Grads... advice please!

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Noopz

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I'm off to Iceland in July for a landscape photography trip and am currently buying some gear for the trip. One thing I think I can't go without is some ND Grads.

However, there's so many options.

I'm currently thinking of getting the following, but the cost is proving to be bothersome:

- Lee Holder
- Lee WA 77mm adaptor ring
- Hitech soft grad set 100x 150
- Hitech hard grad set 100 x 150

However this looks like it's going to end up being around £230.

So, to cut costs down I was thinking of maybe buying filters selectively. If it helps, I already have a B&W ND110 for 10 stop madness.

My question is, are there any soft or hard grads that can cover most of what needs to be done?

Thanks
 
Hi

Its always tricky trying to cut costs by reducing kit. What if you decide against a particular strength or edge only to regret it afterward.

Maybe a mix of a 1 stopper hard with 2 stopper soft, you could stack them or you always have the option of applying a software grad in post processing.

If you consider the cost of the trip along with the likelihood of going back maybe buying the whole set(s) and sell them on afterward is a better all round option? Better to have them with you at that point in time than not?

Best wishes on the trip anyway....I bet it is amazing :thumbs:


Andy
 
ND2 and ND4 Soft will probably be the most versatile. I've never found hard grads to be useful.
 
It very much depends on your style of photography and where you plan on shooting. The most versatile would probably be a 2 stop soft but if your shooting near the coast then hard grads become more useful IMHO. If i was only getting 3 I'd get a 2 stop + 3 stop soft and a 3 stop hard.

The only issue I had with hitech filters was that on longer exposures of 1 second or more they tended to introduce a magenta colour cast, particularly when stacking filters.

I wrote a blog post on this which might be of interest http://davidfleetphotography.blogspot.com/2011/03/lee-filters.html
 
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Thanks peeps.

I've just picked up 2 and 3 stop hard and soft hi techs so thats 4 in total.

These are to be split between two people and having tried the hard grads I'm wondering whether 2 sets of 2/3stop softs would have been a better option.

One of the cameras is a 50d the other is. 5d2.

Seeing as they are specifically for landscape shooting in Iceland I'm sure they are all handy but I don't want to be in the position whereby both us of need the same filter at the same time.

Hmm.....
 
I'm thinking of getting the Lee DSLR starter kit, which comes with 1 2 stop hard grad and a 2 stop ND. As I mainly shoot landscapes with hills rather than seascapes I'm thinking of getting a soft grad too, probably 2 stop. Would this be a suitable set up for someone looking to start using filters?
 
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