What ND filters?

[Buchanan0204]

My D3100 doesn't have a bracketing function.

So let's say I take the tip to not bother with filters and I do it all in processing.

How exactly do I take more than one photo at different exposures? Will I just adjust the shutter speed to reduce the light by one stop and then increase by one stop going by the cameras light meter? Will I use the exposure compensation feature?

I'm concerned as It wont take 3 rapid photos, they wont align, regardless of tripod.

I'm not a beginner in PS. However can someone explain what their technique is exactly to blend three photos together to increase the foreground exposure using three images?

 

[Amp34]

For reference, this is what I achieved with a grad filter last night.
Left is no filter, right is filter.
Cokin P Series
Straight out of camera
Sky was naturally quite pink, rather than an 'orange' sky

kd

Gotta say that's a prime example there why I prefer doing it in post rather than using grads!

I almost entirely agree - Grad filters have there limits that can be overcome easily in software IF there is sufficient DR in the RAW file. bets solution is multiple exposures, what I meant by blending was as you describe, masking and composing a final image from multiple RAWs creating an effective natural HDR image without any tonemapping that leads to unnatural local contrast.

However, ND grads still have a solid place in the landscape photographers tool box. Many scenes will have well defined edges between the sky and foreground and others will work fine with soft grads. Getting the photo right in the camera makes life much easier in post processing, even allowing straight from camera captures, and allows things that are not possible such as if the scene;s DR far exceeds the sensor's.
In general I prefer to minimise post processing requires and get the image as close to perfect as I can while in the field, which is why I would prefer a single exposure with an ND grad than a 2-3 exposure capture requiring to fire up photoshop.

Another advantage of an ND grad is if you can dim the highlights then you can push the ETTR technique even further and pull out far more shadow detail.Again bracketing can be a better solution but much more work.

Agreed, which is why I suggest getting them in the future and not now, the money is better spent on other things at this stage for him IMO. After he gets a couple of good lenses, decent tripod and things like a decent circular polariser should then I'd suggest getting some grads. The other things will have a greater effect on his photography than using grads over Photoshop/Lightroom.

Just my opinion there .

 

[Amp34]

My D3100 doesn't have a bracketing function.

So let's say I take the tip to not bother with filters and I do it all in processing.

How exactly do I take more than one photo at different exposures? Will I just adjust the shutter speed to reduce the light by one stop and then increase by one stop going by the cameras light meter? Will I use the exposure compensation feature?

I'm concerned as It wont take 3 rapid photos, they wont align, regardless of tripod.

I'm not a beginner in PS. However can someone explain what their technique is exactly to blend three photos together to increase the foreground exposure using three images?

For basic shots like the one above to get the sane effect as a graduated filter (rather than tone mapping and more complex blending, which would go above and beyond shooting with grads) you can get away with two images. Check the exposure for the foreground and then the sky, once you know the difference take a correctly exposed image for the foreground and then adjust the settings and take one for the sky (camera set up on a tripod). If shooting in AV or similar just addjust the exposure compensation, if shooting in manual then adjust the shutter speed by the required number of stops.

Once you've got two images open both in Photoshop as two seperate layers and add a masking layer to the top image. Click on the mask layer and then you can paint out the bits (using black and white colours and the paint brush tool) you want to expose from the bottom image.

Unfortunately I'm on a train atm so can't get a guide for you, it's pretty easy though.

The other option if you're shooting hand held and only need a stop or two is to shoot for the shadows (without overexposing the highlights, then process the raw twice, once for the shadows, then the other reducing the exposure on the highlight layer, open both in the same image as before and use your masks. This way is useful or small adjustments rather than several stops. All ways (including physical filters) have their positives and negatives, all are very useful techniques and come in to their own depending what you are shooting and what you want the end result to be.

 

[Turbo-G]

I don't think you'll be able to use screw in filters very easily with the kit lens, as the front element rotates during focussing. So with a grad filter for example this will be a bit annoying to set it up...

 

[2StepSteve]

I'm new to ND filters and I'll be honest and say I'm not 100% sure on what to buy.

I want to be able to take long exposures and have the effect of being able to remove people during the daylight hours.

This seems to get a lot of good chatter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/77mm-Haida-...=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Filter&hash=item51aca03b54

It will fit my 24-105mm L but I'm concerned it may block a little too much light?

Any thoughts?

There isn't much meat in this thread with exact advice on which filters to buy.