Quick survey; ND grads....

scoop · 12 Jun 2007 at 13:59

Simple question...hard or soft grad?

I'm thinking probably soft, for smooth transition, but wondered what everyone else uses and why you prefer that type........?

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 12 Jun 2007 at 14:10

I am not famila with the term hard and soft. I would have thought it just refered to density.

I could and probably am wrong.

lightest/darkest
.2 .4 .8

Sol · 12 Jun 2007 at 14:35

I haven't got any yet but it will be soft when I do. Reason is because you don't need quite a clear cut section defined with the soft rather than a harsh transition. Obviously the other option has its uses too though.

scoop · 12 Jun 2007 at 15:04

Fstop11 said:
I am not famila with the term hard and soft. I would have thought it just refered to density.

Hard/Soft refers to the transition between the ND and clear parts of the filter; a hard transition is pretty much a straight cut, with 50% of the filer cuttinglight and 50% being clear. A soft grad has a more diffuse border between the two areas so the transition is less marked.

King4aDay · 12 Jun 2007 at 15:09

Soft grads are generally more versatile, hard grads are better if you'll be shooting a lot of landscapes with a well-defined horizon.

yak.h'cir · 12 Jun 2007 at 15:40

King4aDay said:
Soft grads are generally more versatile, hard grads are better if you'll be shooting a lot of landscapes with a well-defined horizon.

Seconded!

If you think you'll be photographing lots of hilly backgrounds get soft, if its lots of flat horizons like sea views etc get hard. If its a bit of both soft will prob be your best bet.

The 0.6 strength is probably your best bet to start out with, 0.3 is not really strong enough to use on its own most of the time and 0.9 can be a bit extreme.

Joe T · 12 Jun 2007 at 15:57

yak.h'cir said:
Seconded!

If you think you'll be photographing lots of hilly backgrounds get soft, if its lots of flat horizons like sea views etc get hard. If its a bit of both soft will prob be your best bet.

The 0.6 strength is probably your best bet to start out with, 0.3 is not really strong enough to use on its own most of the time and 0.9 can be a bit extreme.

Agreed. 0.6 soft is what I went for.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 12 Jun 2007 at 16:43

scoop said:
Hard/Soft refers to the transition between the ND and clear parts of the filter; a hard transition is pretty much a straight cut, with 50% of the filer cuttinglight and 50% being clear. A soft grad has a more diffuse border between the two areas so the transition is less marked.

Thanks for clearing that up.

greengiant · 15 Jun 2007 at 19:13

Joe T said:
Agreed. 0.6 soft is what I went for.

I may be dim for asking, but is 0.6 soft the same as ND4 soft?

scoop · 15 Jun 2007 at 20:13

If I understand this cortrectly, an ND4 is a four stop ND filter. A 0.6ND is a 3-stop filter.

I think............ :confused:

Certainly a 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 set gives 1, 2 and 3 stops of light reduction.

Strax · 16 Jun 2007 at 10:48

scoop said:
If I understand this cortrectly, an ND4 is a four stop ND filter. A 0.6ND is a 3-stop filter.

An ND4 is 2 stops and a 0.6nd is also 2 stops as well. Confusing I know