I Have Seen the Light... (through a tinted piece of glass....)

OK, so I finally had a chance to try out my new HiTech Grad ND filters and my Cameron Fader ND today. The pics aren't exactly high art but they'll give you an idea of what exactly they're capable of. 

First up is the Cameron Fader ND.

What exactly is a Fader ND you ask? Well you're in luck because I'm gonna tell you...

The ND (neutral density) filter has one main job; to cut down on the amount of light coming into a lens. "But Special K, why would I wanna do that?". I'm glad you asked. Say you're outside on a bright beautiful day and you want to isolate the subject you're shooting. Your lens has a maximum aperture of 1.4 (that's photo lingo for the hole in the lens is that lets in the light..) but when you take a reading, your light meter says the scene is more like an F8 ( F/Stops are how photographers refer to the aperture setting on a lens. The bigger the aperture, the smaller the depth of field although strangely, the smaller the number, the bigger the aperture... Go figure....). You can up the shutter speed to reduce the amount of light but that alone may not be enough to get you down to the level you want; that's where ND filters come in.

You can buy all kinds of ND filters; they come in varying degrees of size and shape not to mention different densities. You can have 1 Stop (sometimes referred to as ND .03) all the way up to 10 stop (pretty much a black piece of glass) and pretty much everything in between. This is great in theory but how many people want to be walking around with 10 different ND filters in their gear bag? Not me.... 

That's where the Cameron Fader ND comes in. It's a circular 77mm filter that screws on to the threads on the end of your lens. If your lens isn't 77mm, no problem. They make these little rings called stepping rings that can screw onto the lens and make it any size you need. They cost about $9 each so you can buy one filter size and as many stepping rings as you have different sized lenses! I currently have 3 sizes in my bag (52, 55 and 67mm). I won't get into the technical mumbo jumbo on how it all works but in a nutshell it has two pieces of polarized glass and as you turn the outer one, the filter gets darker. It goes from 1 stop all the way down to 8 stops.

So by slapping the ND Fader onto the front of the lens and dialing in the amount of ND you need (in this case we want to drop the exposure down 5 stops) you can now achieve the look you want! Pretty cool huh? But that's not all you can do...

Have you ever seen a picture of a moving waterfall? Do you ever wonder how they get the water to take on that cotton candy look? Well, I'm gonna tell you; they use ND filters.

The slower the shutter speed, the more movement is blurred in a photo. Shutter speed and Aperture are tied together when you're trying to expose a photograph properly. For every stop you move down, you have to move the shutter speed up by one (F4 at 1/250 and F2.8 at 1/500 will give you the same exposure). Say you want to blur moving water in a photo. The longer the shutter is open, the more blurred the water appears.

On Friday I set out to see if I could put this information to practical use. I loaded my gear into my car and set out to see what I could find (bear in mind, there are no water falls in North York). I drove around for a while before I came across an area that looked like it might have something that I could use. I came across a conservation area that I use to visit back when I was a kid (Forest Valley) so seeing as the gate was open I went on in. I drove around for a while before I came across an area where the Don River winds slowly through the park. (There was an older woman out for a walk that I passed. I turned the car around to park and got out to check out the river. Next thing I see is the woman running across the bridge looking behind her. Guess a guy pulling over and getting out of his car in a secluded area can be a little intimidating to some people...). I pulled out my camera gear and set up.

1/200 Sec.

First pic up was shot at 1/200 of a second. I just metered the pic and shot so I used what the camera thought was the best combination of F/Stop and Shutter Speed. As you can see, the water is pretty much frozen in place.

1/3 Sec.

3 Seconds

Next shot, I locked in the F8 reading and dropped the ISO down. That gave me a reading of 1/3 of a second. The water is starting to show a little motion because the shutter is much slower than the first shot. Unfortunately, ISO 200 is as low as my camera can go. I could drop the F/Stop lower to cut the amount of light coming into the lens but if I don't want to do that, the next step is to add a ND filter. That way I can keep the F/Stop I want and still slow the shutter speed.



This is the shot with the ND Fader in place. The shutter speed is now 3 seconds and as you can see, there is definite movement in the water. The rapids take on a very cotton candy kinda look. With combinations of ISO and F/Stop I could have gone much slower but this was enough to prove my point.






Next up, I decided to give my HiTech Graduated ND's a test.

HiTech Grad ND Set

Grad ND's differ from regular ND filters because the Neutral Density part of the filter only covers part of the glass, gradually going from clear all the way up to whatever ND level you need. They come in several different strengths; usually from .03 (1 Stop) up to about 1.3 (about 4 stops). You generally buy them in sets of three. They also come in what's called Hard and Soft versions; Soft filters have a more gradual shift from clear to ND than Hard. The set I bought were Soft. From what I've read, soft are more useful. You line them up with the horizon so they block part of the light from reaching the lens.

You decide on what one to use depending on the horizon you have; the more irregular the horizon, the more likely you'll be to need a Soft.

The problem with photographs, both digital and film, is that your eyes can pick up much more dynamic range than most camera's. Have you ever taken a picture of somebody standing out in the open with a beautiful sky behind them only to have the sky completely blow out in the final picture? Either that or the sky comes out perfect and your subject is completely under exposed? That is the kind of thing a Grad ND is designed for.

First up, I let the camera decide the best exposure. As you can see, the sky looks OK but the ground is a little under exposed.

Next, I set the camera to spot meter and took a reading of the ground. Now it looks OK but the sky is now blown out. The difference between the two was about 3 stops.

Finally, I pulled out my Grad ND filters. The difference between the sky and the ground was roughly 3 stops so I chose the ND .06 (The 2 stop grad ND). I still wanted the sky to be brighter than the ground but I still wanted to hold back the exposure a little bit. The clear part at the bottom allowed for the ground to be exposed properly while the darker ND portion on top held back enough light to make the picture look properly exposed. This is more of a proper representation of what my naked eye saw when I took the photo.

As you can see, using a Graduated ND can turn a picture from this:

Into this:

Not too bad for a tinted piece of glass...

That's it for this week. It kinda turned into a combination review/tech tips post as opposed to a Project 52 picture. I'm fine with that myself but what do you guys think? Do you mind these type of posts or do you prefer the straight up picture posts? When I started this blog, I said I had no idea where it was gonna go. I just want to know if I'm on the right track or not. Feel free to let me know!