Equipment Questions... Filters/lenses

[MikeisEdge]

New to photography. Just bought a D60 Nikon and so far all I have is a 18-55mm, and 55-200mm lens.
I'd say my niche is shooting concerts, along with low-light, and sunset/night photography in general. I also like to close-ups.

That said, I was wondering which lenses/filters I should look to buy? I really don't want anything too high-end for now, just reasonable priced equipment that will do the job.


I've seen many different types of filters, and lenses... So I guess my questions are:


-For close-up shots (spiders/webs, flowers, bugs, etc.), would an extension tube do the job with my 200mm lens, or should I look to buy an actual macro lens? (Range?)

-What are the differences between a ND filter and a Graduated ND Filter? I'm not sure what the "0.6" and "0.9" indicate but is it necessary to get a specific number? Are these filters a good investment for sunset shooting?

-Are there any other filters that might be useful when shooting low-light/sunsets that I should look into?

Any advice/answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated. Extremely new to photography, just trying to learn the ropes before I spend my money.

-Mike

 

[Big Mike]

What are the differences between a ND filter and a Graduated ND Filter?

An ND filter will darken the scene (block light) evenly. A graduated filter will transition from clear to dark.

Graduated filters can be handy for shooting landscapes, including sunsets. I'd suggest a circular polarizer for shooting landscapes (not necessarily sunsets though).
Plain ND filters are used when you want a longer shutter speed in low light (to blur running water, for example).
Some people use UV or clear filters for protection.

Other than that, most filters are obsolete these days. It's just easier and more flexible to apply affects in post.

 

[Overread]

My advice is to first pause and consider your current interest areas of lowlight work - the lenses you have are not very wide aperture lenses, which limits you both exposure wise and creatively; especially so when in lowlight conditions where an aperture of say f1.4 or 1.8 would make significant differences to the exposures you can get (ie getting your shutter speed up without having to sacrifice to such a high ISO).

I would strongly consider looking at options such as 85mm, 50mm, maybe even 35/30mm prime lenses. Not all are high budget, though one single higher budget option in this range would give you a big quality jump and improve how you can work in your lowlight conditions.


That said all without the consideration of adding light - specifically with flash. Adding a speedlite flash to your setup as well as investing time in learning to use and control it well would again be a significant bonus to your lowlight work - again letting you get a higher quality result.


Those would honestly be my areas that I would consider improving in first if I were keenly interested in lowlight concert and similar work when the lighting is so very limited and pushing your gear to the limits.




To go back for a moment to your original questions:

1) Macro - you can use extension tubes on pretty much any lens, for a fixed length of extension tube you'd get more magnification when they are used on a shorter focal length lens. A 50mm lens is very commonly used for early macro experiments (further an f1.8 or f1.4 50mm as said above could easily be used for both lowlight and closeup/macro work).
Be careful with the tubes as you do need to get a good brand - kenko currently make about one of the most popular and cost effective ranges, giving high quailty build with the all important metal contacts to retain lens control - without those contacts you lose aperture control over your lens as well as AF. The cheap $5 tubes are the kind that come without the contacts - usable, but very limiting.

2) ND and ND grad filters block out light from the lens and the various numbers relate to how much they stop out. ND blocks out an even amount of light from the whole photo, whilst ND grad block out half of the exposure - with "hard" giving a clear line between the divide and "soft" having a more diffused move from the two zones.
The ND grad are also sold in two kinds - square and round; the round are typical filters which always put the point of divide in the middle of the scene, very limiting compositionally, which is why square ones are preferred, these are held in a filter holder (such as Lee or Cokin) and allow you to put the point of divide where you want it.

3) Other filters that are used to help limit reflections from non-metallic surfaces would be polarizer filters. For digital you would ideally want circular polarizer filters since they allow you to retain AF control with modern digital cameras.

If you want more info on the above you can search around for some more detailed pointers; in addition considering your newer status to photography you might find the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson to be of help.

 

[MikeisEdge]

My advice is to first pause and consider your current interest areas of lowlight work - the lenses you have are not very wide aperture lenses, which limits you both exposure wise and creatively; especially so when in lowlight conditions where an aperture of say f1.4 or 1.8 would make significant differences to the exposures you can get (ie getting your shutter speed up without having to sacrifice to such a high ISO).

I would strongly consider looking at options such as 85mm, 50mm, maybe even 35/30mm prime lenses. Not all are high budget, though one single higher budget option in this range would give you a big quality jump and improve how you can work in your lowlight conditions.




Those would honestly be my areas that I would consider improving in first if I were keenly interested in lowlight concert and similar work when the lighting is so very limited and pushing your gear to the limits.




To go back for a moment to your original questions:

1) Macro - you can use extension tubes on pretty much any lens, for a fixed length of extension tube you'd get more magnification when they are used on a shorter focal length lens. A 50mm lens is very commonly used for early macro experiments (further an f1.8 or f1.4 50mm as said above could easily be used for both lowlight and closeup/macro work).
Be careful with the tubes as you do need to get a good brand - kenko currently make about one of the most popular and cost effective ranges, giving high quailty build with the all important metal contacts to retain lens control - without those contacts you lose aperture control over your lens as well as AF. The cheap $5 tubes are the kind that come without the contacts - usable, but very limiting.

2) ND and ND grad filters block out light from the lens and the various numbers relate to how much they stop out. ND blocks out an even amount of light from the whole photo, whilst ND grad block out half of the exposure - with "hard" giving a clear line between the divide and "soft" having a more diffused move from the two zones.
The ND grad are also sold in two kinds - square and round; the round are typical filters which always put the point of divide in the middle of the scene, very limiting compositionally, which is why square ones are preferred, these are held in a filter holder (such as Lee or Cokin) and allow you to put the point of divide where you want it.

3) Other filters that are used to help limit reflections from non-metallic surfaces would be polarizer filters. For digital you would ideally want circular polarizer filters since they allow you to retain AF control with modern digital cameras.

Well, thank you. I think as far as higher apertures go, I'll have to look into getting the 50mm f1.4 or f1.8 so that I can shoot with faster shutter speeds in low-light. That said, should I even consider getting an extension tube if I buy the 50mm f1.4?

 

[MikeisEdge]

What are the differences between a ND filter and a Graduated ND Filter?

An ND filter will darken the scene (block light) evenly. A graduated filter will transition from clear to dark.

Graduated filters can be handy for shooting landscapes, including sunsets. I'd suggest a circular polarizer for shooting landscapes (not necessarily sunsets though).
Plain ND filters are used when you want a longer shutter speed in low light (to blur running water, for example).
Some people use UV or clear filters for protection.

Other than that, most filters are obsolete these days. It's just easier and more flexible to apply affects in post.

So, from what I understand, if I wanted to shoot longer exposures (of a fountain, for example) without over-exposing the sky, I'd use a ND Grad Filter so that I could darken the sky? Would this solve my problem of always over-exposing the sky, or under-exposing the landscape? From what I've read, it seems that the only time a plain ND Filter would be necessary is if I'm shooting mid-day so that I might shoot longer shutter-speeds?

 

[Patrice]

So, from what I understand, if I wanted to shoot longer exposures (of a fountain, for example) without over-exposing the sky, I'd use a ND Grad Filter so that I could darken the sky? Would this solve my problem of always over-exposing the sky, or under-exposing the landscape? From what I've read, it seems that the only time a plain ND Filter would be necessary is if I'm shooting mid-day so that I might shoot longer shutter-speeds?

Yes, you can use graduated filter for that purpose. You can also use some of the processing techniques modern technology has given you.

You can expose for the highlights and pull details from the shadows if you have a decent sensor. You can also take multiple images each exposed for a particular area of the scene and then blend them in post processing.

 

[Overread]

Extension tubes won't get you any more light, if anything they'll take a bit away; what they are used for is close up to macro photography - so really close work typically such as leaves and flowers all the way down to insects


For a waterfall remember that the water will also reflect the sky's brightness - so chances are you'd need an ND rather than the ND grad because it wouldn't just be the skyline that is too bright, but also the water itself (ideally blurred water is silky, but not overexposed and thus still retains a detail and texture).

And yes the ND grad filters, where you have a clear sky and land line divide will help with allowing you to expose both correctly when there is a significant difference in the light levels on each. However note that you can also blend exposures digitally (either with software or manually with layermasks) in tonemapping/hdr - whereby you take a series of photos varying the shutter speed (keeping ISO and aperture the same) so that you correctly expose the photo in segments (eg you might do one for the sky and one for the land with a spacer between the two if the differences is quite considerable).

 

[MikeisEdge]

Extension tubes won't get you any more light, if anything they'll take a bit away; what they are used for is close up to macro photography - so really close work typically such as leaves and flowers all the way down to insects


For a waterfall remember that the water will also reflect the sky's brightness - so chances are you'd need an ND rather than the ND grad because it wouldn't just be the skyline that is too bright, but also the water itself (ideally blurred water is silky, but not overexposed and thus still retains a detail and texture).

And yes the ND grad filters, where you have a clear sky and land line divide will help with allowing you to expose both correctly when there is a significant difference in the light levels on each. However note that you can also blend exposures digitally (either with software or manually with layermasks) in tonemapping/hdr - whereby you take a series of photos varying the shutter speed (keeping ISO and aperture the same) so that you correctly expose the photo in segments (eg you might do one for the sky and one for the land with a spacer between the two if the differences is quite considerable).

Well you've been overly helpful, and this has given me quite a bit of insight. Looks like I'll be purchasing the f1.4 50mm ET along with a prime lens (By the way, in what situation would I use an 85mm prime lens over a 35/30mm prime lens? Are those fixed at that focal length?). Purchasing both seems like the most beneficial thing to do. Also, I think I'll be purchasing both the ND Filter and the ND Grad Filter so that I can expose my landscape/sunsets correctly. And, I'm considering getting a Polarizing filter as well... Although I'm not entirely sure how it improves the image... i guess I'll look into that, I'm sure I'll find something.

 

[Overread]

The prime lenses are stuck at their single focal length yes - the "zoom" is your legs in moving back and forth against the scene/person. As for which primes to go for specifically a lot of this comes down to budgets, working conditions and your own personal working style so its hard to give totally definitive answers. Best advice is to try your zoom lenses at the 50mm and 85mm focal lengths for a while and see how they feel and work for you - you might find you need more or less in general working conditions so that at least might show which is the more important for you to consider first.

On the ND filter front ask around as there are some popular/typical starter power ones you can start with - sadly I've not strongly looked at these yet (simply not found the budget for them) so I'm not aware what the numbers mean specifically (they do relate to how many stops of light they block out - I'm just not sure of the specific values, but it shouldn't be hard info to find).

Also note that a polarizing filter acts a bit like a 1 to 2 stop ND filter (exact amount varies a bit between filter brands/models) as well as blocking out the reflections; it also somewhat helps to saturate colours (though this is easily reproduced in editing).

As an idea of how it cuts out reflections (on non-metallic surfaces) here is a before and after:
Before (or filter rotated to minimum effect)

and after (or filter rotated to maximum effect)

As a tip with filters with specific effects its often best to go with the larger filter sizes and then use stepping rings to fit them to smaller lenses. That way you can buy one highquality, expensive filter at a large size and use it on all/most of your lenses without problems (instead of purchasing smaller filters for each lens which will either make you buy cheaper ones or at least eat up more money). 77mm filters would be a good starting point (though others might chime in with suggestions) - if you've long term plans for lenses you'd envision owning now is a good time to check their filter sizes.
This is a key point for your landscape interest since if you go for landscape with crop sensor you might well find yourself getting a 10-20mm lens for example which is something to consider for your ND and ND grads as well as a suitable filter holding system for such a lens.