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Graduated ND filters

Irix releases new tough “Super Resistance” versions of its 100mm square filters

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Lens manufacturer Irix has today announced the newest additions to its square filter lineup. While still a fairly small player in the world of filters when we look at the likes of Lee, NiSi and Cokin, Irix introduced their square filters way back in 2017 with the Irix Edge 100 system and they now offer a fairly decent range of NDs for both filmmakers and photographers.

The newest filters arrive in a Super Resistance (SR) variety, with toughened coatings that Irix says offers “outstanding protection” in harsh conditions while still providing accurate colour as well as good sharpness and contrast. Of course, they also feature their standard NANO coating to repel dirt and water.

Bracketing vs ND Grads for shooting landscapes – which is best?

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There are many ways to shoot landscape photography and which method you’ll use generally depends on the scene laid before you. But there’s one debate that never seems to end. ND grad filters or bracket and composite in post? Which is best? And why is either technique even needed these days?

These are the questions that Photo Tom addresses in this video, going over his experiences and workflow using both methods, providing his insight and offering some tips for working with the images in post.

Hoya’s ProND Graduated Filters let you darken landscape skies without a separate filter holder

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Hoya has today launched their new ProND Graduated neutral density filters. Like all graduated ND filters, they’re designed to help you darken down the brighter area of sky in your image in order to help get a more even exposure with retained highlights and shadows.

The new Hoya ProND Graduated filters, though, aren’t your usual graduated NDs. These aren’t square format ones that you slot into a holder. They’re round screw-on filters, that can rotate to let you get the angle you wish (much like a circular polariser or variable ND).

Aurora Aperture’s new magnetic rear filter system for ultra-wide and fisheye lenses now on Kickstarter

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Putting filters on ultra-wide-angle lenses isn’t usually an easy or inexpensive task. Sure, it’s possible, but you need to get some pretty large filter holders and filters to match. The trend amongst some lens manufacturers lately has been to support rear “gel” filters. Filters that sit behind the lens that you attach before you mount it to your camera.

Aurora Aperture has recently announced their “next-generation” of rear mount filters. And best of all, they actually work with lenses that don’t have built-in mounts as the system uses its own magnetic mounts, tailored specifically to your lenses. Now, they’re available on Kickstarter and they’ve already doubled their goal.

Here is when you should use filters instead of Photoshop

As a landscape photographer, I find it both a convenience and an inconvenience to use filters. For example, using filters for balancing light in a scene,  eliminates the need for bracketed shooting. This saves space on my memory card and on my hard drive. On the other hand, sometimes things happen so fast that mounting filters spoils the moment. There are also instances when using a filter to smooth the water in a waterfall will save me from blending exposures in Photoshop. On the negative side, adding filters to the backpack takes up space and adds weight.

HDR – an abomination? Not if you do it right!

We probably all know that HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. In all simplicity, this means images that cover the entire tonal range in a given scene. The photographer has been able to preserve the highlights and yet has enough shadow detail information. The photo avoids any clipped shadows or ‘black holes’ as I call them. The trouble with black holes is that they steal a lot of attention, and may draw the eyes to all the wrong places in an image. The same goes for severely clipped highlights. They are boring plain white, with hard transition lines.

There are three ways we can achieve a high dynamic range image. We will in the following briefly discuss each of them.

Are graduated neutral-density filters really useful?

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For a few years now I have been using various different filters. I mostly use them to reduce the overall light coming into the camera or to help control reflections. It seems though I always overlooked one type of filter: the graduated neutral-density filters (ND Grad for short)

I honestly thought that graduated neutral-density filters wouldn’t work very well in the real world. While they offer a reduction of light on selective parts of your image, they do so in horizontal lines. Sure, I can use this to cut the light out in the sky, but what about buildings, trees or other landscape elements that go “across the line” like the tree in the image above?

How to dodge and burn in-camera to preserve highlights and save time in post

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Graduated ND filters will help you get perfect exposure in-camera when shooting landscapes and cityscapes. However, the area they cover sometimes just won’t cut it for the scene you’re trying to capture. Of course, you can sometimes fix it in post, but why not try getting it right in-camera?

In this video, Karl Taylor demonstrates a simple but effective technique of dodging and burning in-camera, relying on the old darkroom method. It will help you nail the exposure, preserve details in highlights, and it could save you some post-processing time.

Graduated ND filters or multiple exposures: what is the best option for a landscape photographer?

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Using a Graduated Neutral Density filter is fairly easy and doesn’t require any advanced techniques in post-production but the easiest option isn’t always the best choice; due to the filter’s transition being horizontal, anything above the distinction will be darkened and anything below will be left alone.

This is a good solution when there’s a flat horizon but what do we do when there are mountains projecting above it? What do we do when there are large trees in the image? Using a GND filter means that they’ll be darkened as well. That’s something we want to avoid.

First look at the Irix Edge 100 filter system

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When IRIX announced that they are making a new filter system, I was intrigued. I mean, IRIX is known for their prime lenses, and not for filters. But come to think about it, it makes sense. If you know how to produce good glass, and your userbase is landscape why not give them what they want, right? Right!

We met with Joost Wierenga from IRIX  at PPE 2017 to walk us through that system. The Bad news, no pricing or availability yet. The good news, it looks like a sweet system that could add competition vs. the Cokin, Lee and NiSi V5 Pro 100mm filters. And competition means lower prices, better quality, and more innovation.

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