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The FUJIMI ND8 67mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic and creates minimal def…
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The FUJIMI 58mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in a range of 8 stops of exposure, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic ...
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The FUJIMI 67mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in a range of 8 stops of exposure, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical...
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The FUJIMI 77mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in a range of 8 stops of exposure, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical...
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The FUJIMI 72mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in a range of 8 stops of exposure, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical...
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Variable Neutral Density Filter FUJIMI 52mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in the range of 8 exposure stops, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical...
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The FUJIMI 82mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in a range of 8 stops of exposure, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic ...
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The FUJIMI ND16 77mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal def…
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The FUJIMI ND8 58mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic and creates minimal def…
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 77mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; a thin metal frame attached to the filter...
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The FUJIMI ND8 77mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic and creates minimal def…
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 52mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; a thin metal frame gives the filter a m…
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The FUJIMI ND64 55mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects…
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The FUJIMI ND2 52mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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The FUJIMI ND16 67mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal def…
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 67mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; a thin metal frame gives the filter a m…
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The FUJIMI ND4 67mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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The FUJIMI 55mm Vari-ND filter ND2-ND400 allows you to smoothly change the amount of light passing through the lens in a range of 8 stops of exposure, introducing minimal distortion and color errors. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic ...
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The FUJIMI ND2 49mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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The FUJIMI ND16 72mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects…
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The FUJIMI ND2 62mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 49mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; a thin metal frame gives the filter a m…
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The FUJIMI ND16 58mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal def…
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The FUJIMI ND2 55mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defec…
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The FUJIMI ND2 58mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defec…
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The FUJIMI ND4 55mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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The FUJIMI ND4 58mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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The FUJIMI ND8 62mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic and creates minimal def…
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The FUJIMI ND64 72mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects…
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 82mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; a thin metal frame gives the filter a m…
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 58mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; thin metal frame gives a filter ...
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The FUJIMI ND2 72mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defec…
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The FUJIMI ND4 72mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects...
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The FUJIMI ND2 82mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal def…
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Neutral Density Filter Fujimi Pro ND1000 SuperSlim 72mm. has a dimming ratio of 1000x, providing a reduction in the exposure of the frame by 10 stops. The filter is made of high quality optical glass, introducing minimal distortion into the image; a thin metal frame gives the filter ...
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The FUJIMI ND16 52mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal def…
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The FUJIMI ND16 55mm Neutral Density Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical glass and creates minimal defects…
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The FUJIMI ND8 52mm ND Filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, thereby expanding the camera's creative range and allowing for various artistic effects. The filter is made of high quality optical plastic and creates minimal def…
Sooner or later, for any photographer, there comes a moment when the elementary knowledge of their technique and the feeling of the frame is no longer enough and they want to add some artistic elements to their work, techniques that open up new horizons in their work. A professional landscape and travel photographer, a member of the club, talks about one of those tools that any landscape painter should have in his backpack. Namely - about ND-filters.
18mm, f/7.1, 3.2s, ISO 400
"ND" is short for "neutral density", which means "neutral density" in English. The people call them "neutral gray", because they look really gray. Why do we need this type of light filters and for what purpose are they most often used? And most importantly - is it possible to do without them?
If you have been studying the intricacies of photography for more than a day, then most likely you have already encountered the problem of too much light in a particular frame (especially when you would like to increase the shutter speed). Here is his ND filter and helps to reduce. And don't be afraid that the word "gray" is present in the name of the filter, because ND filters in no way make color adjustments to the image. All they do is reduce the amount of light entering the lens, nothing else. Of course, if you use a cheap Chinese fake, then color correction will appear. I've been burned on cheap ND filters many times, especially when I first discovered them. But if we talk about high-quality ND filters - for example, from Hoya, which I myself use now and which I can vouch for - then they do not change the color of the image, as it should be. And all because their glass is covered with a special coating of ACCU-ND metal particles, while on both sides each light filter has a perfectly smooth polished surface and multi-enlightenment.
Let's take a look at how these filters work and how/when/why we can apply them.
Neutral gray filters have a simple and user-friendly gradation that is displayed in the name itself. For example, the ND2 filter lets 2 times less light into the lens, ND4 - 4 times less, ND500 - 500 times less, etc. As an example: if without a filter we can set the shutter speed to, say, 1 second, then in under the same conditions with the ND4 filter, we can already set 4 seconds, with the ND16 filter - 16 seconds, and so on.
32mm, f/8, 4s, ISO 200
In addition, all filters (at least Hoya) have a special thread on the outside, thanks to which they can be combined, providing the necessary dimming - in this case, the “times” simply multiply. For example, if you have only two filters ND2 and ND16, by winding them both at the same time, you will be able to increase the shutter speed from the same, say, 1 second - up to 32 seconds (2 × 16 = 32). This is very convenient and allows you to get different values \u200b\u200bwith just a few filters, only slightly playing with the ISO and aperture settings on the camera. True, we should not forget about such an effect as vignetting (darkening at the corners of the frame), which becomes critical on full-frame matrices, because even with two wound filters, for example, on a 16 mm lens, we practically stick the edges of the frame into the circle of the second filter. This, of course, is a real problem, which is almost invisible on crop or long focal lengths. Personally, I found a great way out for myself - since I shoot landscapes mostly with wide and ultra-wide, I just have a whole set of ND filters of a certain diameter, as they say, “for all occasions”: from ND2 to ND1000. And cases, as you know, are different. In my work, the ND filter is no less important tool than such a necessary thing as a tripod.
By the way, I used to have an ND filter with variable density, and not from cheap models. There are some. This is one filter, by twisting the rim of which we can get different darkening values. I categorically do not advise you to purchase such a “universal filter”. If at low ND values on such a filter the image quality is even more or less, then with higher blackouts the vignetting is so strong that it takes almost half a frame, and the pictures can be thrown out immediately. This is a problem with any variable density ND filters. For clarity, I will show you such unsuccessful shots from the Iguazu Falls (Brazil) - it was a cloudy day with a not very bright sun, and I had to increase the shutter speed by at least 3 steps to get a beautiful, even flow of water. But in fact, having only this ND with variable density, I had to reject almost the entire shooting. Soon I will add these photos of the Iguazu Falls, and you yourself will be able to evaluate the quality of the picture with such filters!
Thanks to the use of ND filters (of course, we now know that only with a fixed density) it is possible to shoot even during the day in the bright sun at longer shutter speeds, for which these filters are mainly used by photographers. This means blurring movements in the frame, opening the aperture more widely, while reducing the depth of field, and so on ... As an example, here is this photograph taken during the day, when the light is very hard and unfortunate. Without an ND filter, it would not be worth taking pictures in such conditions - the frames would be uninteresting, boring, with poor light - in a word, marriage. And with the ND800 we get this:
27mm, f/10, 0.6s, ISO 100
Let's take a closer look at the creative techniques that we can use.
Example one- if you want to shoot clouds floating across the sky during the day so that they turn from separate clouds into one moving beautiful stream, then you can use an ND500 light filter (or more, depending on the illumination), which reduces the flow of light entering the camera by 500 times, and a shutter speed of 10-15 seconds or more. The last parameter is determined by eye, depending on the speed of the clouds.
Example two- let's say you want to photograph a beautiful sunset or sunrise. For this, the ND8 filter is quite suitable for you, the use of which will allow you to take a photo with a shutter speed of up to 1 s. At the same time, the sky will be exposed normally, and the shadows in the foreground will work out better due to the longer shutter speed. Although, for the sake of fairness, it is worth saying that for sunsets and sunrises it is better to use not just neutral gray filters, but gradient neutral gray filters. What it is - for those who do not know, I will tell you sometime in a separate article / lesson.
Why else would you need a long exposure? In fact, there are a lot of artistic techniques! For example, you need to take a shot that has a road with cars passing on it, but at the same time you want there to be no cars in the frame (or you want to shoot a river, but boats scurry along it and prevent you from making a masterpiece). Of course, no one will block traffic on the road for the sake of your frame, but, fortunately, this is not necessary. It is enough to set the shutter speed longer, install a neutral gray filter on the lens that will allow you to photograph with a sufficiently long shutter speed - and voila! Passing cars simply won't have time to expose in your frame, so you get a shot without them. Of course, this is the case if the cars are driving without headlights on.
Or, on the contrary, you can take pictures in which the road is photographed without cars, but with a lot of white and red stripes from their headlights. This is the result of the same technique, only performed at a time of day at which cars drive with their headlights and signal lights on, ideally - when dusk is just beginning to deepen.
The same technique can be used in a composition that can be disturbed by passers-by and any other moving objects. By increasing the shutter speed, we simply remove moving objects from the frame. Or we blur them to the desired degree, playing with shutter speeds, depending on our creative idea. For example, having an ND1000 filter, we can thus adjust the exposure during the day in order to shoot two lovers in the crowd of the city (who will have to stand motionless for some time embracing), while the crowd around them will be exposed with a barely noticeable trail, and you will get the feeling that for these two there is time stopped, and the rest of the world simply does not exist and is very fleeting. A very interesting take.
But with all the variety of tricks with ND filters, my favorite is working on various bodies of water. These are waterfalls, and lake / river surface, and heavy rain, and sea waves - all , what has to do with water!
23mm, f/5.6, 6s, ISO 400
Here, ND filters open up huge prospects for us. Through various manipulations with exposure, for example, we can make the water surface flawlessly smooth, like glass. Or, if the sea or lake is turbulent, with a slow shutter speed you can turn it into fog or haze - such an effect loved by many photographers. If, on the contrary, you intend to emphasize the dynamism of the water flow, then the shutter speed can be extended only slightly (up to 1-2 seconds, but you need to experiment) so that the water is a little smeared: it will feel like it is moving very quickly. So, for example, I recently filmed ice floes in Iceland in the famous Iceberg Lagoon. Waves periodically break on these ice floes, and using ND filters of different densities, I got sea wave blur effects that were different from each other.
A word of advice about photographing with ND filters: set your exposure compensation to "-1". And one more thing: it is desirable to compose a frame without a light filter put on the lens (if conditions permit), because the filter will greatly darken the picture, which will complicate the task of building a frame.
27mm, f/5.6, 3.2s, ISO 400
Cheat sheet on the duration of exposures in daylight for different objects
- Stormy Brook . Usually enough up to 3-4 s. excerpts. If you expose longer, then the water stream will most likely turn into a kind of monolith.
- Slightly motion blurred cars in the city . Shutter speed is approximately 1/2 sec. - if more, then the cars will be too blurry (if you do not achieve just such an effect).
- Slowly passing clouds . Here you already need a shutter speed of 10-15 seconds, then the movement will be transmitted very beautifully. But you also need to look at the speed of passing clouds.
- Wave on the coast . Different options are possible here, depending on what effect you want, on the brightness of the light, the strength of the sea surf, etc. If you need a barely blurry wave, then the shutter speed is usually up to 1 second, but in general everything is known in practice - do not be afraid experiment!
The main rule is that the slower what we shoot, the longer exposure we need.
And the second rule is that the less details we want in the picture, the more exposure we need again.
about the author
First name, last name, age: Vladimir Alekseev, 36 years old
Technique: Canon (Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon 50 mm f/1.2L, Canon 100 mm f/2.8 II macro, Canon 8-15 mm f/4L, Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8L II , Canon 16-35 mm f/2.8L II, Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8L II, Canon 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L II, Sigma 150-600 mm f/5-6.3.)
Exhibitions, awards, achievements:
Published the book “Planet in the frame. Look with your heart"
Two more photo albums are being prepared for publication in a large circulation
Participant and speaker at the Primordial Russia-2016 Photo Festival as part of the exhibition Russia in the Frame. Look with your heart"
Photo exhibition "Flowers of Russia" in the open-air gallery on Tverskoy Boulevard
Photo exhibition "Markets of the World" on Tverskaya
Host of the program about traveling with soul "My Way" on the Allatra Travel TV channel
Best advice: Don't shoot if you're not in a good mood. A digital image conveys what we feel at the time of shooting - just like an artist's painting "remembers" his inner state.
Have you ever wondered how professional photographers capture movement, getting soft, blurry clouds and misty, as if shrouded in haze, streams of water? Are you unable to achieve the same effects at slow shutter speeds?
Most likely because professionals use neutral density filters or, simply, neutral density (ND) filters. Do not confuse with Gradient Neutral Density Filters (ND Grad). The latter darken only part of the frame.
ND filters are designed to absorb light passing through them without affecting color reproduction. This property of neutral filters allows you to increase the exposure time. But do you know when to use them?
How to use ND filters?
You will find ND filters in any professional landscape painter's bag. However, they are less appreciated by hobbyists. And all because at first glance, the ND filter looks like a flat piece of grayish glass!
The ND filter does not make any visible changes to the picture, it just slows down the "absorption" time by the light-sensitive image sensor.
But if you use the filter when shooting moving subjects like water, clouds, and even people, it opens up a whole world of creative possibilities. If you “freeze” the waterfall with a normal shutter speed, then it will look static and rather boring in the picture. Take a picture with a long exposure, as the image of falling water immediately becomes blurred. This will bring a sense of movement to the photo.
On a sunny day, an ND filter can be used to slow down movement to convey a sense of movement. For more spectacular shots, a neutral density filter allows you to get at dawn or at dusk: you can win an exposure time of several seconds and depict the splash of coastal waves with a gentle mist.
There are various types of ND filters on the market. The most easy to use are round ones with threads for mounting in front of the front lens element. Their disadvantage is that if you make a “layer cake” out of ND filters ( approx. translator - in order to increase the density and, as a result, enhance the effect), vignetting problems may occur.
Plate filters require a holder frame and an adapter ring to be attached to the lens first. The filter can then be inserted into the square or oblong shaped holder. The main advantage of plate filters is that they can be quickly changed or combined by stacking several plates together. In this case, the combination can include both only neutral filters and filters of other types.
A relatively recent development is variable density filters. They are screwed in front of the front lens of the lens and have a setting ring, by turning which you can change the density of the neutral density filter depending on the lighting conditions and the desired result.
When to use ND filters?
To show movement, it is not necessary to photograph a waterfall with a very slow shutter speed. The water moves so fast that an ND filter is enough to shoot in the middle of the day, allowing 8 times less light to pass through it than would enter the lens without a filter ( approx. translator - in other words, under other unchanged shooting conditions, the exposure will decrease by 3EV). However, if you plan to photograph the surf or clouds, you may need shutter speeds of at least 30 seconds. The movement of these objects is slower than the falling water.
With ND filter.
No ND filter.
The lower the light intensity during golden time at sunrise or twilight, the slower the shutter speed you can choose. And, of course, the nature of the lighting is the key to great shots!
Neutral density filters are not only used to create a blur effect. You can make moving people disappear! You will need to expose the frame for several minutes, but the people walking through the scene will not be visible in the photo. Architecture photographers keep this opportunity in mind when they capture objects located in tourist hotspots.
ND filters are not only suitable for increasing exposure times. For example, you are photographing a portrait on a clear sunny day and want to get a shallow depth of field. You probably won't be able to open the aperture wide. You will need a fast shutter speed, which is not technically available for your camera ( approx. translator - for example, shorter than 1/8000 of a second).
Use a neutral density filter. This will open the aperture wider ( approx. translator - set a smaller aperture value).
Understanding the characteristics of ND filters
Manufacturers may refer to filter density in different ways. Below is a table to help you select the right ND filter for your needs:
| Exposure value, EV (“step”, “stop”) | Density (units vary by manufacturer) | The amount of transmitted light,% | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0,3 | ND2 | 50 |
| 2 | 0,6 | ND4 | 25 |
| 3 | 0,9 | ND8 | 12,5 |
| 4 | 1,2 | ND16 | 6,25 |
| 5 | 1,5 | ND32 | 3,125 |
| 6 | 1,8 | ND64 | 1,563 |
| 7 | 2,1 | ND128 | 0,781 |
| 8 | 2,4 | ND256 | 0,391 |
- Note. translator: look at the third column. The number after the abbreviation "ND» denotes how many times the amount of light passing through the filter will decrease: 2 times, 4 times, etc.
What to look for when choosing an ND filter
Materials and coatings
Several factors affect the quality and, as a result, the cost of filters. The material used is resin, glass or polyester. The last material is the cheapest of the three, but also distorts the transmitted light to a greater extent. Numerous coatings reduce flare and ghosting, while black aluminum holders and framed glass reduce reflections. The use of thin and low-profile holders contributes to less vignetting.
Threaded filter or plate filter?
Circular filters are small, light and easy to install, but they lack the flexibility of application: a combination of several filters leads to problems with vignetting, and a single filter only fits a certain diameter of the screw mount on the lens. To use square plate filters, you will need an adapter ring and a holder frame, which are optional accessories that you will need to carry with you. It is less convenient to deploy the plate filter system, but it allows you to quickly and easily combine ND filters and, as a result, increase the exposure time. You can combine ND-plates with other types of filters: for example, neutral gradient and polarizing.
Adapter and step-down rings.
In order to easily install plate filters on different lenses, it is enough to purchase inexpensive ring adapters for each lens size you use. If you want to use threaded filters, choose one filter in the store for your lens with the largest threaded mount diameter. Additionally, purchase step-down rings for the rest of your lenses. Such rings allow you to install the same filter on lenses with a smaller threaded mount diameter.
Over the past couple of years, long exposure photography has become quite popular among amateur and professional photographers alike. You can shoot with a long exposure both in the dark and during the day using darkening ND filters. Today we will share with you 8 useful tips that will make your long exposure shots and ND filters much better and more popular.
However, shooting with ND darkening filters presents a number of challenges that you may not have thought about before. And these tips should help you with this.
Windmill at sunset (ISO100, f/18, 118 s)
First, a little theory about the principle of operation
An ND filter should only block out excess light without changing the color gamut of the image. Each "Stop" of the ND filter reduces the amount of light entering the camera's matrix by exactly 2 times. Here is what the marking of each filter ND2, ND8 means:
1 Stop = 2 =ND2 (light attenuation 2 times)
2 Foot = 2x2=4 =ND4 (light attenuation 4 times)
3 Foot \u003d 2x2x2 \u003d 8 \u003dND8 (light attenuation 8 times)
4 Foot \u003d 2x2x2x2 \u003d 16 \u003dND16 (light attenuation 16 times)
10 Stops = 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2=1024=ND1024 (1024 times light attenuation)
A fairly common 2-stop filter (often referred to as "ND4") reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor by a factor of 4. A 3-stop filter ("ND8") at 8 times, etc. And so on up to 10 stops when the light is reduced by 1024 times, which means that the shutter must be open 1000 times longer than when shooting without a filter.
What is all this for?
If you want to take a picture in which there will be “silky” water and “rushing” clouds, then shooting in the late evening, when there is very little light, you will succeed without problems, but what if you need to get such a picture in the afternoon when shooting with a long exposure is not possible ? Due to the fact that no matter how you close the aperture, you will get a white spot when you set a slow shutter speed. The use of an ND filter will help you with this problem.
Lake District. UK (ISO100, f/18, 118s)
Tip 1. What you need a tripod you guessed without me. Shooting with a strong shading filter can use shutter speeds of up to several minutes. Therefore, it is essential that the tripod is as stable as possible. Here it is better to use heavy tripods rather than light aluminum ones. The tripod should only be placed on firm ground and the center tube should not be extended. If the tripod has a strap, you need to fasten it so that it does not catch the wind.
When shooting in windy weather, many people recommend loading a tripod with a heavy bag that can be hung from the hook at the bottom. But I do not recommend doing this, because. such a bag will swing from the wind like a pendulum, bringing “shake” to the frame. In windy weather, I use a bag in which you can pour sand or grains and press down on the camera itself from above, this is more reliable.
Tip 2. If the filter density is high ND8 and higher, then it will be problematic to autofocus, autofocus has nothing to catch on. Therefore, it is better to compose the frame and focus in advance without a filter by pressing the shutter button halfway, then switch autofocus to manual mode and screw on the filter and press the shutter button.
Tip 3. If you use a shutter speed of more than 30 seconds, then on most cameras you need to switch to BULB mode, this mode allows you to shoot at slow shutter speeds, and keeps the shutter open for as long as the shutter button is held down, so if your camera does not have a lock on the shutter button pressed, use the cable release or remote control. Because if you keep the shutter button pressed manually on the camera, then movement is inevitable.
Tip 4. How to calculate approximate shutter speed when using an ND filter. This can be done either empirically by taking pictures with different shutter speeds, or turn to the help of simple mathematics. For example, if the shutter speed without a filter is ¼s, when using a 10-stop filter (ND1024), the shutter speed will be 0.25s × 1000 = 250s, 250s / 60 ~ 4 minutes, why is there a sign approximately? Because we have rounded 1024 to 1000 for counting convenience. But in reality, this does not always work, since lighting conditions can change quite quickly when the sun is already near the horizon.
Tip 5. Choosing the right shooting conditions. There must be dynamics in the frame. Surf, flowing stream, or at least clouds and strong wind (if there is wind, see tip 1) If there is water, or at least clouds and wind, then there will be nothing in the frame that can show movement. I prefer to shoot at sunset or dawn when the sun is near the horizon, this enhances the contrast in the clouds, resulting in a “strip effect” in the picture.
Sunrise over limestone formations (ISO 160, f/13.50 s)
Tip 6 Even at low ISO settings, ultra slow shutter speeds can create hot pixel noise that is not always visible on the camera's LCD screen. But when viewed on a computer screen, you will 100% be able to find some bright red/green/blue pixels. An effective way to remove them is as follows. Set the same parameters as for the current shooting, close the lens cap and take a picture, the hot pixels will be the same on all frames. It's like a fingerprint of your camera's matrix. So, once you've taken a completely black shot with these pixels, you can subtract them from other shots during processing to create a hot/dead pixel map.
Tip 7. Some brands of cheap ND filters have been known to alter some colors in the final image. Therefore, pictures should only be taken in RAW format, thanks to this you can correct the wrong shades without much damage. Sometimes such filters, when used in excess of slow shutter speeds, change colors so much that it can only be corrected by converting the image to black and white.
Tip 8 Think over and compose the frame in advance. No slow shutter speed will make your photo beautiful if at least the simplest rules of composition are not taken into account, here are links to several articles that will help you brush up on compositional techniques.
Conclusion. In general, given some minor difficulties in working with ND filters, they can help you a lot in shooting with long exposures in the daytime. To learn how to take great professional long exposure shots with and without ND filters, I recommend taking a complete step-by-step course on Long Exposure Photography, to learn more about the course and order it, click on the picture below.
With ND filters, I shoot with a Canon 5D Mk II and an EF 24-70/2.8 lens with a 77mm filter thread. My 70-200 telephoto has the same landing diameter for the filter, but over the past three years I have probably shot only a couple of shots on a telephoto with ND filters. And there are not so many plots for this and problems with fixing the camera - for shooting on a telephoto camera, even a very slight trembling makes the picture blurry.
First I bought a Hoya Pro-1 ND 64x filter, it was my model that was discontinued, its analogue now is PROND64. This filter reduces exposure by 6 stops (EV). Thanks to him, I began to get great exposures of a few seconds in cloudy weather and in fairly weak light (dawn / sunsets), as well as in a dense forest, even on a sunny day. The filter does not make any deterioration in the picture at all - the colors do not go away, the sharpness does not drop, the contrast does not drop. And this ultra wide filter is thin, I even wind it second on top of my ultra wide UV filter - and nothing vignettes at 24 mm. In the viewfinder of my second penny, everything is visible with the filter turned on, although of course I recommend using Live View when shooting with an ND filter. In general, ND filter 64x or minus 6 stops is the most versatile and frequently used filter for me. And specifically the Hoya filter is good, I have no complaints.
But minus six stops is not enough in sunny weather. And there are real situations when you want to minus three or four stops. In general, I began to think what to buy next from ND filters. And I went the wrong way. I learned about variable density ND filters that darken smoothly, into which two polarizers spin, I saw that at the same Hoya they cost much more than ordinary ND filters - 250-300 bucks versus 60-100. The idea I had was to buy an ultrawide variable density filter and wind it on top of my 64x to increase the darkening. I was tempted to buy Chinese ND filters twice, first junk for 15 bucks from FOTGA, then for 90 bucks - “Haida PROII-S 77mm Super Wide Angle MC Variable Neutral Density ND ND ND8-ND1000” - like a good Chinese brand that makes glasses for B+W. And twice was severely disappointed. After half the shading range with my 24-70 lens, there were very visible and uneditable gradient star-shaped shadings in the center. It's just terrible, the filters did not work out even half the range. So the houses are lying around, I haven’t been able to sell them through ads yet)))
I know photographers who shoot with branded variable density ND filters, these filters are probably better, they didn’t complain much about them))) But I’m only sure about classic ND filters so far.
But the desire to have a darker filter still prevailed. I looked at the ND400 and ND1000 filters with 9 and 10 stops left. For economic reasons, Hoya PROND1000 was chosen. It is not ultra wide to shoot at a wide angle - you need to put it alone on the lens and at 24 mm there is a very small border in the corners, well, you can smear it with a stamp or crop the frame by 1-2%. Color also does not deteriorate, the contrast does not fall. It is already very bad to see the picture in the viewfinder, you need to work only on Live View.
Let's calculate what gives minus 10 stops on a sunny day. Those who shot on film remember the Sunny 16 Rule - set the shutter speed to ISO and on a sunny day we clamp the aperture to f / 16.
We have without filter - ISO 100, 1/125 sec, f/16
We make minus 10 stops (we will not lower ISO by 50, not all cameras have it) while maintaining the f / 16 aperture - the shutter speed is 8 seconds. In reality, of course, it can be either a little more or less, but we use a smart multi-zone exposure metering system of a digital camera.
In general, you can wind the ND64 and ND1000 on top of each other and get minus 16 stops, but here, of course, the wide end of the lens at 24 mm will be inaccessible, vignetting disappears from about 28 mm. Minus 16 stops - this is really possible to do shutter speed per minute on a sunny day, for example, in a city, in general, turn people and cars into a sunny haze.
Total my gentleman's set of ND filters
ND64 minus 6 stops, got Hoya for $60
ND1000 minus 10 stops, got Hoya for $90
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