Wide angle ,histogram ,Sun scorched sky AHHH!!!!

311

Sorry if this is a bit tim nice but dim ,but I am having awful trouble with a sigma 10-20 lens I bought ,the shot is all over the shop when i shoot landscape . I've spent another grand this month and I refuse to hand out any more money unless absolutely necessary.

What is the cheapest filter I can buy that will properly handle sunlight ,a grad filter ,polarizer or something else ??.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Enygma

I got a Cokin Grad Filter for around €30 a few weeks back and its great for bringing out the skies in lanscapes.

Some examples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corksurf/201103183/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corksurf/191168888/

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Thanks enygma ,lovely shots ,I thought filters were gonna start costing 100 euro or something.

Oriel

I'd like to know as much about this as possible too please!

Enygma

You have to buy a lens adapter which screws onto the lens and fits to a yoke that the filters slide into. That's about €10 or so. Then you get the Grad filter which you can slide up and down in the adapter to adjust for the horizon. I think it was €20 for the filter itself.

You get nice shots using it alright, but I've found the adapter can get in the way in the corners sometimes if the adapter is at an angle.

311

I'm looking for a standard filter enygma ,like a screw in one ,I bought the cokin setup a few days ago and it's just too akward to use on a regular basis . I wreckon I'd only use the cokin on a tripod and for a really special shot.

The main reason I got the 10-20 is for landscape ,so I think the screw in one would be better.

Thanks
Brian.

EDIT : I only managed to get an adapter for my 24-85 lens ,it's the lens I don't mind throwing around.

Redundo

Don't even bother trying a screw in grad filter. The transition in the filter will always be straight across the middle, so unless you are in the habit of taking photographs with the horizon dead centre it won't do you any good.

You're only options are; A Cokin type system (7dayshop.com sell a cheaper same-sized alternative called Kood, not fantastic but they're ok). Or you can take two shots with one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the foreground, then you combine them in post prcessing.

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Redundo wrote:

Don't even bother trying a screw in grad filter. The transition in the filter will always be straight across the middle, so unless you are in the habit of taking photographs with the horizon dead centre it won't do you any good.

You're only options are; A Cokin type system (7dayshop.com sell a cheaper same-sized alternative called Kood, not fantastic but they're ok). Or you can take two shots with one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the foreground, then you combine them in post prcessing.

I forgot ,I was thinking of a circurlar filter ,sorry. I have tried the cokin on my 24-85 and it's grand ,slides up and down nice and easy and is not too harsh either. It becomes a nuisance when I start changing lenses ,I suppose I could always buy the cokin caps for the lenses.
No wonder theres so many photography books out there :rolleyes:

JMcL

_Brian_ wrote:

Sorry if this is a bit tim nice but dim ,but I am having awful trouble with a sigma 10-20 lens I bought ,the shot is all over the shop when i shoot landscape . I've spent another grand this month and I refuse to hand out any more money unless absolutely necessary.

What is the cheapest filter I can buy that will properly handle sunlight ,a grad filter ,polarizer or something else ??.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Polariser. It's the one filter that can't be replicated in post processing. It can add saturation to skies, foliage, etc. Plus reduce/eliminate reflections in water, make the tea... sorry losing the run of myself.

Seriously, it's an invaluble filter. Only problem is on very wide angles you'll have issues with different amounts of polarisation on various parts of the image. Some people don't like it, but I don't mind

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JMcL wrote:

Polariser. It's the one filter that can't be replicated in post processing. It can add saturation to skies, foliage, etc. Plus reduce/eliminate reflections in water, make the tea... sorry losing the run of myself.

Seriously, it's an invaluble filter. Only problem is on very wide angles you'll have issues with different amounts of polarisation on various parts of the image. Some people don't like it, but I don't mind

Thanks ,I only have one polariser and it's on a 30mm ,wasn't sure if it was the best thing to go for .

heffsarmy

_Brian_ bracket your shots and combine them in photoshop, heres a simple way of doing it. I use this technique if I don't have my ND grad filters with me. Try this as it out before investing in ND grad, but I would suggest getting a polariser as others have said, I have one on all my lenses.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/article_2/

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heffsarmy wrote:

_Brian_ bracket your shots and combine them in photoshop, heres a simple way of doing it. I use this technique if I don't have my ND grad filters with me. Try this as it out before investing in ND grad, but I would suggest getting a polariser as others have said, I have one on all my lenses.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/article_2/

Thanks for the link heff ,elven was telling me about that a while ago. My problem is I don't spend any time in photoshop ,all I do is crop and adjust the saturation and exposure.

Thanks
Brian.

elven

That's a great link heff, it looks so much easier than I though combining exposures would be. And no dreaded plasticky HDR effects in sight!

I'll even be trying that one out with some of my tricky shots where I have the RAW file, I just wish I could have saved the other ones from totally blown out highlights in the first place

JMcL

elven wrote:

That's a great link heff, it looks so much easier than I though combining exposures would be. And no dreaded plasticky HDR effects in sight!

It's pretty simple once you've done a few - the technique is similar in all cases. In easy cases like the one on the FM site, it's about 10 seconds work with a layer mask and the gradient tool. The powerful thing about it is that you're not restricted to straight lines, and can do some pretty powerful things.

Here're a couple of other links to good tutorials on Radiant Vista, and Luninous Landscape

I'll even be trying that one out with some of my tricky shots where I have the RAW file, I just wish I could have saved the other ones from totally blown out highlights in the first place

Raw is great! A lot of times you can rescue highlights that the in camera histogram are showing up as blown as this is the histogram for the JPEG of the image, even when shooting raw. For HDRs, I usually only have to process the raw twice to get a result, with the added advantage that you're guaranteed that everything will line up.

elven

Nah, I've got a couple where even in the RAW file the highlights are totally gone. The scene was such that the range of tones was just too much for the sensor to handle... that's when I needed more than one exposure.