ND Filter

dinneenp

My birthday is coming up so I'm looking at getting an ND filter.
I plan to use it mainly for photos of landscape (stone walls and trees in Galway) with 'blurred moving clouds' and some seascapes (standard rocks & beach and long exposure waves'.

Is the 10 stop ND filter the one that would suit best?

B&W

Tiffen

Thanks,
Pa.

.Longshanks.

If our thinking of spending the price of the B&W one, seriously recommend investigating the Lee rectangular filters. Having the option of using grad filters - which can also be used with a solid if you wanted to - is a far better option IMO.

Oh, and the Lee big stopper (ie the 10 stopper) is legendary. Whilst I don't use it as much as I would like, i'll never sell it. Expensive, but worth it. Minimal colour casting, which you can find with the cheaper version (pics can have very strong green / purple tint)

corvus4906

.Longshanks. wrote: »

If our thinking of spending the price of the B&W one, seriously recommend investigating the Lee rectangular filters. Having the option of using grad filters - which can also be used with a solid if you wanted to - is a far better option IMO.

Oh, and the Lee big stopper (ie the 10 stopper) is legendary. Whilst I don't use it as much as I would like, i'll never sell it. Expensive, but worth it. Minimal colour casting, which you can find with the cheaper version (pics can have very strong green / purple tint)

^ Yep take this advice, i got a good Hoya pro+1 10-stop circular ND filter... and I'm restricted to using it on only the one lens. I should have bought the Lee rectangular one.

Dr_Bill

I believe LEE filters are excellent but they are very expensive.

I have some Cokin ND filters and agree they do add a purple cast which is fine at sunset and it doesn't bother me. It is possible to apply a correction for this in Lightroom and Photoshop. If your planning on using ND filters a lot its worth the investment in LEE filters, otherwise there are less expensive options out there to consider.

adox

Id also throw a 6 stop filter in to the mix as an option(Lee Little Stopper is great).

A 10 stop is great but you need lots of light or else you are going into extremely long exposures just to get the exposure right. If you are shooting in the morning or the evening when the sun is low in the sky and you actually have much better light for landscape photography then a 6 stop is a much better option.

Also keep an eye out on adverts for second hand filters, especially the moe expensive ones like Lee etc. You can save some serious money.

Silva360

If you are only considering the two filters you have listed, then go for the B & W.

Remember though;

Get the diameter size that fits the lens you will use the most for the type of photography you are thinking of, because you cannot inter-change this filter with lenses of different diameters. You also cannot stack filters (ie, use an ND grad with it). It is for this reasons that i would echo the other posts on Lee (though that is a significant investment).

That there will be a warm colour cast (easily remedied in post-processing).

You need to be very careful with light leaks. Cover the viewfinder and the lens barrel when exposing.

Get and use an exposure chart to aid with exposure time in 'bulb' mode.

Can you link some photos that you want to try to emulate so more advice can be provided?

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Silva360 wrote: »

If you are only considering the two filters you have listed, then go for the B & W.

Remember though;

Get the diameter size that fits the lens you will use the most for the type of photography you are thinking of, because you cannot inter-change this filter with lenses of different diameters. You also cannot stack filters (ie, use an ND grad with it). It is for this reasons that i would echo the other posts on Lee (though that is a significant investment).

That there will be a warm colour cast (easily remedied in post-processing).

You need to be very careful with light leaks. Cover the viewfinder and the lens barrel when exposing.

Get and use an exposure chart to aid with exposure time in 'bulb' mode.

Can you link some photos that you want to try to emulate so more advice can be provided?

You can get step down and step up adapter rings which means you can fit it to another lens.

Myksyk

I have the Lee 10-stop and 6-stop. I also have a Lee 3-stop rectangular. Have to say I'd always use the 3 and 6 stop more than the 10. For the 10, as was noted above, you need a fair bit of light unless you want to wait minutes for shots. 6-stop is usually loads to get dramatic movement (which depends more on wind to be honest)! If you're using a Lee filter system there are advantages to having rectangular NDs as they are easier to swap in and out ... you don't have to take off your holder and unscrew and re-fit etc etc. Great filters though.

dinneenp

Silva360 wrote: »

If you are only considering the two filters you have listed, then go for the B & W.

Can you link some photos that you want to try to emulate so more advice can be provided?

I'm open to any brands, just listed those two as they were mentioned before in places.
What do I want to emulate; a bit of everything really. I like to try out most types of photography. With the ND filter I'd imagine I'd begin with the common types and then experiment a bit maybe

These are some examples I just grabbed, your typical water or clouds long exposure. Corkgirl had some very nice long exposures in the Random thread recently too

Silva360

I would suggest a 6 or 10 stop ND along with a 2 or 3 stop hard ND grad for those types of photos. That would be my personal choice in any event.

As Mystyk pointed out, you would need a bit of cloud movement to achieve that effect in the sky. Movement in water will create that milky effect with shorter shutter speeds (a matter of a few seconds).

Silva360

Aminah Thankful Professor wrote: »

You can get step down and step up adapter rings which means you can fit it to another lens.

I didn't think of that.... Thanks

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

dinneenp wrote: »

...Corkgirl...

Who? :P

I got a lee filter for my birthday a few weeks back. I have yet to test it as the adapter is another 80 euro or so.

I purchased the Cokin brand last year for about 20 euro on Ebay. There was a pretty bad purple colour cast on my images, but I knew this was going to be the case.

What I am getting at is, if you like this style of photography, invest in the equipment later and pick up pieces as you go along. No point splashing out huge money now for something you may not like in 6 months.

OldGoat

As above I use the Cokin setup. Buying Lee is an expensive route to take just for experimenting. The colour cast on the Cokin filters can be a pain but post colour correction or a black&white conversion sorts that out reasonably well. Another downside of the Corkin filters is that they scratch easily. They also attract dust so keep a dust blower in your bag. Handle with care though and they will last you for years.

Do your experimenting with the cheaper sets and then use your experience to make better filter choices if required.

Also factor in a circular polarising filter to your costs.

Tiriel

Filters.. the bane of my life yet so much fun! What I own are some Cokin ND filters - square (.3, .6 and .9) and the 'P' holder. I also have two grad filters (4 and 8 I think).

They cause horrible horrible magenta casts. Many photos I take which I think are ok at the time are unusable when I get home. I've tried so many things to get rid of the cast but even converting to B&W it's horrible and the photo just isn't what I had wanted to take.

Having said that, I still use them and I do manage to edit the odd shot satisfactorily.. so they're not that bad. If I was doing it again all over - I'd probably do the same again as I don't have the money to spend on a full Lee system.

My plan is definitely to replace the lot of them slowly - starting with the Lee 6 stop.

Oh and I bought the 58mm ring to fit my 28mm prime lens, so I'm restricted at the moment to only being able to use them hands free with that lens. I can however hold them up in front of the lens and use them on other lenses.. which is awkward but definitely handy to be able to do. A screw on filter wouldn't allow that

Edit - I meant to add that I've heard really good things about Hi-Tech ND 85 Soft Grad 0.9 (3 stops of light) = £24 ish - I will be ordering this at some point soon and trying it out. Apparently they don't suffer from the cast in the same way that the cokin ones do and they fit the same holder.. so it makes sense for me! Might for you too though!

dinneenp

Silva360 wrote: »

I would suggest a 6 or 10 stop ND along with a 2 or 3 stop hard ND grad for those types of photos. That would be my personal choice in any event.

As Mystyk pointed out, you would need a bit of cloud movement to achieve that effect in the sky. Movement in water will create that milky effect with shorter shutter speeds (a matter of a few seconds).

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies. Call me stupid...
I get the 6 or 10 stop ND filter but what's a 2 or 3 stop hard ND grad?
I'd use the 6 stop ND filter on it's own?
Cheers.

adox

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies. Call me stupid...
I get the 6 or 10 stop ND filter but what's a 2 or 3 stop hard ND grad?
I'd use the 6 stop ND filter on it's own?
Cheers.

It's a filter that is dark on the top half and clear at the bottom - a graduated filter. A hard graduated filter has a definitive line where it changes from dark to clear.

You move the filter up and down when looking through your viewfinder or live view, until the dark part covers the sky and the clear part of the filter sits over the rest of the image having no effect. Skies are nearly always brighter than foregrounds and so without, you usually either under or overexpose one of them to compensate for the other. 2 or 3 stops are the amount of stops of light that the filter blocks out. You can even go as far as to take an exposure shot of the sky on its own, then the foreground on its own and see how many stops there are in the difference to select the correct grad to use.

With a Cokin/Lee type system with a holder you can stack filters in the holder, so use more than one at a time. A lot of landscape photographers will use a grad filter for the sky along with the likes of a 6 or 10 stop filter. You can stick a polariser on there too if you want!

Hope that makes some sort of sense.

pixbyjohn

These are super filters, better than the Lee, I have both brands.
http://www.exploringexposure.com/blog/2014/12/2/nd-filter-review

Silva360

pixbyjohn wrote: »

These are super filters, better than the Lee, I have both brands.
http://www.exploringexposure.com/blog/2014/12/2/nd-filter-review

Are you using those on the Lee holder? I've heard of hitech but not these 'firecrest' filters. I must so some research because I'm in the market for a new 3 stop ND.

dinneenp

HI,
Thanks again for the answers. My last question before I buy a 6 stop ND filter but this could scupper me buying one and I can hear the groans from people; currently I only use Picasa for editing. There's been a lot of comments about PP to fix colours, is it pointless trying to fix colour issues in Picasa (not advanced editing/PP) and therefore in buying an ND filter?

I'm getting Lightroom soon but wouldn't buy a filter until I've gotten fully to grips with LR first it's recommended/needed to use LR to fix colours.

adox

dinneenp wrote: »

HI,
Thanks again for the answers. My last question before I buy a 6 stop ND filter but this could scupper me buying one and I can hear the groans from people; currently I only use Picasa for editing. There's been a lot of comments about PP to fix colours, is it pointless trying to fix colour issues in Picasa (not advanced editing/PP) and therefore in buying an ND filter?

I'm getting Lightroom soon but wouldn't buy a filter until I've gotten fully to grips with LR first it's recommended/needed to use LR to fix colours.

Not sure about Picassa but with Lightroom it will take you all of 2 minutes to learn how to correct any colour cast you may have. It really is simple.

Plus you will be less inclined to get colour casting with a 6 stop than a 10 stop, at least that's my experience with Lee.

You can get a 30 day free trial with Lightroom so can go for that if and when you buy a filter. Lightroom is quite straight forward to use. YouTube is a brilliant resource for learning and as I've said, correcting a colour cast on a long exposure is going to be two clicks of a button, so very little learning.

Silva360

adox wrote: »

Not sure about Picassa but with Lightroom it will take you all of 2 minutes to learn how to correct any colour cast you may have. It really is simple.

Plus you will be less inclined to get colour casting with a 6 stop than a 10 stop, at least that's my experience with Lee.

You can get a 30 day free trial with Lightroom so can go for that if and when you buy a filter. Lightroom is quite straight forward to use. YouTube is a brilliant resource for learning and as I've said, correcting a colour cast on a long exposure is going to be two clicks of a button, so very little learning.

Just out of interest, Adox, what is your process to remove the colour cast? I've heard there are a few ways of doing it, but I tend to use 'match colour' > 'neutralise' and work on from there. Perhaps there is a better way??

Tiriel

Silva360 wrote: »

Just out of interest, Adox, what is your process to remove the colour cast? I've heard there are a few ways of doing it, but I tend to use 'match colour' > 'neutralise' and work on from there. Perhaps there is a better way??

Interested in this too because I've tried multiple ways in Photoshop and still haven't found any way that is quick, easy or is guaranteed to work! Newbie to Lightroom though, so haven't tried that at all.

Couldn't do it in Picasa.

adox

Silva360 wrote: »

Just out of interest, Adox, what is your process to remove the colour cast? I've heard there are a few ways of doing it, but I tend to use 'match colour' > 'neutralise' and work on from there. Perhaps there is a better way??

I use the eye dropper brush with the WB setting and pick a neutral colour in the image (like a cloud) and click it to take the white balance from that point.

Can be tweaked further if you wish but it usually does it for me.

You must be shooting RAW.

Silva360

adox wrote: »

I use the eye dropper brush with the WB setting and pick a neutral colour in the image (like a cloud) and click it to take the white balance from that point.

Can be tweaked further if you wish but it usually does it for me.

You must be shooting RAW.

I used to do something similar with the eye dropper on a curves layer. I find I get similar results when I click on image>adjustments>match colour and then click on neutralise. I then add a little yellow in a colour balance layer. I would be interested to see what you think if you try that. I'm going to give your method a go. Cheers.

Edit: Forgot to mention that's in CS4.

dinneenp

I decided to go with a cheaper filter just to dip my toes. But can't seem to find a 6 stop Nd 67mm filter anywhere that isn't either too cheap (€10) or too expensive (€90+). I'm hoping to spend €50 max, Anyone able to point me to one.
Thanks,
Pa

Silva360

Something like this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hoya-67mm-ND64-6-stop-light-loss-/271904976992?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f4eccb060

You could make an offer and possibly get a good deal.

I have no idea what these are like, but I'm sure it would be fine for dipping in.....