Hard or Soft Grad Filters?

James_EG · Oct 23, 2012

So I am wanting to start doing a lot more landscape/seascape photography, but to do this I need filters, I have decided that Lee filters is the way to go for me due to their quality and the prices aren't too bad considering everything they make is by hand, I want to buy the big stopper filter and a set of graduated ND filters but I cannot decide on whether to get the Hard or Soft Grads, I want to do a lot of seascapes, which would call for the hard grads but I also will probably also start doing quite a lot of landscapes where I might need a soft grad, at the moment I have mainly done seascapes at night, which isn't very easy and doesn't give great results.

Also, if you can think of any other filters which I may need then please tell me, would I need a set of full NDs?

Thanks, James

tirediron · Oct 23, 2012

I have both hard and soft, but if I could only have one, I would suggest the soft as being more versatile. I like a minimum of a 1-2-3 set (one stop, two stop, three stop) for a total of six stops if combined; rarely have I ever needed more. As for other filters, IMO, the most important filter for any photographer to have in their bag is a good polarizing filter.