LinuxHack3r Offline Upload & Sell: Off
|
Frogfish wrote:
It's a pity you went out and dove straight into a 10 stop ND. I have one and use it a lot but you need to know what you want it for and what you want to achieve.
You specifically mention sunrises/sunsets. In which case you aren't going to be anywhere near 1/500 without an ND ! For most cases then a shutter speed of 6 - 10 secs will easily achieve the look that the majority of people may want to achieve and once you've stopped down (which you will likely want to do) and maybe added a polariser (add another 2 stops) then a 3 stop will probably be enough. Once you get to 20-30 secs or really long exposures you really need to know what you are trying to accomplish.
e.g. It's close to sunset and a correct exposure at f4 and ISO100 is 1/15. Stopping down to f8 gives you 1/4 second or f16 for a single shot with more DoF at hyperfocal is 1 secs. That's without any ND or Polariser at all ! Adding a 10 stop to f8 would give a 2 mins and 8 secs exposure or at f16 an 8 mins and 32 secs exposure !!
BTW these calculations are easy using one of the many apps available (I use the superb multi-function PhotoPills).
Buying a 3 stop and a 6 stop (which can be stacked to give you a 9 stop of course) are far more useful and in fact are what Breakthrough filters advise. If I remember correctly they have a blog on their site which can give you excellent advice. A single 10 stop doesn't give you anywhere near as much flexibility and, unless shooting during bright daylight, won't be very useful to you personally, IMHO....Show more →
---------------------------------------------
Abbott Schindl wrote:
Frogfish hit the nail on the head: you really need to know what you want to accomplish ("visualize" and "compose" come to mind). The example provided illustrates how to calculate whether you need ND(s) and if so, how much light-blocking strength is needed.
I bought a 10-stop after years of having 2-, 3-, and 6-stop NDs. Specific reasons: I'm trying to create specific effects for very slow moving water, like placid lakes, and at times of day other than the blue and golden hours. Sometimes I need a couple of minutes of exposure, and I don't want to stack filters because stacking produces vignetting with one of the UWA lenses I want to use. And while I have CPLs, they're newer high transmittance units (I use a Hoya; Breakthrough has similar transmission properties), I want to use it for controlling reflections and not for reducing light at the sensor.
Breakthrough has a very good article on their site about selecting ND filters; the advice is similar to what I've seen on a number of other sites....Show more →
First, let me state that I found PhotoPills last week and immediately bought it. Wonderful app! Secondly, I probably primarily plan on using the ND during daylight, regardless of what I may or may not have mentioned above. I'm hoping to do some cool shots of waves, etc. Ultimately, I don't know exactly what I'll be trying to do because I haven't ever really messed with it at all. I'll be experimenting. In the evening during sunset, it seems I can perform a long exposure without an ND at all, according to your own calculations.
I also purchased one of the Neewer Timer Remotes so that I can take multiple exposures and then blend them in Photoshop after the fact, mimicking a long exposure. I also hope to take some photos with different focus to try focus stacking.
In short, I hope to be trying multiple landscape techniques but will probably also just shoot normal exposures. I thought about purchasing a circular polarizer but since it can throw skies off with wide angle lenses, it was lower on my priority list.
Perhaps I should have purchased a 3 and 6 stop ND.
Using PhotoPills, I'm showing an exposure of f/4.0, 1/1000s, ISO 100 to have an EV of +13.97. That's "Typical scene in hazy sunlight (soft shadows). That isn't as bright as it could be on a beach with sand and water reflections. A 10-Stop ND gets me to a 1 second exposure. I felt a 10-Stop ND gave me flexibility, because at this I can either close the aperture a few stops to get to 2/4/8/16 seconds on the exposure.
Dropping the shutter to 1/250s gets me to EV of +11.97, or just about "sunset". If I want to shoot f/4.0 at that with a 4s exposure, I can with the ND. With this, I can also adjust the aperture and ISO a bit to have a great amount of flexibility.
All of this is assuming I'm using PhotoPill's EV value Exposure Calculator correctly.
|