Graduated ND Filter Selection

Okay, I'm ready to pull the trigger on some Singh-Ray graduated neutral density filters, but I curious which ones will give me the most bang for the buck. They are available in one to four stops and in a hard or soft graduation. I don't want to buy $800 worth of filters today, so what 2 or 3 filters would do me the most good for sunrise/sunset shots? What do landscape photographers use most often?

Thanks!

It depends. (You knew that was coming didn't you? )
In terms of strength, I find the 2 and 3 stop filters the most usefull.

In terms of hard edge vs. soft edge, it depends on the subject matter. If you are usually shooting flat horizons like seashore or praire, you will probably find the hard edge more usefull. I shoot mostly in mountainous areas with uneven horizons so I find the soft edge most usefull.

These are only general rules of thumb. There are times when a hard edge works well in the mountains and, I suppose, there are times whan a soft edge will work well at the seashore.

Cheers,

I own the hard 3 stop and soft two stop. I stack if I need to which is quite often. If I were to get a 3rd filter, I'd like to get the soft 3 stop so I don't get the hard grad lines in uneven objects.

Ditto with the 2 (.6) and 3 (.9) stop recommendations but I'd like to pass on a warning that could save you some dissapointment. If you buy resin filters, don't let the surfaces of any two filters sit touching each other in your gear bag. Also keep them away from possible abrasion even in the bag or their filter case. One day I lost the protective sheet from two of mine and left them in the case, faces touching. I was of course going to do something about that later. A couple of months later, I went to use them only to notice that they had some sort of scratching and hard white spots (like deposits) which I was only partially able to clean up. While they're used pretty close to the front element of the lens and these scratches partially dissapear, they do contribute to flair, kill a little image quality and just don't look good anyway.

Hope this saves you some trouble and maybe a little money on replacement cost.

Arni,

I use the Kinesis grad filter pouch available from the NPN Gift Shoppe. It works very well, I've been using it for a couple of years and have not seen any damage to my filters.

Cheers,

Galen Rowell always said if he only took two filters with him it would be a 2 stop soft and a 3 stop hard. I tend to agree with that.

Soft filters are great for when you are shooting a jagged horizon, ie mountains, and the hard is great for distinct horizons.

Wide angle lenses also benifit from soft grads more as the transition line is not as obvious and hard edged grads work well with normal to telephoto lens as the transition line becaomes softer the closer to the lens you stick the grad. Of cousre you can use a hard on a wide angle but the line is harder to hide.

If that make sense

Ditto Keith. I shoot a lot at the beach, etc. where the entire horizon line is visble. For that application the hard gradient work very well (primarily 3 stop hard). When I'm on a river, etc. the trees of different heights, etc. make the 2 stop soft better suited. As someone else has already mentioned you can stack them if necessary as well.

What you need depends on what you shoot and where you live. Where I live, I hardly ever use anything but the 2-stop hard edged. The 3-stop is too often just too much here. I am very careful with the filters and put them away immediately after use.I am also careful to use a shade with them to cut down on glare. The shade I use now is from Lee, and fits into the outer slot of my Cokin P holder. It's pretty nifty.


Kent in SD

Great thread - so what would you guys recommend for someone who loves their 18-200 and 80-400 telephotos (the smaller is wide angle AND telephoto) ? Thanks - Sandy

Grad use not only depends on terrain but on the lenses you use. You need harder edge grads for normal and tele lenses, and softer for wide angle lenses (everything else being equal). My recommendation is to break down and get 4 filters - 2 and 3 hard edge, and 2 and 3 soft edge. These four filters cover 80-90% of my shooting needs no matter what lens type or terrain I am in. You won't regret having this compliment of filters. Darwin

I have 1, 2, 3 stop soft edge, a 3-stop hard edge, and a 3 stop reverse grad. I probably use the 2 and the 3 stop soft edge filters the most. I use the 1 stop filter a lot when shooting film, since I can't change the original slide later like I can an original digital shot.

If you're shooting digital and you're willing to do some PS work, grad nd filters become less important (though I still like using them with digital). But if you're shooting film, then they are essential.

You can use a soft grad upside down to make a reverse grad. Often useful for a sunset where you really only want to darken just above the horizon and not the whole sky. You won't see the edge since it's too close to the lens to be in focus. Bob Singh suggested this to me when I inquired about reverse grads.

Sandy grad filters are essentially useless with lenses longer than about 150mm (the transition edge just turns to mush - even with a hard edge grad). You can work around this by hiloding the filter about 6 inches in front of the lens, but for all practical purposes grads are for wide angle and normal lenses only. Darwin