Lee Filters - Hard or Soft

[cliff123]

Lucky me, have just been given the Lee foundation and lens adaptor so now need to purchase some ND filters. Anyone got advice experience with the Lee ND filters, and the difference between the HARD and SOFT ND range. Which one to get? I'm thinking the soft, but advice welcomed.

[poah]

with a hard one you can see where the graduation stops, wiht a soft it tends to diffuse all the way to the bottom

[cliff123]

is the hard one only really suitable for sharp horizons and the soft for all other uses?

[GetCarter]

I use the .6 soft and .75 soft (I normally use the .75). The soft ones will work on all landscapes and if hills end up in the grad, you never notice.

Almost every one with sky on this page is using a .75 soft: www.stevecarter.com/picaday/page1.htm

edit to add 30th Nov and 15th Dec may well have benifitted from a hard!

Edited by GetCarter on Friday 5th January 11:11

[graham@edinburgh]

No mountains to try it out on as it's only just turned up and I'm back in Embra but for what it's worth, here are the results of the Scottish jur...err sorry, results with a 0.6 hard of my usual test view

All at f/11 1/100s ISO100

Also zoomed in a little - which makes it a little trickier to spot the grad cut off.

Filter out


Filter in place with cut off at boats


Filter all the way down


The filter itself





(ignore the dots - that's a reflection of the cabinet behind me)

Edited by graham@edinburgh on Friday 5th January 12:14