Multiple Exposure vs GND

I'm going on a little camping trip and torn between buying a GND or just doing multiple exposures.

1) If shooting multiple exposures...do you rule of thumb shoot -2,0,+2? Do you just guess by eye?

2) Whats the easiest way to combine exposures in post? I feel like this is a huge amount of editing work

3) If I buy a GND, should I get a .6? I'm mostly shooting sunrise and sunset, not so much midday. I do have a polarizer already, but need to do something to knock down the sky.

This may not be that helpful to you, but from what I've seen, a properly done GND shot is almost always more visually impressive than multiple exposures. If you've got the coin for a nice set of GND filters, I'd say go for that.

I prefer GND's but it depends on your style. Ideally, I would keep a 1,2 and 4 stop GND's in my bag. They just work so much better for me.

hughps wrote in post #5855877
This may not be that helpful to you, but from what I've seen, a properly done GND shot is almost always more visually impressive than multiple exposures. If you've got the coin for a nice set of GND filters, I'd say go for that.

I'd say the GND is great for certain scenes, but problamatic for others, such as objects (mountins, buildings, etc) that rise into the darkened sky -- you dont want the tops of these things to get darkened. Of course you can use PP to lighten them back up, though.

Sometimes, merging multiple exposures does make sense, or merging two "developed" copies of one RAW exposure...it takes some work, but really can be effective.

I can't afford more then 1 GND...thats my issue so if I were to only get one and try making due... would it be 1,2, 4???

I would go for a 1 stop to start with. You may find it too weak and may need to upgrade. 4 might be too strong to start with.

briancmo wrote in post #5855963
I can't afford more then 1 GND...thats my issue

Since money is tight, it sounds like HDR (multiple exposure) is the way to go. If you are only doing 3 I would go -3, 0 , 3 - but even better might be to do 4 or 5 exposures.

I would go two stop. i have 1 and 3 and I find that I can never get the effect im after with a 1 stop (unless they are almost identical exposures) and the 3 stop seems to make the sky a little too dark. This is before any post processing.

Since I got me filters I use them all the time, but sometimes I blend two exposures together. But I think the most useful filter would be 2 Stop (0.6 for Lee Filters). The results are more natural looking to me.

I've got a set of GNDs but seldom use them now TBH. I prefer to blend multiple exposures using HDR software, such as Photomatix. Its frowned upon by a lot of people, I know, who say you should get it right in camera, but it works for me. There are so many choices with the filters and I don't think having just one, will do the job. With sunrises/sets the exposure range will be considerable, and even a 3 stop grad may not be enough. In addition, you need to consider both soft and hard grads, depending on the horizon. If its level, then a hard grad is best, but if its irregular, then you really need the soft grads. This starts getting very expensive, and is a lot of extra kit to carry around. For many, well experienced in using these filters, its probably quite quick to decide which strength to use and to line up, but for me its not!
I use AEB and 2 stop variance. I shoot a test shot to check the exposure and adjust my bracket to ensure that at least one image has no burnt out areas. With sunsets however, you may need more than 3 exposures to get detail in the fg. Check the histogram for the shots and make sure that the full range has been captured by the bracket.

I prefer RAW & guestimate.

I use Layer Masks & do it by eye. If it's too much work, then don't do it?

Tough Exposure question

Using a Layer Mask to hide part of an image. Advantage is that the mask is reversible, where the effect of an eraser is not.
Need to remove a background from something?

If you use the HDR method, it is better not to just guess on the exposure bracketing. Use your camera's histogram on some test shots. You want your underexposed shot to be sufficiently underexposed to render what are normally highlights as normally exposed, but not so dark that your shot serves one to introduce noise into the exposure blending/HDR. On the flip side, your overexposed shot should render the shadows as normally exposed, but not so bright that the shot is entirely to the right. The easy way to do this is meter the shadows and highlights and set the bracketing for half the difference.

HDR only works well when you can line up the exposed shots almost perfectly. If you are shooting people, they have to be VERY still. For landscapes, you need little to no wind. If you don't have still conditions, using GND filters is the way to go. For the strength of GND, I'd start out with either a 2 or 3 stop soft edge filter. That would be the most versatile.

I would go for a 3-stop GND for sunrises and sunsets. It can be a bit strong if the sky isn't that bright (e.g. when the sun is well below the horizon) but in general it works really well. I use a 4-stop one sometimes as well when the sky is really bright. They can be too strong for normal daytime shots though (where a 1 or 2 stop one might be better).

If a GND isn't suitable (e.g. because the foreground and background have an uneven overlap), then I'll do multiple exposures (usually starting with -1, 0, +1, chimp, then do -2, 0, +2 if I need to). I don't use HDR software, I just blend the layers in Photoshop using layer masks.

My first option is always the GND though, as that gives great results to start with.

GND's are definitely the way to go. I find they always produce a much more natural looking image, with far greater tonality across the frame.

Personally, if I could only have only one GND it would be a 2 stop. I find it to be the most versatile, and usually that is all I ever need shooting at the most ideal times of the day (sunset, sunrise) the results are stunning.

Good luck buddy!