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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Cushion plants along the Overland Track

This one was taken in the mid-afternoon, not during the magic hours. A GND was needed because of a foreground in shadow and a sky that was bright with numerous clouds. The sun was behind me so a 2 stop GND was used. Although not perfectly straight with several peaks in the distance, the horizon line was even enough to use a hard grad. Note that there is a darkened area on the left where the grad part of the filter has passed though some land. This is known as a grad line or shoulder. Provided the scene is not underexposed some detail is usually retrievable with post capture processing if a 2 stop GND was used. If you use a 3 stop GND be prepared not to get any detail out of these darkened shoulders. Some advanced techniques to avoid this will be discussed in the next article.

Canon 5D, 16-35mm 2.8L, tripod, f22, shutter 0.3 seconds, ISO 100, Singh-Ray 2 stop hard GND