Metering for landscape using ND filters

[Frosty11]

As my learning experience hits a new curve I'm now faced with light metering for those amazing landscape shots. I've learnt the use of a polariser, ND and ND grads, but I'm new to metering in manual.

As I understand it I take a reading from the sky / bright area and take a note of the exposure. I do the same, but this time the foreground / dark area. Again I take a note of the exposure. Now here's where my mind losses it a bit.

I've read that I should use the appropriate filter to within 1 stop of the final reading, but what do I do if the reading is say 7 stops above the lowest exposure reading? Do I bring it down using -EV by as much as possible or do I use something like the Big Stopper? Also if it is within 1 stop is it 1 stop above or 1 stop below i.e if the sky is 3 stops brighter than the ground, should I add a 0.6 ND (2 stop) grad filter or two 0.6ND (4 stop)?

Hope I haven't confused you

 

[Marksman]

Depends on the type of shot you're after....

I never bother with the maths tbh, stick the filters in, take a meter reading for the foreground and adjust as necessary then check the histogram...

Darryl

 

[AJQS]

Depemds entirel where you are metering - north sky spot metered shuld give you a good mid point. If the forground is then too dark, add a grad and add however many stops the grad is onto the exposure.

I used to find that ND8 soft grad fitted, spot metering and EC set to -1 1/3 to - 1 2/3 (Aperture priority) was a good jack of all trades point for my landscapes (metering through the filters). It would be dark but not so dark that it can't be worked on in PP and kept the highlights in.

 

[Frosty11]

Depends on the type of shot you're after....

I never bother with the maths tbh, stick the filters in, take a meter reading for the foreground and adjust as necessary then check the histogram...

Darryl

Haven't even learnt about the histogram yet.....but it's on the list.

 

[Marksman]

Haven't even learnt about the histogram yet.....but it's on the list.

One of the first things you should be learning mate, tells you where the light/dark spots are in the photo and the amount of detial it holds

Darryl

 

[Frosty11]

One of the first things you should be learning mate, tells you where the light/dark spots are in the photo and the amount of detial it holds

Darryl

Done! Surprisingly it made perfect sense and wasn't hard to understand at all. I think from now on my LCD display will show the histogram in every shot.

 

[Marksman]

Done! Surprisingly it made perfect sense and wasn't hard to understand at all. I think from now on my LCD display will show the histogram in every shot.

Darryl

 

[HoppyUK]

Now you've got the hang of the histogram, switch on blinkies (highlight alert) and understand what they're telling you. Brilliant aid

To be clear, you mean an ND Grad, not an ND. I don't know why people fuss over metering with these things - basically stick it on, set the height of the grad line and take a shot as normal. Then adjust to taste. It's no different to shooting a landscape without a filter and a dark moody sky. You only need to fiddle around with the meter shooting film, when you need all the help you can get, but you have an LCD/histogram/blinkies to tell you exactly what's what.

If the balance isn't right, you need either a lighter or darker grad (if you have a choice), or a harder/softer cut, or need to adjust the height, or rotate it a bit. Just use your eyes and experience. Either way, setting the overall exposure is the easy part - not that any of it is difficult.

Edit: note that the hardness of the grad line changes with focal length - wider angle gives harder cut, and vice versa. Grads have almost zero effect on longer lenses.

 

[Frosty11]

For now it will only be ND grads, but when more money comes my way I'll build the collection and go for some ND. Because it's only landscapes I'm in to I'll be using a wide angle lens, so no issues really.

Again I've learnt more when you said 'blinkies'. I don't have my camera with me at the mo, but as I understand it when it is enabled it will show the overexposed highlights and shadows giving me the chance to correct the exposure. Is this correct?

I've tried playing with this option in PP (Photoshop) and it's a great aid.

 

[HoppyUK]

For now it will only be ND grads, but when more money comes my way I'll build the collection and go for some ND. Because it's only landscapes I'm in to I'll be using a wide angle lens, so no issues really.

Again I've learnt more when you said 'blinkies'. I don't have my camera with me at the mo, but as I understand it when it is enabled it will show the overexposed highlights and shadows giving me the chance to correct the exposure. Is this correct?

I've tried playing with this option in PP (Photoshop) and it's a great aid.

Yes. Blinkies flash black/white on highlight areas that are over exposed and blown, or are just on the brink of blowing.

They are invaluable because the one thing you can't rescue is blown highlights and as they tell you exactly which parts of the image are affected, they give you an absolute fix on that and allow you to make very accurate decisions.

If you want to be cute about it, be aware that blinkies are generated off the JPEG (even if you're shooting Raw) as is the histogram, and the point at which they flash is affected by the image presets - contrast, saturation etc. If you're post processing, turn the contrast down to get the closest match to what is actually blown on the Raw.

 

[Frosty11]

Great info, thanks, but I can't help but think that if I turn down exposure, ISO etc to help reduce the blown out areas won't I lose overall contrast in the image i.e. make it darker.

 

[Marksman]

Try and shoot on as low an ISO as possible to avoid noise issues
Certain adjustments can be made in camera via user presets then tweaked PP to the desired effect.

Darryl

 

[HoppyUK]

Great info, thanks, but I can't help but think that if I turn down exposure, ISO etc to help reduce the blown out areas won't I lose overall contrast in the image i.e. make it darker.

The idea with a grad if that you don't reduce the exposure, as you would normally have to do in order to retain sky detail. The grad does that for you, so you can maintain a good exposure level to put detail in the darker foreground, while retaining the sky at the same time.

Don't worry about adjusting the contrast level just yet. It's part of an advanced technique called Expose to the Right (of the histogram). You have to shoot Raw for this and post process accordingly, bearing in mind of course that changes to the in-camera presets are not recorded on the Raw file.