GND Filters - What one next

[JTPhotographics]

Hi all,

Short term lurker, first time poster, so please forgive me if this has already been covered.

I recently purchased the Cokin system for my landscape work. I have the ND8 and GND8 filters. What I found on the weekend is the GND8 is no the best filter to use on days were the light is pretty even between sky and land, so what I am wondering is what GND filter would be more beneficial (from your experience).

I'm looking at getting either the GND4 or GND2 next. I'm thinking the GND2 would be better?

Thanks in advance.
John

[Nick Rains]

A one stop GradND is almost too weak to make much difference. A two and three stop pair will cover most eventualities. Go with the two stop one.

[JTPhotographics]

Thanks Nick, much appreciated.

[dchew]

It seems like everyone (my self included) starts with ND filter by getting a Cokin.  Soon after almost everyone switches to a much more expensive (but widely accepted) version from Singh-Ray, Lee or similar.

There is an article here on Lula regarding ND filters:
Understanding ND Filters by Peter Cox

I have the typical set of four from Singh-Ray, 3-stop hard, 3-stop soft, 2-stop hard and 2-stop soft.  The most-used are the 2-stop soft and 3-stop hard.

Dave

[JTPhotographics]

Thanks for the reply Dave.

Im sure as my journey progresses, I will look an investing more in to my filter system, I just have to decide if getting up early in the morning is going to suite me (and more importantly the wife) 

Also, thanks for your advise on the 2stop. I was initially looking at the one stop, but after reading that short tutorial, I agree that it is probably not worth it.

John

[dchew]

I think that's a good choice just as Nick suggested. I purchased mine years ago when shooting slides. I can now coax more dynamic range out of today's digital cameras + post tools when shooting raw.  The need for 3-stops is less than it used to be.

Dave

[Wayne Fox]

It seems like everyone (my self included) starts with ND filter by getting a Cokin.  Soon after almost everyone switches to a much more expensive (but widely accepted) version from Singh-Ray, Lee or similar.

been there, done that.  I tested with some Cokins, and after determining GND's are more useful than I thought I purchased a set of Lee's, both 2 and 3 stop hard and soft grad filters.  The Lee's seem more neutral and optically superior ... in fact I often stack 2 of them to get 4 or 5 stops of range

for example this one is a 2hard and 3 soft combined.  I find myself even using a combination of multiple exposures taken with and without GND filters along with Photoshop blending.

[Jonathan Ratzlaff]

While I have not used Lee filters, I have used hitech filters and found them to be neutral and optically very good.  In fact I would compare them to singh-ray in terms of optical quality as I did have the opportunity to use a singh-ray ND filter before I bought the hitech filters.  They may not be quite as durable, however they are also half the price of the lee filter so they are a good place to start.  2 stop soft, 3 stop hard is a good starting point, however with the dynamic range of dslr's they are not as useful as they were with slide film where we were essentially working with five stops of exposure latitude compared to 9 or 10 depending on what acceptable results are.