Anyone have a set of ND grads?

[Fordo]

Im planning to order a set for my company.

Im not sure what strengths to order- would anyone have some example photos, and the strength of ND grads youve used?

Thanks in advance

[stigmundfreud]

I use an ND4 and an ND8 for grads, it depends on the look you are after.

this is an example of an ND8


.

exposure was either from grass or from sky prior to adding the ND8

[Simpo Two]

All an ND does is make the image darker; you adjust the exposure parameters to suit.

[stigmundfreud]

yes but I think the benefit of a grad over a full is that if your sky is 2 stops lighter than your ground it brings a natural balance to things, isnt that what he was after?

[Simpo Two]

Oh sorry yes, didn't spot the 'grad' bit

(But unless I'm mistaken the vignetting is something you added on top for extra effect?)

To the OP - just buy the lot

[stigmundfreud]

nope no vignetting added thats the joys of wide open on ff

[paul911]

ND grad 08

[paul911]

stigmundfreud said:

exposure was either from grass or from sky prior to adding the ND8

I always add the filter then compose / click! Have I been doing it incorrectly? What’s the advantage of doing it the other way round?

[stigmundfreud]

tbh it depends on which system you use, I suppose if you use average it and the sky is brought close into balance with ground anyway it should all balance out.

[Andy M]

“If you can tell you’ve used a filter, then your use of it has failed.”

http://www.philmalpas.com/pages/artfilters3.asp

I use Lee 0.6 and 0.9 hard grads, but more often than not use the 0.6. Lee's grads are also a lot softer (even their 'hard' option) than other makes.

[Fordo]

Andy M said:

“If you can tell you’ve used a filter, then your use of it has failed.”

- i can always tell, but thats because being a camerman has ruined movies for me, and im always looking for lighting, filters, composition etc!

I know what you mean though, im not after them for a look, just to expose skys/ sunsets correctly on landscapes. Video cameras has such a limited contrast ratio- so easy to burn out a sky, and exposing for the sky then grading to bring up the foreground just gets noisey- HDV especially has a rubbish colour space, aggressive grading just brings up arttefacts and noise.

Im going technogeeky now, back to the thread!

Thanks for the pictures and info guys. Im thinking for buying formatt filters - ive used them before, and theyre made quite well:

They're stengths of ND are measuredly slightly differently:

http://www.formatt.co.uk/documentlibrary/Formatt-S...

which ones would you get? Im probably just going to get two filters to start with, probably soft edged, as for what we film, they'll only be use on wide landscapes

Edited by Fordo on Thursday 12th March 08:42

[Fordo]

Simpo Two said:

All an ND does is make the image darker; you adjust the exposure parameters to suit.

not quite- what if i want to expose darker, but keep the iris wide open to keep the dof shallow, and keep the exposure long, and i dont want to adjust the ISO? NDs are exposure control when you dont want to adjust anything else.


Ive got a set of solid NDs for this purpose. Its more useful in video, as increasing the shutter speed on a sunny day gives an unnatural judder to motion, and i dont want to close up the iris as i like a shallow dof sometimes to lift my subject of the background, and the built in ND filters on the cheaper end of vid cameras, just arent strong enough on a really sunny day. If i have no nd filters with me, i use 'poor mans ND', as some vid cameraman call it- upping the shutter speed. You loose natural motion blur though, and looks odd, unless your shooting a war movie or motorsport

When shooting film, they pretty much only use ND to control exposure (and the iso of the film stock). The iris is adjusted by the dop to achieve the dof he wants. I got told off by a dop for touching the iris on a film set- 'i said, but its under exposed'. he said 'yes, but your changing my look- change the ND for a weaker one, or get the lighting director to pump up the lights.' And he wouldnt increase the shutter angle either, because again, it would change his look.

ive had too much coffee this morning, apologies if im babbling.

thanks for the images again everyone, some nice photos there

Simpo Two said:

To the OP - just buy the lot

ive tried that with the boss, but i just got one of those 'looks'

Edited by Fordo on Thursday 12th March 08:48

[Fordo]

Andy M said:

“If you can tell you’ve used a filter, then your use of it has failed.”

http://www.philmalpas.com/pages/artfilters3.asp

I use Lee 0.6 and 0.9 hard grads, but more often than not use the 0.6. Lee's grads are also a lot softer (even their 'hard' option) than other makes.

cheers for that- if you find 0.6 most useful, that that'll probably be the first i'll order

[Simpo Two]

Fordo said:

Simpo Two said:

All an ND does is make the image darker; you adjust the exposure parameters to suit.

not quite- what if i want to expose darker, but keep the iris wide open to keep the dof shallow, and keep the exposure long, and i dont want to adjust the ISO? NDs are exposure control when you dont want to adjust anything else.

Interesting to see that you're coming from a videographer's POV!

Well, if you want to 'expose darker' without touching anything shutter speed, aperture or ISO, then you're right. But I like to think an exposure is either right or it isn't, and I can't think of any instances in stills photography where shutter speed, aperture and ISO all have to remain unchanged. But I'm open to enlightenment.

[_dobbo_]

ND8 Hard grad at about 90 degrees, even the had grad doesn't have to leave an obvious point at which it goes from grad to clear

[nick_bbb]

Simpo Two said:

Fordo said:

Simpo Two said:

All an ND does is make the image darker; you adjust the exposure parameters to suit.

not quite- what if i want to expose darker, but keep the iris wide open to keep the dof shallow, and keep the exposure long, and i dont want to adjust the ISO? NDs are exposure control when you dont want to adjust anything else.

Interesting to see that you're coming from a videographer's POV!

Well, if you want to 'expose darker' without touching anything shutter speed, aperture or ISO, then you're right. But I like to think an exposure is either right or it isn't, and I can't think of any instances in stills photography where shutter speed, aperture and ISO all have to remain unchanged. But I'm open to enlightenment.

I know some guys on here use them for rig shots to keep the exposure long enough. They might also want a fixed aperture and low noise ISO. Same deal for waterfalls.

[Fordo]

nick_bbb said:

Simpo Two said:

Fordo said:

Simpo Two said:

All an ND does is make the image darker; you adjust the exposure parameters to suit.

not quite- what if i want to expose darker, but keep the iris wide open to keep the dof shallow, and keep the exposure long, and i dont want to adjust the ISO? NDs are exposure control when you dont want to adjust anything else.

Interesting to see that you're coming from a videographer's POV!

Well, if you want to 'expose darker' without touching anything shutter speed, aperture or ISO, then you're right. But I like to think an exposure is either right or it isn't, and I can't think of any instances in stills photography where shutter speed, aperture and ISO all have to remain unchanged. But I'm open to enlightenment.

I know some guys on here use them for rig shots to keep the exposure long enough. They might also want a fixed aperture and low noise ISO. Same deal for waterfalls.

i've also used ND in stills for some light trail photos at night- i wanted extremely shallow dof, long long exposure to get the trails, and really low iso as I wanted no noise. the light sources we too bright with the aperture wide open, so used a weak nd to get exposure spot on.

NDs are very useful in video and film, but can also be a useful tool in photography- just depends what kind of stuff you do

[GetCarter]

I use them a lot... but generally not as an artistic statement, just to even out the light and keep clouds form 'blowing their highlights' (almost succeeding. Thus, nobody knows I've used them,

On my wallpaper page, 5 images were taken using ND grads, but only in one have I intentionally accentuated the effect (not with a filter but in PS).

http://www.stevecarter.com/freewallpaper.htm

To the OP: I use Lee 0.6 & 0.9

Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 12th March 13:35

[fergusd]

GetCarter said:

I use them a lot... but generally not as an artistic statement, just to even out the light and keep clouds form 'blowing their highlights' (almost succeeding. Thus, nobody knows I've used them

Same here, almost all the landscape images I have taken that I like use a 0.6 grad to keep the sky/clouds from blowing . . . makes finally sorting out the overall exposure much easier . . . if I want to darken the sky down afterwards I do that in lightroom . . . the grad tool in that is brilliant.



Grad to make sure the sunny mountains in the distance are not blown out, lightroom to make the sky dark because I wanted to . . .

Fd

[Fordo]

thanks again for all the responses everyone- really helped

i think im going to order a 0.6 and a 0.9, most probably both soft edged.