Rick. I often will go into white balance and change settings by selecting different colour temps as the conditions change, especial towards sunset and evening.
It will be interesting to see how these filters influence my choices, given their effect over part of the full frame.
My new Nikon 16-35 arrives in a few days so I look forward to the first outing.

[arthurking83]

I found that where you notice this colour cast(almost certainly in the red channel) will be due to stacking the filters.

This isn't to say that there isn't a colour cast when only using a single filter .. it's just less noticeable.

One thing I found over some time with Cokins .. if you ever find some images heavily magenta cast(like I said heavily stacked filtration and you can clearly see this on the review screen) my two options to counter this were:

1. I used a blue grad filter to balance the effect in addition to the stacked filters

or

2. lightly use a warming grad(I had a tobacco filter) to balance the tendency for a cooler WB value on the opposing area to the graduation.

both my balancing filters were ultra cheap brands off ebay($10 delivered for both) and purchased on both a hunch(that they could help) and for a bit of fun, for effect.

Many moons ago, I did a weird timewasting bored to bits experiment on how using a blue(for cooling) and a warming(tobacco) grad could help to 'balance' uneven WB anomalies.
If you search for it, it probably doesn't have the images linked any longer so the extremely long text will not make sense any longer.

But the results were promising in that, when you have a mixed WB requirement ... eg using grads that cast colour over an image using coloured grads to balance things out worked quite well.


.. I'll see if I can find the old thread and replace the images(one day soon).

[NRandall]

I found that where you notice this colour cast(almost certainly in the red channel) will be due to stacking the filters.

This isn't to say that there isn't a colour cast when only using a single filter .. it's just less noticeable.

One thing I found over some time with Cokins .. if you ever find some images heavily magenta cast(like I said heavily stacked filtration and you can clearly see this on the review screen) my two options to counter this were:

1. I used a blue grad filter to balance the effect in addition to the stacked filters

or

2. lightly use a warming grad(I had a tobacco filter) to balance the tendency for a cooler WB value on the opposing area to the graduation.

both my balancing filters were ultra cheap brands off ebay($10 delivered for both) and purchased on both a hunch(that they could help) and for a bit of fun, for effect.

Many moons ago, I did a weird timewasting bored to bits experiment on how using a blue(for cooling) and a warming(tobacco) grad could help to 'balance' uneven WB anomalies.
If you search for it, it probably doesn't have the images linked any longer so the extremely long text will not make sense any longer.

But the results were promising in that, when you have a mixed WB requirement ... eg using grads that cast colour over an image using coloured grads to balance things out worked quite well.


.. I'll see if I can find the old thread and replace the images(one day soon).

I would be really interested in seeing these.
Thanks again

[arthurking83]

HERE's my thread from about 3 years ago.

I'll go back through that post and try to upload images to make the considerably long text actually make some sense.
(the images were on the old image library which got nuked with a site upgrade a long time ago .. so I have to try to remember which image goes where too).

considering the cheapness of these cheapy coloured grads, they worked remarkably well.

FWIW: the only reason I don't use them any more is that I had to upgrade to larger filters from Cokin P series to Lee's 100mm sized filters.

[NRandall]

HERE's my thread from about 3 years ago.

I'll go back through that post and try to upload images to make the considerably long text actually make some sense.
(the images were on the old image library which got nuked with a site upgrade a long time ago .. so I have to try to remember which image goes where too).

considering the cheapness of these cheapy coloured grads, they worked remarkably well.

FWIW: the only reason I don't use them any more is that I had to upgrade to larger filters from Cokin P series to Lee's 100mm sized filters.

Thank you! I had to read your old post twice through but it makes perfect sense [I started my adult life as a LD in Opera and modern dance] so some of the things I learned have filtered back in. Its all about the light!