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rookies

rookies

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Andrew
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what strength filters is good to have in NDGrad and ND. I want to get a couple to start with for landscape and water falls.
 
Hi, rookies,
I think it all depends how much light you want to shut out. For example, if it's a bright day and you want to use a slow shutter speed (to blur a waterfall, perhaps) you'll want a darker filter.
Andy.
 
For waterfalls you should obtain long shutter speed, so it will be precise a 2 or 3 stops ND. In order to obtain the correct exposure for a bright sky in a landscape I'd buy a ND grad set of 1, 2 and 3 stops. At the moment I owe a 1 and 3 stops...I use 1 stop ND grad in daylight for a better sky and clouds correctly exposed. The 3 stop ND grad is the one for sunset situations or high contrast daylight scenery.
 
But what I am looking at filters that dont even have stop numbers on them do they???

What ND be best for water then as i dont want to buy alot of filters would a 2 stop be good enough or would it be best getting a 3 stop?
 
unfortunately there no such thing a General purpose ND filter.....the filter you need will depend on the effect your after and the light your shooting in
 
I find I have to use both ND8 and ND4 stacked with aperture quite closed when shooting in bright midday if I want an exposure of 15+ second at ISO 100.

Or at least I'm pretty sure.
 
i am gonig to get a few cokin filters to try out tomorrow, I will probably get 2x grads and 2x ND filters
 
I have already got cokin filters and am thinking of getting rid of them and get something better
 
Rookies, in terms of ND filters I use a combination of Cokin 'P' and screw-in HOYA ones. For simply cutting down the light (to give me a longer exposures on waterfalls etc) I have ND4 and ND8 screw-in HOYA ones that are about £28 each.

I then combine these with Cokin P ND2 and ND4 graduated filters for balancing the sky to the foreground.

On my 18-70mm NAF lens there's no vignetting with one of the HOYA filters and the Cokin holder attached. You get the slightest vignetting with both the screw-in filters attached for cutting back the light loads - I can live with that by a slight zoom-in or a post-production crop in Photoshop.

The LEE filters seem to the the 'professional' choice but I can't justify the cost, especially when the Cokins and HOYAs seem to give me perfectly good results.
 
Rookies, ND filters, whether grads or full, have their strength marked on them as the grade, rather than as an f-stop.....ND4 is 2 stops. Lee mark their's as 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 etc - they work in EVs.
 
Lensflare said:
Lee mark their's as 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 etc - they work in EVs.
Click to expand...
The 0.3,0.6 and 0.9 are actually log density units, which are used in sensitometry for things like defining characteristic curves of film.

0.3 log density units is equivalent to 1 fstop
0.6 is 2 stops
0.9 is 3 f stops etc.
 
rookies said:
But what I am looking at filters that dont even have stop numbers on them do they???

What ND be best for water then as i dont want to buy alot of filters would a 2 stop be good enough or would it be best getting a 3 stop?
Click to expand...

A 0.6 nd=2stops, a 0.9 is 3 stops if that helps.
And use small f stop and slow ISO, and a nice long shutter speed!!


George

Sorry, kiasdad, didn't see your post for some reason!!
 
If you were to stack 2 polarisers, then turn the outermost one, you would have a variable ND filter, ranging from 2 stops through to almost IR. This does actually work better with Linear POL, but would need to manual focus.
Dean:)
 
what was wrong with the cokin ones that you are replacing oiut of interest.
 
I find them not to behave as well as a friend Lee Filters. But that are still good dont get me wrong they are very good for beginners etc. I have been into landscape Photography for over 2 years now and could be the time to move forward???
 
When photographing waterfalls a polariser cuts out reflections from shiny rocks, etc, making a better picture all round. It also cuts exposure by about 2 stops. You will probably also need a small aperture (eg f16) to make sure everything is in focus.

I've never had to use an ND filter for silky water effects.
 
So for these nice silky water effect you never used ND hmmm never manage to do one without a ND as the shutter always been too fast
 
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