tonyi wrote:
Hi, starting shooting more sunsets recently and a friend said I should get a set of GND filters. Is it necessary or recommended? And if so, what do you think would be a good starter set without breaking the bank. I use a Canon T6s.
Many good photographers use GNDs for sunsets. So I'd say yes, if
you plan to shoot sunsets, sunrises or landscapes with very brightly lit skies.
Each sunset is different, but there is just about no limit to how much contrast can
be present. No camera can handle all the contrast found in nature without some
optical help.
GNDs don't work well when:
* Sun is visible above the horizon
* Horizon is not flat
* You don't line up the transistion in the filter with the one in the scene
* You insert the filter upside down (done it!)
In a typical sunset, the sun is already below the horizon and/or hidden by clouds.
The horizon is fairly level. The sky is very bright.
Without a GND, you will often be faced with a choice of blown highlights in the clouds or
burned out shadows below the horizon. The latter can sometimes be fixed in post processing,
but not always. The former is never fixable. (Genreally speaking, if you can fix exposure
problems up front, you're better off. Any detail the sensor doesn't capture is gone forever.)
A few scenes benefit from simplification to areas of pure white or pure black, but usually the loss
of detail hurts the photo.
I most frequently use the two-stop, soft-transition GND filter. I'd buy this one first. It might
be all you need.
People who shoot seascapes generally favor a sharp transistion GND.
If you decide to GND, get a square one in a mount that allows you to slide it up or down.
The round, screw-in kind aren't very useful (particularly one that divides the field exactly in half
--useless).
There are three ways to go:
* Just buy the square filter and hold it over your lens (kinda tricky)
* Buy a filter holder "system" such as Lee or Cokin
* Try to find a GND filter that comes bundled with a holder
If you plan to hand hold the filter, buy a big one: it's easier to hold,
and maybe used as a plain ND filter by simply moving it up that
only the dark part is over the lens.
The Cokin and Lee systems are good but rather expensive. Many, many
filters are availble for these systems. They are great filters, however:
(1) they are *not* coated, and (2) they are made of plastic (the manufacturers
prefer to call it "resin"). Plastic scratches even more easily than glass
and threfore requires careful handing.
(On the positive side, it is sometimes possible to polish scratches
out of plastic. And plastic is much lighter than glass--which is
important with large size filters or if you have a lot of them.
And you can make your own filters to fit the holder--
important if you do special effects. Colored gels are *much*
cheaper than colored filters made of plastic or glass, and can
be adapted to fit the holder. Finally, you can't visibly flare
the lens when the sun is below the horizon, so an uncoated
surface is not as bad as sounds for sunsets and sunrises.)
Holders for these systems are available in various sizes. But the size
large enough for the filter ring of the biggest diameter lens you think you
might ever use. You can buy adapter rings ($20 or more a pop!) to use the
holder with a smaller filter size.
I own Cokin, but I've bought my P-size holder and most of my filters used.
(I used to have a dinky A-size holder.) I have adapter rings for 49 mm,
52 mm, 55 mm and 72 mm. I use it mainly for GND and effects.
If I had to do it over again and couldn't buy used, I probably get the
Lee system.
I prefer screw-on filters for the more common filters (UV, ND, etc.)
I buy 55 mm, and use adapters for smaller sizes lenses (49 mm, 52 mm).
It's a compromise.
There is one other type of filter that can help with sunsets when the
horizon is not flat: a contrast-reducing filter, such as the Tiffen
Ultra Contrast.. It works by creating invisible micro-flare.
(All lenses reduce contrast--some much more than others.)
But your blacks will not be black.
There's a perception out there that postprocessing has made filters obsolete.
This is true only of color-correction filters. Even the colored filters
intended for B&W photography can still apply to digital simulated
B&W images. (E.g., if you are using a red filter to darken the sky,
you may still need it to get the right exposure.)
All other filters (UV, ND, etc) are just as necessary with digital as with
film photography -- unless one is willing to lower one's standards.
These days, filters are under-used and misundrstood -- which is a shame.
They are very powerful and sometimes absolutely necessary to get the shot.
More info:
https://luminous-landscape.com/understanding-graduated-neutral-density-filters/http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2014/03/30/what-are-neutral-density-filters-and-how-to-use-them/