Polarizer or Graduated ND Filter?

[Dallmeyer]

The polarizer. But get a GND as soon as you can afford, if you're interested in landscapes. Lee or Cokin square ones are more versatile, so you can adjust the filter to fit the desired composition rather than having to shoot a scene that fits your filter.

 

[Garbz]

Also picked up a shutter release cable for my D700 (which is ridiculously overpriced by the way).

*facepalm* If you mentioned that I would have said that Nikon's $30 remote goes for about $4 on ebay, and Nikon's $100 remote (with the timer and stuff) goes for about $30 on ebay.

 

[Restomage]

Also picked up a shutter release cable for my D700 (which is ridiculously overpriced by the way).

*facepalm* If you mentioned that I would have said that Nikon's $30 remote goes for about $4 on ebay, and Nikon's $100 remote (with the timer and stuff) goes for about $30 on ebay.

I was going to ebay it however I need it this week.

 

[Garbz]

Ahhh righto.

 

[KongKurs]

Why is it that the polarizer is so popular?
Yes, the reflection of clouds in the water, as well as the look of the sky can be "adjusted", but aren't this pretty easily done in post?

The way I see it, a GND must be really rather impossible to live without, when shooting landscape photos, with sunsets and whatnot.

I don't own one yet, so bare with me, but I have just started examining the forums to get people's opinions on these..

 

[Vinny]

I come from the film era and it was important back then to start off with as good an image as possible - I believe the same is true now as well in digital. If the scene lacks info for the software to be able to use - nothing will change. The other day I was looking a the sky without sunglasses and then put polarizer sunglasses on - what a big difference - the sensor would not have been able to get all the detail if I was going to take a photo and not use a polarizer.

As far as ND - I have one from years ago but it is a solid one. My guess is that I used it to cut the total amount of light the camera was receiving for certain shots. I never used a graduated one.

 

[Dao]

Why is it that the polarizer is so popular?
Yes, the reflection of clouds in the water, as well as the look of the sky can be "adjusted", but aren't this pretty easily done in post?

The way I see it, a GND must be really rather impossible to live without, when shooting landscape photos, with sunsets and whatnot.

I don't own one yet, so bare with me, but I have just started examining the forums to get people's opinions on these..

In this example here, it is hard to remove nor adjust the reflection in post. I wish I took another photo without CPL. Without the CPL, I won't able to capture the muddy brown color of the water at all. Everything will looks like white.

Personally, CPL and ND filters are the 2 type of filters I will put them in my camera bag most of the time.

 

[KongKurs]

Neat photo Dao, I see your point. The polarizer gives a "saturation boost" as well right..? Maybe this is better to obtain through filters and lenses, instead of doing it on the camera or in post...

I'm primarily interested in a GND - but maybe an ND solid could be useful as well.. Is it possible to use both at the same time?

Can anyone recommend a typical "allround" GND filter - I guess the different types lets you choose between a percentage of blocked light in the upper part, as well as the extent of the "fading" part - but I wouldn't know what to look for?

The extent of the fading between upper and lower part has to be not too small, since a big difference between these will be visible on the shot, no?

 

[Dao]

As far as using 2 filters at the same time. I think you can do that with the Cokin filter system.

COKIN Creative System - The Holder System - Standard & Pro Holder


Just need to watch out for vignetting when multiple filters is used especially using wide angle lens and screw on type filters.

 

[KongKurs]

OK, so I guess the Cokin P-series would be possible to use with my 18mm lens, without vignetting, right?
(18 mm ~ 28 mm [format35mm])