The Art of Filtration in the Digital Age

Part 2 - Neutral Density Filters

Text and images by Kah Kit Yoong - All rights reserved.

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Freycinet National Park, Tasmania, Australia

This is a straight forward use of a GND. The sun had set about 20 minutes before this shot, directly in front. Although it was a low light situation, the sky was relatively a lot brighter than the foreground in shadow. The horizon is essentially straight and I was shooting into the direction where the sun had set so a 3 stop hard grad was an easy choice. The arrows show where the grad line was placed.

There is a peculiar issue that occasionally affects the combination of ultra-wide focal lengths, P-Cokin filters and vertical compositions. Light can reflect off the top of the filter and cause lightening in the top corners of the image. Handholding the filter in these cases eliminates the problem. That was the reason I increased the ISO to 200 to enable a shutter speed of 15 seconds which is the maximum time I can hold a filter steady.

Canon 5D, 16-35mm 2.8L, f16, 15 seconds, ISO 200, tripod, 3 stop hard Singh-Ray GND