While the usefulness of graduated neutral density filters (GND) in landscape photography is widely acknowledged, their use is not very intuitive. In this little note, I will not dwell on the details of using GNDs (soft vs hard-edge, 2 vs 3-stop), but I would rather address a matter of practical utility.
When I bought my first set of filters, I made sure I also got the requisite compliment of filter holders and adaptor rings (one to fit each of my lenses). The filter holders are certainly handy and useful when you have long exposures or when you need to be away from your camera while the shot is being taken (think when you are your only available model on the field). That said, the whole “put-adaptor-ring-on-put-holder-on-take-them-off- switch- lens-drop-filters-in-the-river-try-and-retrieve-them-almost-fall-in-the-river” routine can be downright annoying! (OK, I’ll admit I am clumsy and have a natural inclination to fall into rivers.)
So what can you do, say you? My solution is fairly simple: I handhold my filters. No more adaptors, no holders, no switching. When you are in the field and the light is changing by the second, you need to be able to respond instantly, there is no time to fuss around with unnecessary gear. Now for this to work properly on wide angle lenses, it is preferable to use the larger 4”x6” filters: your chances of seeing your fingers in your compositions diminish greatly as the size of your filters increases. To my knowledge only Lee and Singh-Ray offer such filters and they do come at a price, but they are worth it!
In addition to the efficiency gains, handholding your filters offers a second advantage. Instead of using a set of soft-edge and a set of hard-edge filters, you only really need hard-edge one. As I am holding my filters, I move them gently up and down to soften the transition as needed. Moving them around also helps to prevent flaring to some extent.
I have just recently acquired the magnificent Nikon 14-24 f2.8 lens for my landscapes meaning that filters are no longer part of the equation. For those of you in a similar situation, or if you simply don’t believe in putting a piece of plastic in front of your expensive lenses, you have to resort to either manual exposure blending or high dynamic range (HDR) processing. More on that and on the 14-24 lens to come very soon on this blog.
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From what I understand (not having used filters yet) is that if you hand hold it, you would need to have it flat on the lens to prevent any glass reflection showing up in the shot right? And if you move the hard edge up and down would that not scratch it?
I am curious to see comparisons between GND filtered images and HDR’s (to see if there is any noticeable difference), on both film and Digital. I am interesed in taking film images (unparalelled sharpness and gradation detail) and scanning them at higher resolution than digital images (35-40MP at around 3,000-4,000 DPI) to processing them as a high resolution digital HDR image for large format prints. it may sound like wagging the dog for what can be accomplished with the 14-24 on a D700 or D3 body and a computer, but I feel that the fine gradation created by film and the pinsharp clarity at the edges possible with film using the 14-24 will outperform anything from a full frame 12MP (or 24MP) sensor when blown up to 30″x45″ as a poster. my goal is landscape art photography.
I agree with handholding larger filters, it is the most sensible thing to do.
On the 14-24 lense particularly the hood wont allow the filter to touch the lense, the only scratch potential then becomes between the hood flares and the filter itself.
alternately you could cut a lensecap to hold a filter but because you might need to leave a lip to hold the filter in place (you could also glue it permanently to the lense cover but its a little barbaric), you wouldnt be able to use full 14mm and would have to move to 18mm or 28mm, where handholding may allow getting closer to 14mm images! I shoot underwater images with just such a lense cap and 77mm filter scenario and it works similarly but I have to zoom in a little to avoid vignetting.
the whole purpose of getting the 14-24 for me would be to use at 14mm and a 4×6″ filter (hand held) sounds like the most obvious option, now are there any GND 4×6 filters out there?
Hand holding a Grad ND filter doesn’t work well for me because unless you hold
it almost flat against the camera lens, you end up with reflections on the filter which is seen in the photograph. Also, the filter scratches easy.