Neutral Density Filters
I have several kinds of filters I love to use; polarizers (there are several kinds), a few color enhancers, graduated ND and regular ND, and IR filters. Thats about it. Having come of age in the hey day of SLRs and film and having gone to school to study photography I was well aware of the many kinds of filters available. And early in my career (or hobby as it were) I got caught up in the gadget craze which included buying all kinds of filters, most of which rarely ever got used and cost far too much.
As an early user of Photoshop (I had a pre- 1.0 version) I consider myself a quasi Photoshop expert and fairly decent retoucher. As such I came to rely less and less on what I needed to do before the click instead doing much of my work after, in Photoshop.
As I grow older I seem to have become somewhat of a purist, I don't retouch nearly as much as I used to, nor do I use many filters any more with the exception of a select few.
Neutral Density or ND filters are a group that I often use and highly recommend everyone owning. Before I get into why let me review two schools of thought on buying filters. One group of people out there will tell you to buy your filters for the largest lens you own and then get adapter (step down) rings for the smaller (i.e. mm) lenses to save money. The other group will tell you to buy the correct filter for the correct lens and avoid the step down rings. I fall into the latter group. Yes perhaps you might spend more on filters this way and some specialty filters can cost as much as a new lens. However I feel it's worth it for several reasons.
First I don't shoot with only one camera, If I'm doing a wedding or Event, or just out in nature I generally will have at least two cameras out, I like to shoot this way with one longer lens and one wide angle for example. I want to have the right filter for a given situation for all the lenses I might intend to use. It's a big enough pain having to try to swap out a lens in a hurry to caught a new situation, while hoping not to get too much dirt in the camera and not drop anything. Adding to that having to change out filters, lens shades,locate and change adapter rings and by the time your done most of the time I would have missed that decisive moment. It's just better to have the right filter already on the right lens to me. Also some what geeky on my part is a desire to have thin glass on wide angle lens, I hate sky, UV, or protective filters for the most part (save the why for another time) so my set of filters really is rather small today compared to some peoples collection.
Back to ND filters. One of the things that sets ordinary images apart from causal snap shots and take an average scenic from so-so to wonderful is knowing what to do to capture time, extend motion, enhance and balance light, correct for dark shadows while preserving high lights. These are the things that set a part weekend snap shot shooters from artists and professionals. Understanding light and how to manipulate it along with good composition.
I love water, I love living near it, being in it, or on it, and by extension photographing it. With the use of an ND filter you can slow down the motion and get those lovely milky waterfalls we all love in calendars and motivational posters, we can go further and turn motion from ways into mists or surreal landscapes that make people wonder if it was real or CGI. ND filters along with a steady tripod will allow you to take an image in mid day sun that should be 500/sec. and stop it down to 1 second or more depending on the density (darkness) if the filter.
I won't try to explain what a ND filter does technically here, there are lots of sites for that. The other main use of ND filters is the graduated, soft, or hard half ND filters which are often square and require a mount. These are used by many pro shooters to balance out an image with too much contrast for your camera to see. For example a bright sky taken while a mountain in the foreground remains in shadow. for the mountain to be exposed properly the sky would have to be over exposed. a graduated or half ND filter would allow you to darken the bright areas while bringing out the shadow details.
I find in landscape, fine art, and even architectural along with a polarizer I use ND filters more than any other of the filters n my bag of tricks to get a better shot than the person standing next to me. It may take a little more effort but the results are always the same. A better more interesting image worth keeping. And it's always fun when later someone sees an image you took and says "I was right there, took the same image you did , perhaps with the same camera rig why is your so much better than mine?" That totally make my day thanks to my ND filters.
As an early user of Photoshop (I had a pre- 1.0 version) I consider myself a quasi Photoshop expert and fairly decent retoucher. As such I came to rely less and less on what I needed to do before the click instead doing much of my work after, in Photoshop.
As I grow older I seem to have become somewhat of a purist, I don't retouch nearly as much as I used to, nor do I use many filters any more with the exception of a select few.
Neutral Density or ND filters are a group that I often use and highly recommend everyone owning. Before I get into why let me review two schools of thought on buying filters. One group of people out there will tell you to buy your filters for the largest lens you own and then get adapter (step down) rings for the smaller (i.e. mm) lenses to save money. The other group will tell you to buy the correct filter for the correct lens and avoid the step down rings. I fall into the latter group. Yes perhaps you might spend more on filters this way and some specialty filters can cost as much as a new lens. However I feel it's worth it for several reasons.
First I don't shoot with only one camera, If I'm doing a wedding or Event, or just out in nature I generally will have at least two cameras out, I like to shoot this way with one longer lens and one wide angle for example. I want to have the right filter for a given situation for all the lenses I might intend to use. It's a big enough pain having to try to swap out a lens in a hurry to caught a new situation, while hoping not to get too much dirt in the camera and not drop anything. Adding to that having to change out filters, lens shades,locate and change adapter rings and by the time your done most of the time I would have missed that decisive moment. It's just better to have the right filter already on the right lens to me. Also some what geeky on my part is a desire to have thin glass on wide angle lens, I hate sky, UV, or protective filters for the most part (save the why for another time) so my set of filters really is rather small today compared to some peoples collection.
Back to ND filters. One of the things that sets ordinary images apart from causal snap shots and take an average scenic from so-so to wonderful is knowing what to do to capture time, extend motion, enhance and balance light, correct for dark shadows while preserving high lights. These are the things that set a part weekend snap shot shooters from artists and professionals. Understanding light and how to manipulate it along with good composition.
I love water, I love living near it, being in it, or on it, and by extension photographing it. With the use of an ND filter you can slow down the motion and get those lovely milky waterfalls we all love in calendars and motivational posters, we can go further and turn motion from ways into mists or surreal landscapes that make people wonder if it was real or CGI. ND filters along with a steady tripod will allow you to take an image in mid day sun that should be 500/sec. and stop it down to 1 second or more depending on the density (darkness) if the filter.
I won't try to explain what a ND filter does technically here, there are lots of sites for that. The other main use of ND filters is the graduated, soft, or hard half ND filters which are often square and require a mount. These are used by many pro shooters to balance out an image with too much contrast for your camera to see. For example a bright sky taken while a mountain in the foreground remains in shadow. for the mountain to be exposed properly the sky would have to be over exposed. a graduated or half ND filter would allow you to darken the bright areas while bringing out the shadow details.
I find in landscape, fine art, and even architectural along with a polarizer I use ND filters more than any other of the filters n my bag of tricks to get a better shot than the person standing next to me. It may take a little more effort but the results are always the same. A better more interesting image worth keeping. And it's always fun when later someone sees an image you took and says "I was right there, took the same image you did , perhaps with the same camera rig why is your so much better than mine?" That totally make my day thanks to my ND filters.
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