Can I simulate ND effects?

oO Stevie Oo

oO Stevie Oo

oO Stevie Oo

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Mornin all

As above please as its something I might try tomorrow,
I ordered some ND filters and they are a no show so gonna have to order somemore :/

In the mean time, can I for example close the aperture as much as posible, set the lowest ISO and fit my slightly tinted CPL to aquire longer shutter speeds to create similar effects to ND filters?


or is that just not enough?

Cheers
 
In short, no you can't.

ND filters block light, and there's no way to 'simulate' it other than using an ND filter.

So obviously photoshop or similar can't help either.
 
Well kind of true. If you need ND filters to actually take the shot in the first place, such as a 2 second exposure on a waterfall, then you are out of luck. If you need to simulate a ND filter after a shot is taken you can do that. Topaz Lens Effects will do that and a bit more as a plugin to Photoshop.
 
oO Stevie Oo said:
Mornin all

As above please as its something I might try tomorrow,
I ordered some ND filters and they are a no show so gonna have to order somemore :/

In the mean time, can I for example close the aperture as much as posible, set the lowest ISO and fit my slightly tinted CPL to aquire longer shutter speeds to create similar effects to ND filters?


or is that just not enough?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yes to some degree. As your reducing the amount of light into your camera which is what the ND filter will do.

You won't get the same level of reduced exposure but its a start of a curve to play with.
 
You could certainly simulate an ND Grad filter.

It would obviously involve using Photoshop to create more of a gradient of the Sky rather than it being mainly one block of colour. You could also do an entire Sky replacement from another source, or perhaps if you had taken a different exposure or angle of the sky. As without using the actual filter, you wouldn't have the same exposure balance across the picture.

Ultimately though, it's a lot of work to be fiddling around in Photoshop and kind of detracts from taking the image in camera.

I'd imagine it's entirely up to what you prefer though.

An actual ND to create slow motion for things like waterfalls won't work quite the same though.
 
All an ND does is reduce the amount of light entering the camera. The way to simulate this is to wait until it gets darker then you can use a longer shutter speed for making water look like smoke etc, if that was your aim?
 
Get down to your local hardware and buy some welding glass for about 3 quid.
Attach it to front of your camera with elastic bands and have fun :D

You will get some colour cast though but nothing that's not workable in PP.
 
Depends entirely on what you want to achive. If you want a 2 second exposure of a waterfall then stoppinjg down a bit more will help, noting that you might hit difffraction effects. A CPL will eat up 2 stops of light which is quite a lot, I own a 2 stop ND filter anyway so a CPL will duplicate this.

AN ND grad filter is much harder to simulate. Yes you cna shoot RAW and set a gradieent in photoshop or lightroom, but depending on the seen there mihgt not be enough DR even in the RAW (otherwise PPing the image to begin with may be a beter option).

You can also take multiple shorter exposures, stack them and blend them.
 
You could even over expose a couple of stops and pull back in post, but watch out for clipping highlights on water.
A cpl will work up to a couple of stops but also removes reflections from water which may not be desirable.
Also if the camera goes below ISO 200 then do it.
 
cheers all, I normally shoot @ iso 100 bright daylight shots,
Was wondering if I could do some blurred cloud/water shots while I wait for the real filters to arrive is all,

I'll just stop being so impatiant lol
 
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