ND filters

[MitchStrp]

Just received my Neutral Density filter ( 0.9) and I have done a ton of research but since I am so new in the photography world its hard for me to understand what is exactly being said. Could someone give me a dumbed-down version of how to correctly adjust my exposures, aperture, and shutter speeds to get the full effect of my ND filter. Go easy on me guys.


Thanks!!!

 

[480sparky41 40]

If you install it on the lens, the in-camera meter will take it into account automatically. Otherwise, increase exposure by 3 stops.

 

[MitchStrp]

3 stops, thats what i mean.. 3 stops is what exactly.. thats what has got me lost. ha sorry, I am so new to this.

 

[molested_cow]

Why did you buy it if you don't know what it does? What do you want to use it for?

ND filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens given the same amount of time, without affecting image quality or color.

Usually it's for shots that want to use long shutter speed. For example, if you want to shoot moving cars or pedestrian(motion blur) in the day, the day light is too bright to have long shutter speed without over exposing the shot. Using a ND filter will allow longer shutter speed given the same aperture setting. So you don't need to do any adjustment to your camera. Just set it in Aperture mode, set it to your desired aperture and observe the shutter speed. See if that will get you the effect you want. Usually, this is done on a tripod.

A 0.9 ND filter reduces the exposure by 3 stops. So for example, in day light, a setting of F8 @ 1/250 will become F8 @ 1/30.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

That filter, used correctly, can help you SLOW DOWN the world.

The filter will help you give the silk effect to water, probably its most popular use. Some advanced portrait shooters might use it to allow them to shoot at wider apertures in the daytime.

 

[Mully]

^^^^Now cow.... how is he going to learn if he does not .... DO I ask myself this with a wireless transmitter that is so hard to figure out.

 

[MitchStrp]

Why did you buy it if you don't know what it does? What do you want to use it for?

ND filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens given the same amount of time, without affecting image quality or color.

Usually it's for shots that want to use long shutter speed. For example, if you want to shoot moving cars or pedestrian(motion blur) in the day, the day light is too bright to have long shutter speed without over exposing the shot. Using a ND filter will allow longer shutter speed given the same aperture setting. So you don't need to do any adjustment to your camera. Just set it in Aperture mode, set it to your desired aperture and observe the shutter speed. See if that will get you the effect you want. Usually, this is done on a tripod.

A 0.9 ND filter reduces the exposure by 3 stops. So for example, in day light, a setting of F8 @ 1/250 will become F8 @ 1/30.

Never said I didnt know what it was for.. Wasn't quite sure of the adjustments required to get full effect.

 

[MitchStrp]

Okay, how are stops exactly calculated/measured. like cow said F8 @ 1/250 will become F8 @ 1/30. Thats a great example but how did i get from 250 to 30? I dont care if this sounds dumb, I am just doing my best to understand and get the most out of my camera/lens/filter

 

[480sparky41 40]

Okay, how are stops exactly calculated/measured. like cow said F8 @ 1/250 will become F8 @ 1/30. Thats a great example but how did i get from 250 to 30? I dont care if this sounds dumb, I am just doing my best to understand and get the most out of my camera/lens/filter

One stop is a doubling or halving the amount of light. In the case of shutter speed, it's just a matter of math.

Double 1/250 is 1/125. That's one stop. 1/125 to 1/60 is another stop. 1/60 to 1/30 is another stop.


You can also accomplish the same thing with aperture. F/8 to f/5.6 is one stop, f/5.6 to f/4 is the second, f/4 to f/2.8 is the third. So if you want to use the filter to use a larger aperture for an OOF background, just open the aperture 3 stops.

 

[MitchStrp]

THANK YOU!!!! I completely understand...sorta but I appreciate it!

 

[480sparky41 40]

You can also use the filter to change the ISO. ISO 100 to 800 is three stops, but I don't know of any reason you would actually want to do that.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

You might consider reading through this OP, to familiarize yourself with the working parts of exposure:

The Ultimate Beginner’s Introduction to Exposure

 

[MitchStrp]

Thanks again guyzzzz

 

[molested_cow]

If I am going to spend money on something, I'd do enough research to know what I want to know first. That's just me.

 

[TCampbell]

An ND filter changes your shooting circumstances. It alters the possible aperture & shutter speed combinations that you can use to take the shot.

There are a handful of ways to describe the same concept on an ND filter. Your filter is using density values. Each ".1" density is equal to 1/3rd of a "stop" of light. That means .3 is a full stop and .9 is 3 full-stops.

A "stop" is a term from the days of mechanically adjusted apertures that had "clicks". In the industrial revolution, lots of machines had mechanical levers and dials. To hold the lever in place you would have some mechanism for the lever to click into teeth or indentations as you adjusted it. Those teeth or indentations were called "stops" because they stopped the lever from moving. Since that's when cameras came into their own, the term was adopted and even though it's all electronic and there are no mechanical indentations or teeth, we still call them "stops".

The "stops" were set up so that each time the size of the aperture increased or decreased in area enough to exactly "halve" or "double" the amount of light that could pass through, it was regarded as a "full" stop. We do the same for the shutter speed... each time the shutter speed either doubles or halves we also call that a "stop".

A 1-stop ND filter (0.3) is allowing exactly HALF of the light to pass through and blocking the other half.
A 2-stop ND filter (0.6) allows HALF of that HALF... or a grand total of ONE QUARTER of the light to pass through and blocks the rest.
A 3-stop ND filter (0.9) allows HALF of the HALF of the HALF (notice I said "HALF" three times) or a grand total of ONE EIGHTH of the light to pass through.

Since you're blocking the light optically using a filter (rather than the shutter speed or the aperture) you're free to use slower shutter speeds (you can leave the shutter open eight times as long to compensate for the filter) -OR- you can open up the aperture on the camera more to create a narrower depth of field.

Most of the time when we use an ND filter it's because we're outside in bright sun. Even at ISO 100 and f/16 (a fairly narrow aperture) we still have to keep the shutter speed at 1/100th or we'll have an over-exposed shot. But if we use a 3 stop ND filter we can cut the shutter speed down to about 1/15th or even 1/10th (since there is no 1/12th shutter speed). This means that if you were shooting a photo of a waterfall, rather than a frozen waterfall where you can see every drop in mid-fall you get nice blurred effect. If you went even slower you could get an even smoother effect, but you'd need a stronger ND filter to do that.

There are ND filters so dense that you can't really see through them for purposes of focusing the camera or framing up the composition of your shot. You have to setup the shot with the filter off the camera, then put the filter on the camera to shoot.