Moveable graduated ND filters ?

[iwatkins]

Hi All,

I've used ND filters for many years, mainly to give me longer exposures in bright light for (mainly) skyscape/landscape shots.

However, I've always had to take several bracketed shots and then combine them to get a well exposed sky and well exposed ground (obviously much easy in the digital domain).

Now I have heard of graduated ND filters that run from clear at the bottom to ND2/4 etc. further up. I had considered these but it doesn't really give you scope to have a very small part of the ground in frame and lots of sky, or lots of ground and a little sky, and everywhere in between.

What I am after is a filter kit/system that can give me clear to ND (various grades) in a filter that can slide up and down to match my proportions of land and sky in the frame.

I'm sure I've heard about these but had little joy finding them.

Anybody have any pointers or weblinks I can check out ?

Thanks in advance.

Ian.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

How about these systems:

http://www.leefilters.com/home.asp
http://www.cokin.com/

And you can get Singh Ray filters for either system:

http://www.singh-ray.com/grndgrads.html

Regards,

[iwatkins]

Thanks Roger,

Managed to find the Cokin system locally and have just purchased the kit and two graduated NDs for it.

Initial impressions are very good. I've just taken a couple of shots out of the window and it gives the exact effect I was after without any need to resort to PhotoShop :) I'll have a further play this evening at sunset and see what I can do.

Cheers

Ian

[martcol]

This is interesting and is something I've thought about. I find it really difficult (impossible) to get good exposure with especially landscapes. I'm fed up with cutting and pasting skys and although I don't mind doing it, would like sometimes to have a true photograph! I hope that last statement doesn't upset anyone, I just couldn't think of anything to say. I you wanna discuss truth, true photograph etc could you start another thread..... 8)

How tricky are these filters to use? What happens if you don't have a straight horizon say, with a building sticking up in the middle? I am a bit fed up with the amoutn of kit I'm building up (no L lenses yet though!)

Martin

[iwatkins]

Martin,

Well, I've been using mine for the past couple of days with good results. Simply a case of fitting the kit on the front of your lens and sliding in each filter as needed. The filter holder rotates and the filter slides up and down in the holder so you can get different coverage.

Yes, if you have a non straight horizon you may darken a building sticking up and then you have to do some brightening of the building in you graphics package afterwards. Even so, it cuts down my post processing time dramatically as I'm not having to adjust all of the visible ground or visible sky. Or use the filters but slide it out of the way for a second shot so you have a well exposed buildign you can simply paste.

I understand what you mean by a "true" photograph. I don't see it that way, I see it as I'm trying to get my photographs as close to what my eyes could actually see and you and I both know that with landscapes the camera doesn't often get close, so any help you can give it at capture time will aid you post processing work.

Cheers

Ian