Hi, I asked this question in the other GND thread but have had no response so I'll ask in my own thread.
I currently have been building up a filter kit over the past month and so far have a B+W XS-Pro Kaesemann MRC Nano, the Lee Foundation holder, a set of Lee hard edged GNDs (1,2and3 stop), a Hitech 10-stop ND and a Singh-Ray 3 stop Reverse GND.
I'm looking for opinions on the value of adding a soft GND in either the 2 or 3 stop range. Do people find the soft useful? If I only get one would 2 or 3 stop be more useful? I've been waiting for B&H to get stock of the Lee softs but have had no luck for the past month so I'm considering spending the extra $60 to get the Singh-Ray version.
I like soft filters if it fits the scene. I'm not in love with the balance in your filter set up. 4 hard edges to 0 soft edges. I don't agree with jumping on a Singh Ray when that extra money gets you over half way to another Lee filter. As for 2 stops vs 3 stops...I don't know. I use both. I wouldn't want to only have one.
The "balance" is currently being dictated by the horrible stock of Lee filters. I have notifications set at B&H for the soft set and the individual soft grads but for the last month they have not had any (or at least never notified me). I wouldn't have even bought the 1-stop hard but the only thing I found in stock was the set of 3 so I went for it. I think I may just put an order in at 2filter as they at least yet you order a backordered filter and see when it finally arrives. I will order both the 2 and 3 stop softs as I do shoot in the mountains a lot and the softs should work better in that situation. In 3 weeks I head to Mexico but there I think the hards and the reverse will be most useful as mostly will use them for ocean and sunset shots.
Anyways, thanks for the response. I just had a quick look at your smugmug seascape page and it has inspired me for my upcoming vacation. Great work!
I built up an extensive filter collection over the last 35+ years, including both soft and hard grads and a whole slew of other special effects stuff I used for film.
In reality I rarely found a use for the hard grads and finally sold them at a slight loss to a couple of photo students when I lived in Seattle. If I used a grad it was always a soft edge one, and most of the time I ended up using the 3 stop version in neutral gray. Occassionally I used a brown/tobacco, but not enough to really warrant their cost, and I finally sold off all my filters except for a (new) circular polarizer, 2 full nd filters, and 2 soft grads in gray.
Thanks for the info. Since all this filter stuff is fairly new to me ,and I've been stuck inside for the last month with -30C weather, I've really not had a good chance to see if I like the hard edged ones yet. From my research before buying and reading some very detailed threads over at POTN, it seemed like people used hard edged much more than the soft. I'm waiting to hear back from 2filter about shipping to Canada and will hopefully be able to add both the Lee 2 and 3 stop soft to my kit for the price of one Singh-Ray soon.
Soft vs hard depends primarily on two things. The scene and your focal length. Since I shoot a variety of scenes at both wide and telephoto focal lengths, I like to have both.
