Exposure blending will always give you at least as good of results, except when there are moving objects. a grad filter introduces another optical element. it can increase flare and cause ghosting if you are shooting in to the sun, esp if there are finger prints and scratches on it. with filter you can always decide after the fact where the transition point is and if you would like a hard or soft transition. so if you are shooting on a tripod, and dont have moving objects on the ZONE OF TRANSITION, blending is great.
That much said, I do use filters many times. I have a 2 stop soft gnd, and a 3 stop reverse GND. I use them when shooting panoramics to decrease the post processing, and also when I shoot hand held, or with people.
here is a long exposure panorama blend with the reverse gnd filter. see the flare from the sun? filters fault
here is one shot with a hand held gnd. probably could have done blending also, but it was just easy enough, and I was on the go. not a true landscape of course.
and here is one with exposure blending. NOthing HDR about it. allowed me for a brighter looking light house, and selectively not only darkening the sky, but decreasing the reflection off of the water
Jun 25, 2012 at 12:04 PM
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