Strucar2

Here’s my problem. I like to shoot in the afternoon but it always super bright out. Can someone recommend a nuetral density filter that I can use while walking around ( no tripod). I just want to reduce the brightness a little but not so much that I need to use a tripod .

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Refer to the chart of ND filter ratings in this wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral-density_filter

A 1-stop filter is quite useful. Depending on your lens and the situations you envision using your ND filter, maybe a 2-stop filter is better. Maybe both to have an option based on the specific situations.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Here’s an article that might help your search. You should be able to reduce the amount of light while balancing your shutter speed to allow for handholding. Or shoot in RAW and bring the exposure down to your liking. Not sure what kind of effect you’re looking for.

BebuLamar

If you want to reduce light in order to have slow shutter speed like getting smooth waterfall it won't work without tripod (unless you're a good Bipod). If you want to use large aperture in bright light it would work. In this case if your camera has top speed of 1/8000 then you won't need more than 2 stops ND filter (ND .6).

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Try a 1 to 3 stop soft graduated filter just to darken your sky while leaving the ground and shadows alone.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Just from your statement here, I'm curious as to why not just adjust f/stop or shutter speed?
--Bob

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Perhaps he's thinking of the properties of a polarizing filter?
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-use-and-buy-polarizing-filters/

.

Strucar2

Could be. I’m new to photography. Here is my scenario. I went to an equestrian event during the day( super bright out). So the majority of my shots were from an angle below the subject. You kind of need to look up to shoot a horse (at least from the ground). That being said my shots had a lot of blown out backgrounds. Plus everything looks somewhat washed out. I’m shooting raw with an EOS R and adjusting exposure according to the histogram in my viewfinder. I was thinking a nuetral density filter would help bring out the colors and reduce the brightness while still enabling me to shoot the horses in movement. Am I wrong?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You're correct, where the ND will help you use the wider aperture and / or slower shutter you desire for your composition but the light is too bright for the exposure settings. There may be editing options too for the results you've described, but we'd need an example, converted to JPEG and stored.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

There are a few things in play here. Do you have a couple of photos you can attach to this thread? Click reply, then look below the text box for the choose file, store original box - click that - and then add attachment. Once you see the photo has loaded, then click send.

Ch_Canon's and my comments posted at exactly the same time! I've seen five seconds apart, but never on the dot

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Neutral density filters are used to allow changes the aperture and or the shutter speed settings. They are neutral to blown out backgrounds or washed out pictures. Since you are shooting RAW, it has to look dull until you process the images. What software are you using?

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I use ND filters in bright sunlight quite often, but mostly to enable me to use a wider aperture that simply would not be possible otherwise. A 2-stop ND filter is what I find most useful in this situation. More than two stops will make shooting hand-held difficult.

User ID

Yes.


Basically, by shooting a dark hairy object
against a very bright sky you are creating
a "special effects" situation: overpowering
backlight. It's often used in very controlled
situations for fashion shoots, etc, etc, but
I can easily see where you don't like it for
your horses.

You can't solve this in-camera. Landscape
enthusiasts use a graduated ND filter to
reduce a bright sky without darkening the
landscape scene below it. But the grad ND
is basically half ND and half plain. It works
very well for landscape cuz the horizon is
there, demarking the bright sky from the
earth below by a fairly straight boundry.

If there was a grad ND for YOU, it would
have a horse shaped clear area and the
rest of it would be ND to darken the sky :-(

Your best initial procedure is to expose for
the horse and let the sky go, and this is a
definite case for shooting raw. If the sky
is not sooper brite, you may be able to get
it into useful tonal range from the raw file.
A jpeg is hopeless.

After the initial stage, you experiment with
using less than ideal exposure for the horse.
The raw file will allow you to correct for the
dark tone of the horse, but to just what
degree of correction is your experiment.
You can easily retrieve the horse back to a
normal looking tone at two stop under the
ideal horse exposure. That two stops will
help you fix up the sky.

The is no SOOC solution. And you need to
master the area selection tools in your PP
program, cuz you hafta SELECT the sky to
darken it without darkening the horse, and
then you'll "invert" that same selection to
work on lightening the horse.

Welcome to real photography :-)

.

User ID

`

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you just need modest attenuation, why not use a polarizing filter which would have other benefit as well. It all depends on what your goal is.