Neutral Density Filter Selection

arturo7

arturo7

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I'd like to try using a neutral density filter.

Which stop factor would be the best choice to start out?

thanks
 
Depends on what you are trying to achieve and what time of day you’ll be doing it.

I carry a 3, 6 and 10 stop which pretty much covers anything I do in the landscape.
 
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I got a Formatt Hitech Firecrest 3.9 ND filter (13 stops) . . . WOW ! . . . it is a whole new world.
 
3 and 6 stops will get you to a few tenths or few seconds depending on brightness, if you want to add a bit of movement to water for example, likely sunset / sunrise. A 10 or 16 stop will get you to minutes or more, even upwards of 10 minutes depending on settings and it's a serious effort going specifically for very long exposures with an intervalometer, like I posted in another thread.

The 10 and 16 stops are for quite specific use and you might find you hardly use it, the 3 and 6 might be more versatile if you like landscape / seascapes.
 
arturo7 said:
No specific goals, just experimentation and learning at this point.
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May be worth getting a cheapish screw on (if your only using on one lens/same size thread) Variable ND filter, that'll give you a few options to play with and may help you find a shooting style you like and then you'll be able to choose where to go from there.
 
I generally use 3/6/10 stop depending on how much I want to slow the shutter speed by.
 
I started with a cheap screw type ND10 filter and had fun experimenting on an old Sigma 10-20 zoom, I have since sourced a better quality ND10 and it meets all my needs for the moment.... good luck and have fun !
 
arturo7 said:
I'd like to try using a neutral density filter.

Which stop factor would be the best choice to start out?

thanks
Click to expand...
Are you going to use a tripod? It is something to consider if you have not already thought about it.
 
It depends entirely what you want to shoot.....

Long daytime exposure then at least a 10 stop.
Not quite as extreme as above or longer exposures at sunset/sunrise maybe a 6.
Coastal and waterfalls to capture some movement & detail I tend to use a 3 stop or maybe a 6.

If I'm going out with only one, then a 6 stop is my most used.
 
Variable ND filters can have issues, the main one is uneven lighting (called the X shadow I believe) this is worse at wide angle and varies with the angle of the light.
From what I've seen the people doing "long exposures" seem to mostly use the x10 or x15 stop. But as said by others it'll vary on what and when you shoot.
 
3/6/10 also
They came as a screw-on kit from Nisi.
I didn't think I'd use the 3 stop but I use it more than the 10 stop.
The 6 stop is combined with a CPL

I think my tastes have changed from milky water shots with the 10 stop to more textured movement of the water with the 3 or 6 stop
 
6/10/16 here - can emulate the 3 by using the 6 & upping the ISO 3 stops...
 
swanseamale47 said:
Variable ND filters can have issues, the main one is uneven lighting (called the X shadow I believe) this is worse at wide angle and varies with the angle of the light.
From what I've seen the people doing "long exposures" seem to mostly use the x10 or x15 stop. But as said by others it'll vary on what and when you shoot.
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That's what they say. I bought kf nano x 2-32 and it doesn't do it. So good ones are fine. I only bought it for video, but never actually used it on a job

I see very limited appeal for them most of the time. For video sure, maybe some waterfall in very bright light, never wanted more than 3-5 stops anyway. Cpl is usually enough to get me in the ballpark; not a fan of heavy Nd looks at all
 
LongLensPhotography said:
That's what they say. I bought kf nano x 2-32 and it doesn't do it. So good ones are fine. I only bought it for video, but never actually used it on a job

I see very limited appeal for them most of the time. For video sure, maybe some waterfall in very bright light, never wanted more than 3-5 stops anyway. Cpl is usually enough to get me in the ballpark; not a fan of heavy Nd looks at all
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I've got a couple, one normal one and a few vari colour working on the same idea. They all work, but sometimes I get uneven lighting (a dark corner or whatever) To be honest I dont use them much, A. because the uneven light issue, I normally use various square ND's instead. And B the vari colour? Well it seemed a good idea when I bought them..... Like all the other junk that I just couldnt manage without, and only used once as a test.
I have a holdall full of bits like that. :(
 
OK, I went for a 10 stop Hoya filter. Worked with it for about half an hour yesterday. I think this is exactly what I was hoping for.

cheers and thanks again
 
swanseamale47 said:
I've got a couple, one normal one and a few vari colour working on the same idea. They all work, but sometimes I get uneven lighting (a dark corner or whatever) To be honest I dont use them much, A. because the uneven light issue, I normally use various square ND's instead. And B the vari colour? Well it seemed a good idea when I bought them..... Like all the other junk that I just couldnt manage without, and only used once as a test.
I have a holdall full of bits like that. :(
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Just thinking of it, was it a wideangle short with sky? They are just a fancy double polariser so you could likely see the simple CPL effect. You certainly get a slightly different image when you rotate the whole filter. nono x pro in fact has a dedicated knob for such rotation; mine is magnetic so you can still spin it.
I wonder if I will get to actually use it. The thing is a beast preventing the attachment of the lens hood. Maybe when I have to film some dog scoop out in the blazing midday sunlight
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Just thinking of it, was it a wideangle short with sky? They are just a fancy double polariser so you could likely see the simple CPL effect. You certainly get a slightly different image when you rotate the whole filter. nono x pro in fact has a dedicated knob for such rotation; mine is magnetic so you can still spin it.
I wonder if I will get to actually use it. The thing is a beast preventing the attachment of the lens hood. Maybe when I have to film some dog scoop out in the blazing midday sunlight
Click to expand...
Yes I think it probably was a wide angle. I dont often use a ppolariser normally anyway.
 
mstphoto said:
I think my tastes have changed from milky water shots with the 10 stop to more textured movement of the water with the 3 or 6 stop
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Milky water / foamy sky shots are done to death and akin to the use of 'painting by numbers' kits. It's just too formulaic. That's not to say that the technique can never work - if you had a large format camera (on a tripod) with a small aperture lens that led to a long shutter speed, no filters involved, then it was something that was more or less a given & could be factored in with integrity - if you had the vision, that is, and the vision came from the gut rather than being just a brief cerebral conceit.

Look at stuff that John Blakemore did on the Welsh coast back in the 70's, for instance.

I'm no maestro myself, and of course it's allowed to play around (how else could we learn?) - but the ultimate goal, to be worthwhile, should be a maturity of vision rather than a box ticking exercise. We have a medium, and we have freedom - let's make it meaningful.
 
PS: A 1, 2, or even 3 stop ND can be useful in bright daylight for enabling a large aperture hence a shallow dof, if that happened to be your remit. Which would also relate to the max shutter-speed that your camera could provide. Many a film camera had 1/500 max. My OM1 (film) has 1/1000. My D810 had 1/4000 (I think). Some have 1/8000 in which case you can more or less forget about nd filters altogether - unless you have a particular fetish ...
 
Funnily enough I just bought (about an hour ago) a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest 82mm 16 stop ND filter. Summer is here after all!
 
And I just found my favourite ND calculator app for my mobile phone . . . 'ND Expert' - £Free and very, very easy to use :)
 
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