Help choosing ND Filter

Hey all..

I'm going to do some outdoors photography with a flash to light the subject..

From what I gather I can get better sky clairty if I use an ND filter..

Now I don't want to spend the earth, but I want something that does perform well and won't tarnish the image..

I've trid looking, but there are so many out there to choose from I have no idea..


Can someone help?

It needs to be 67mm

Seems like you're getting a couple of different concepts mixed up here.

A polarizing filter will filter out some types of light, especially reflections. This can help you get a nice shot of an automobile with fewer distracting reflections in the paint, or a nice shot of water with reduced glare off the surface. It can also help you get a more interesting-looking, more saturated sky, since the light in the daytime sky is actually light that's reflected off of particles in the air (or the air itself).

A neutral density filter reduces ALL light. It simply makes everything darker. This allows you to maintain a relatively slow shutter speed that's required for flash synchronization, while still using a wide aperture for a relatively shallow depth-of-field. It doesn't affect the sky any differently than everything else in the scene.

If you want someone else to decide for you:
If you want a polarizer, get this one:
http://www.amazon.com …ords=b%2Bw+67mm​+polarizer

If you want a neutral-density, get this one; it will remove 3 stops of light (0.9 or 8x):
http://www.amazon.com …eywords=B%2BW+6​7mm+filter

Grad ND's you mean? Don't buy circular ones, it's a waste of time and money, get a filter holder with square filters that you can slide around and rotate. Read this article first: http://www.luminous-landscape.com …understanding-grads.shtml

Lee filters are undoubtably the best for this, but if you want to go cheaper... I'm not sure, Cokin maybe?

nathancarter wrote in post #15325717
Seems like you're getting a couple of different concepts mixed up here.

I'm not sure, when he said "sky clarity" and "ND", the first thing that pops to mind are grad ND filters, though a polarizer can help too, depending on the atmospherics and position of the sun.