Landscapes shutter speed

[Robert S]

Realised that the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 has a 77mm filter thread [ senile dementia is never far away ]. Anyway I set things up and tried things out. I have four of the graduated filters but they are not marked as to their strength. The following photographs are of the same thing, all same settings on camera. The last one is with no filter used. The first four are using each different graduated filter. First try at using the things but it seems to work.
5Ds 91mm f22 1/50 sec ISO 100 [ very slight crop in LrC to convert to Jpeg ]

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[Nimi]

Realised that the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 has a 77mm filter thread [ senile dementia is never far away ]. Anyway I set things up and tried things out. I have four of the graduated filters but they are not marked as to their strength. The following photographs are of the same thing, all same settings on camera. The last one is with no filter used. The first four are using each different graduated filter. First try at using the things but it seems to work.
5Ds 91mm f22 1/50 sec ISO 100 [ very slight crop in LrC to convert to Jpeg ]

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Same exposure? Something is being adjusted. Photo 4 is classic reason to use a grad as the foreground is well exposed as well as the sky, compared to 5 (no filter). The bottom of the photos, unless the filter is upside down (been there) should be about the same. Comparing 4 and 5, looks like a couple stops difference as the sky is about the same but the unfiltered ground is not.

 

[DRwyoming]

I have four of the graduated filters but they are not marked as to their strength.

It's pretty easy to test for their strength and you don't actually have to capture any images.

- Set your camera to spot metering in full manual mode with manually set ISO and move the focus/metering point to the top or bottom half of the image.

- Slide a filter in and first meter through the clear side of the filter and then slide the filter so the spot metering point (focus point) is well into the dark part of the filter or keep the filter in one place and move the focus/metering point into the dark side of the filter.

- Observe the change in light meter reading change in stops as shown on the light meter between metering through the clear side and the dark side.

That difference is the strength in stops of the filter.

If you have both hard and soft transition style filters that's easy to see by just comparing them side by side. The soft transition versions have a fairly wide strip of increasing darkness from the clear side to the fully dark side. The hard transition style makes that clear to dark transition in a much narrower strip.

 

[Robert S]

Thanks for the post Nimi. I should used have used manual exposure maybe, but used A priority. Will have to remember that.

 

[Robert S]

It's pretty easy to test for their strength and you don't actually have to capture any images.

- Set your camera to spot metering in full manual mode with manually set ISO and move the focus/metering point to the top or bottom half of the image.

- Slide a filter in and first meter through the clear side of the filter and then slide the filter so the spot metering point (focus point) is well into the dark part of the filter.

- Observe the change in light meter reading change in stops as shown on the light meter between metering through the clear side and the dark side.

That difference is the strength in stops of the filter.

If you have both hard and soft transition style filters that's easy to see by just comparing them side by side. The soft transition versions have a fairly wide strip of increasing darkness from the clear side to the fully dark side. The hard transition style makes that clear to dark transition in a much narrower strip.

Thanks Dave will do. It looks like all four are soft transition. I've not yet used the three that are all dark. The holder for the filters takes a maximum of three filters so the permutations are a lot. Going to be interesting playing with this.

 

[Nimi]

Thanks Dave will do. It looks like all four are soft transition. I've not yet used the three that are all dark. The holder for the filters takes a maximum of three filters so the permutations are a lot. Going to be interesting playing with this.

The solids are "stoppers" for long exposure, typically 3, 6 and 10 stops. As you stack them, watch out for vignetting.

 

[DRwyoming]

Thanks Dave will do. It looks like all four are soft transition. I've not yet used the three that are all dark. The holder for the filters takes a maximum of three filters so the permutations are a lot. Going to be interesting playing with this.

For the ND Grads it's not typical to stack them as usually one decent two or three stop grad will get the job done for typical scenes that need them.

The solid dark filters are most likely straight Neutral Density (ND) filters unless there's an obvious color cast to them (in which case they're not 'neutral') these are used for daylight scenes where you want to use really slow shutter speeds but there's too much light and it would require ISO below the camera's base ISO or would require stopping down further than you'd like. So things like seaside wave blurs in brighter light or waterfall blurs on a brighter day.

You can measure the straight ND filters using basically the same method described above for the ND Grads but just meter without the filter in and then slide the filter in and meter again and notice how many stops the meter changes between no filter and the solid ND filter. These sometimes are stacked when you really want to darken the scene but every time you stack another filter you risk some image degradation as everything is just going through more glass and more air to glass transitions.

 

[DRwyoming]

BTW, sometimes it's hard to tell if you've got the transition region of an ND Grad right where you want it. This was particularly true in DSLRs that didn't stop down the lens to the shooting aperture until the shutter was released.

It's still somewhat true in most mirrorless cameras that only stop down to f/5.6 or so until the shutter is released even if you have a smaller aperture dialed in(that's at least how Nikon handles it). If you use your camera's depth of field preview function the camera will stop all the way down to the selected aperture which will increase the DoF and make the transition zone easier to see as you slide the filter up and down in its holder to align the transition region to where your scene changes brightness.

 

[Robert S]

Thanks Nimi and Dave. You've been a great help. I'll get myself organized and grade the filters tomorrow. I was not going to take the 70-200 on the trip up north but will do now. Fingers crossed the 20-35 turns up, one way or another.

 

[Nimi]

I stack a grad a stopper for some seascapes, especially sunset when I want to mute/flatten the waves.

 

[Robert S]

I stack a grad a stopper for some seascapes, especially sunset when I want to mute/flatten the waves.

Darwin is good for sunsets sea/beach. Check out the images for 'sunset Casuarina beach'. Hopefully I can get something worth sharing.

 

[bleirer]

It's pretty easy to test for their strength and you don't actually have to capture any images.

- Set your camera to spot metering in full manual mode with manually set ISO and move the focus/metering point to the top or bottom half of the image.

- Slide a filter in and first meter through the clear side of the filter and then slide the filter so the spot metering point (focus point) is well into the dark part of the filter or keep the filter in one place and move the focus/metering point into the dark side of the filter.

- Observe the change in light meter reading change in stops as shown on the light meter between metering through the clear side and the dark side.

That difference is the strength in stops of the filter.

If you have both hard and soft transition style filters that's easy to see by just comparing them side by side. The soft transition versions have a fairly wide strip of increasing darkness from the clear side to the fully dark side. The hard transition style makes that clear to dark transition in a much narrower strip.

Canon cameras only spot meter in the center. Test is still possible but I think you'd have to hand hold the filter over the center . That or take a shot of a uniform background with no filter, then keep same settings with filter on. Lightroom in LAB mode will read out the L under the histogram when you hover.

 

[DRwyoming]

Canon cameras only spot meter in the center. Test is still possible but I think you'd have to hand hold the filter over the center . That or take a shot of a uniform background with no filter, then keep same settings with filter on. Lightroom in LAB mode will read out the L under the histogram when you hover.

Yup, either hand hold the filter or slide it up and down in the filter holder Ibrahim posted earlier in this thread.

 

[O]

Cambridge Colour is also a very good organic community based site for all photgraphy as well as using filters and all sorts of applications in photography.
I only ever used glass filters ND or Grad, during the middle of the day a 10 stopper with a long exposure time.
Getting it right in camera really helps.


Only an opinion