ND Grad first attempts

[miniman]

Not the best start to the trip, leaving the tripod at home

Anyway, tried a few shots with an ND4 Grad filter. Not really sure how I should have gone about it, but took an exposure reading without the filter, then locked it in with M mode and then slotted the filter in.

C&C welcomed as ever!










Bigger versions here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/binaryimage/sets/7215...

[RobDickinson]

Nice!

I've only a 1 or 2 stop NDgrad for now, will have to get more thats not usualy strong enough.

What I do is meete for the scene with the filter in place - & work from there.

Also a tip use the DoF preview button so you can see where the graduated line is coming in at eaiser.

[miniman]

RobDickinson said:

What I do is meete for the scene with the filter in place - & work from there.

Can you expand on "work from there"?? Presume you have to go +1ev or so to make sure the bottom is exposed properly? What metering mode are you using?

[horacethefrog]

I think Rob means that he just takes a normal reading with the filter adjusted how he wants it. After all the object is to remove the difference in brightness between the sky and the land so it follows that, with the filter in place and adjusted, you can just let the camera do its stuff and work it out for itself.

[Goldeeno]

Cool shots i like them, some of them a little dark, but the ones with the sunlight, hace come out nice. Last is cool!

[cliff123]

Personally I set my camera up with the filter in. It's easier if your working on a tripod as you can look through the view finder as you slide it down in the grip getting it in the right position. Generally the idea of the ND or NG filter is to blend light and dark areas into one evenly, correctly exposed areas. Hence, you need to expose correctly for when the filter is in place, not before you put it in. Of course there are exceptions, but this way should ensure that your photos aren't underexposed and dark. (hopefully). good luck, i personally love using NG filters, ads so much to an image.

[GetCarter]

cliff123 said:

Personally I set my camera up with the filter in.

Me too. I'd say 75% of these were taken with ND grads, all metered with the filter in place: http://www.stevecarter.com/2005/2005-0.htm

[miniman]

cliff123 said:

Generally the idea of the ND or NG filter is to blend light and dark areas into one evenly, correctly exposed areas. Hence, you need to expose correctly for when the filter is in place, not before you put it in. Of course there are exceptions, but this way should ensure that your photos aren't underexposed and dark. (hopefully). good luck, i personally love using NG filters, ads so much to an image.

Ah, yes, I probably should have mentioned that the effect I had in mind was more of an attempt to darken the top half rather than to get it all exposed correctly - the "Top Gear effect", if you will. As per my entry in the "top tips" thread, the intention was to do all this from the tripod which, cleverly, I left at home.

[GetCarter]

That can easilly be done in PS or PSP by adding a layer of black grad to clear (which is how they do it in Top Gear - never on the shoot, always post production)

[miniman]

GetCarter said:

That can easilly be done in PS or PSP by adding a layer of black grad to clear (which is how they do it in Top Gear - never on the shoot, always post production)

Yep, I can certainly do it in PS (and probably get better results than I did with the filters on this occasion ) but I was keen to get it right in-camera because although I believe that PS is a skill in its own right and a perfectly valid way of getting the shot perfect, I still really like the feeling of just small tweaks in PS to what is already close to the image one is looking for .