But what does this mean? How will they affect your images differently? These terms describe the transition between the graduated and neutral part of the filter. I recommend reading our Introduction to Graduated ND Filters for a more in-depth explanation on how Graduated ND Filters work but put simply, the main purpose of these filters is to darken the brighter parts of an image often the sky and create a well-balanced photo.
That means that the filters are only partially darkened unlike a regular ND Filter and the lower part is transparent and not affecting the image. How hard the transition is between the darkened and transparent part depends on the filter you choose; a Soft GND has a soft transition and a Hard GND has a hard transition. The latter is ideal when photographing scenes with an even horizon as it will leave a visible line on anything projecting the horizon.
So where does this leave the Medium GND? During the last five-or-so years, filters have been an important part of my photography and the perfect filter, one of my main criteria is color cast. What is a review without any image examples? All of these images are straight out of the camera and have not been processed, in order for you to properly see how the filters work in action.
Graduated ND Filters have become an important part of my preferred equipment and I always keep a filter pouch in my photography backpack. My impression of the NiSi Medium Grad is very positive after the first few months of testing and this filter alone will replace several of my others. Become a better photographer, starting today. Download Your Free Goodies.
A GND filter is a type of neutral density filter used in landscape photography. The darker part of the filter should not impart any colour cast to an image. Why not just call them graduated filters? The answer is because it is possible to find graduated filters of different colours on the market.
An example is sunset filters, which are tinged orange or red. GND filters are designed to allow for variable light transmission when taking an exposure. The gradient helps you to manage the light in the scene, by reducing the amount that reaches the sensor in the area that is darkened with gradient.
The darker the gradient is, the less light that will be let through that section of the filter. The aim of this is to prevent overexposing part of the image when there is a high dynamic range. Essentially, the darkened part of the GND filter allows you to reduce the dynamic range in the scene, so that your camera can expose correctly for the range of tones from highlights through to the shadows within the scene.
In doing so, GND filters can increase contrast in local areas where the darkened part is situated, such as clouds in the sky. By providing more contrast between light and dark areas, they can improve colour and detail. GND filters come in different rates of transition. Soft, medium and hard GND filters. Photo by: 'NiSi Filters'. On the other hand, a hard edge GND filter is characterised by a gradient from dark to clear with a definite transition that seems to cut straight across the middle. A medium edge GND filter sits between the two, with the gradient from dark to clear being softer than a hard edge but more obvious than a soft edge.
While there are three terms to classify GND filters, the rate of transition amongst manufacturers is not really standardised. As such, the rate of transition can vary across brands, meaning that one GND soft edge filter may have a harder edge than the same GND filter made by another company. GND filters are very useful for landscape photography when shooting during the golden hour.
During these moments, the sun is often very bright, while the foreground can be quite shadowy. While GND filters are often used during the day, you can also use them for shooting the stars or the Aurora Borealis at night. I can see you scratching your head already, but hear me out. Rather than taking one shot for the foreground and another for the stars to blend together using post-processing software later, you can try using a GND filter when initially exposing for the foreground, then removing it during the last seconds of the exposure to capture the stars in the sky.
This will prevent any star trails while allowing you to achieve a well-exposed foreground. Day and night aside, when should you use a soft versus a hard edge GND filter? While most landscape photographers agree that it is best to use a soft edge GND filter when there is something in the way of your horizon such as a mountain or a tree and a hard edge GND filter when the horizon is flat like a seascape , it can actually be a little bit more complicated to choose which filter to use.
Ultimately, you should consider the subject that you are shooting. However, you will also need to take the lens that you are using into account. The reason is that the longer the focal length, the softer the transition will appear. Therefore, if you are using a mm lens, you may not even be able to see an effect from a soft edge GND filter in your images. A soft edge GND filter features a very smooth transition from dark to clear.
The top of the filter will be the darkest, gradually changing so that the middle of the filter is light while the bottom half is generally clear.
The transition itself will be barely noticeable in your images, though the GND filter will still do its job of blocking light where the darker parts are situated.
Soft edge GND filters are best used when shooting landscape photos with an ultra wide lens or a wide angle zoom lens. They are also a good choice when there are obstacles in the landscape that rise above or obstruct the horizon line, such as mountains and trees.
The softness of the gradual transition should allow for these objects to be exposed correctly when the GND filter is aligned on or near the horizon line. This allows the photographer ND filter to use slow shutter speed to create motion blur and a shallower depth of field. As a graduated ND filter with half part transparent and half part dark, this enables you to reduce the part of the light.
The difference between these 2 filters is that the GND filters only darken part of the image while the ND filter darkens the whole image. The screw-on circular ND filters are placed directly in front of the lens of your camera. Each filter has a specific diameter e. The operation is therefore rather straightforward. You screw the ND filter on the camera lens. The square ND filter allows you to slot different filters into the holder.
You can drop in an ND Filter a Gnd filter and polarizer at the same time. Check the Pros and Cons of each of them. Hard GND Filter. Soft GND filter. These filters are specifically designed to allow you to use a longer shutter speed when shooting during the daytime in order to blur the movement of elements like water or clouds.
The blurred movement of the clouds and the smoothed out the water of the lake adds a dreamy effect to the shot. A shutter speed of five seconds is required to capture the desired effect. The solution is an ND Filter.
ND filters aren't just for still photography, either. You can also use them for videography. Solid NDs have differing degrees of filtering power, which are measured in stops. In the image above, a stop ND filter was used, which generated the gorgeous blur that sets the image apart.
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