How To Buy Nd Filter
The neutral density (ND) filter is one of those tools that should be in almost every photographer's photographic camera bag. However, ND filters are mysterious to some, and many folks just don't understand how, where, and when to use them. Beyond that, manufacturers seem to vary in their preferences as far as how they proper name ND filters—adding to the defoliation. In this article, permit u.s. navigate the world of the ND filter together and see if nosotros can brand sense of the classification and also proper name some advisable times for their use.
What is a Neutral Density Filter?
The ND filter is basically a filter that, placed before the lens (or dropped into a filter slot) reduces the amount of light making its mode into the camera. Recall of the ND filter every bit sunglasses for your camera—admitting sunglasses that practise not modify the color of the light being captured by the camera and lens—hence the "neutral" classification.
Photographs©Todd Vorenkamp
What do Neutral Density Filters practise or allow y'all to do?
In that location are a couple of real-earth uses for the ND filter—one involving aperture and one involving shutter speed.
1. Discontinuity — Shallow depth of field in brightly lit environments
In the earth of photography, by and large speaking, more light is ameliorate. Just, if you accept ever been outside with an older analog or digital photographic camera and tried to shoot your 50mm f/1.8 lens in wide daylight at wide-open apertures, yous might call up seeing your exposure needle seemingly glued to the tiptop of the calorie-free meter, or your digital low-cal meter screaming "OVEREXPOSURE!" because the camera'southward shutter could not cycle fast enough for the amount of light nowadays.
The ND filter allows photographers to shoot their wide-aperture lenses in bright light without overexposing. This allows shallow depth of field and selective focus effects while under lighting weather condition that exceed the shutter speed capabilities of the photographic camera.
Even with the blazing-fast shutter speeds of today's professional cameras and the previously unattainable shutter speeds introduced by electronic shutters, there is still a place in photography for the ND filter here.
2. Shutter Speed — Slowing your shutter
The more "classic" use of the ND filter regards its effect on shutter speed. With less low-cal entering the camera, yous will need to irksome the shutter for a given aperture setting. The slower shutter speed will let anything moving in your frame to go blurred.
In general, camera blur is non desired, but if you lot work with a tripod or alternative support with an ND filter and a irksome shutter, that which is static in the frame stays static and that which moves becomes blurry.
Where tin can you lot utilize this? Basically in whatsoever photograph with which yous want to emphasize motility. Pop subjects include waterfalls, vehicular traffic, people (not usually portraits), seascapes, rivers, streams, clouds, and fume.
What practice the numbers on ND filters mean?
ND filters come in unlike strengths or darkness levels. For the photographer, the easiest affair would exist to have ND filters that tell you how many stops of light they will darken your exposure. Designed by optical engineers, most brands of ND filters characterization their products with either an ND filter factor number or optical density number. Unfortunately, for the lensman, neither the filter factor nor the optical density number are equal to the number of stops past which the light is reduced.
And then, hither is a handy chart to reference when shopping for an ND filter or employing a filter you already own.
| Stops of Lite Reduction (In that location are filters that are measured to a fraction of a stop, but, for simplicity, we are using whole numbers hither with the exception of a few filters.) | Optical Density Number (Sometimes prefaced with an "ND" before the number) | ND one Number | Filter Factor Number (Sometimes prefaced with an "ND" before the number) | Amount Light is Reduced |
| 0 | 0 | — | 0 (a.k.a. Clear Filter) | 0 |
| 1 | ND 0.3 or "ND 0.3" | ND 101 | 2 or "ND2" | 1/2 |
| 2 | ND 0.6 | ND 102 | 4 | 1/iv |
| three | ND 0.9 | ND 103 | 8 | 1/8 |
| iv | ND one.ii | ND 104 | xvi | 1/16 |
| 5 | ND ane.5 | ND 105 | 32 | 1/32 |
| half-dozen | ND 1.8 | ND 106 | 64 | 1/64 |
| 6 ii/three | ND ii | 100 | 1/100 | |
| 7 | ND 2.1 | ND 107 | 128 | i/128 |
| 8 | ND 2.4 | ND 108 | 256 | i/256 |
| nine | ND 2.seven | ND 109 | 512 | 1/512 |
| 10 | ND 3.0 | ND 110 | 1024 (a.1000.a. ND1000) | 1/1024 |
| eleven | ND iii.iii | ND 111 | 2048 | 1/2048 |
| 12 | ND iii.6 | ND 112 | 4096 | 1/4096 |
| xiii | ND 3.9 | ND 113 | 8192 | ane/8192 |
| 13 1/3 | ND 4.0 | 10000 | 1/10000 | |
| 14 | ND 4.2 | ND 114 | 16384 | ane/16384 |
| 15 | ND 4.5 | ND 115 | 32768 | 1/32768 |
| 16 | ND 4.8 | ND 116 | 65536 | 1/65536 |
| 16 2/3 | ND 5.0 | 100000 | 1/100000 | |
| 17 | ND five.ane | ND 117 | 131072 | 1/131072 |
| 18 | ND 5.4 | ND 118 | 262144 | one/262144 |
| 19 | ND 5.seven | ND 119 | 524288 | i/524288 |
| 20 | ND 6 | ND 120 | 1048576 | 1/1048576 |
| 22 | ND 6.vi | ND 122 | 4194304 | 1/4194304 |
| 24 | ND seven.two | ND 124 | 16777216 | 1/16777216 |
And so, for every stop of ND filter, you halve the corporeality of light inbound the camera. When the low-cal is halved, to maintain the same exposure, you need to double your shutter speed. Add together some other ND terminate; double the shutter speed again.
Let's see, in graphical grade, how an ND filter effects exposure time:
| Original Shutter Speed | ND Filter Stops | New Shutter Speed (Rounded to standard photographic camera shutter speeds when applicable) |
| 1s | 0 | 1s |
| 1s | i | 2s |
| 1s | 2 | 4s |
| 1s | iii | 8s |
| 1s | 4 | 15s |
| 1s | five | 30s |
| 1s | 6 | 1m |
| 1s | vii | 2m |
| 1s | eight | 4m |
| 1s | 9 | 8m |
| 1s | 10 | 16m |
| 1s | 11 | 30m |
| 1s | 12 | 1hr |
| 1s | 13 | 2hr |
| 1s | 14 | 4hr |
| 1s | 15 | 8hr |
| 1s | 16 | 16hr |
| 1s | 17 | 32hr |
| 1s | xviii | 64hr |
| 1s | 19 | 128hr |
| 1s | xx | 256hr |
| 1s | 21 | 512hr |
| 1s | 22 | 1024hr |
| 1s | 23 | 2048hr |
| 1s | 24 | 4096hr (170 days 16 hours) |
Practical Examples
Hither is an example of the change in exposure affecting shutter speed when using an ND filter where your goal is to shoot at a slower shutter speed to mistiness a waterfall. Considering of the bright daylight, the original shutter speed, even with the lens stepped down to f/16, is a fast 1/800th and freezes the h2o. Yous have a 6-stop ND filter in your bag and you screw it onto your lens. Here is the outcome:
Original exposure: ISO 200, f/16.0, i/800.
Exposure with 6-stop ND filter: ISO 200, f/16.0, 1/thirteen.
Hither is an case of an exposure aligning for trying to maintain a specific aperture when using an ND filter. You are shooting in broad daylight and desire to take a photograph of a bloom with a soft background. You open your lens to f/1.4 and your exposure meter is pegged because the camera cannot fire the shutter faster than i/4000 to get a proper exposure. Add an ND filter and see what happens:
Original exposure: ISO 200, f/one.4, 1/4000 overexposed.
Exposure with vi-terminate ND filter: ISO 200, f/one.iv, 1/60...nonetheless overexposed, but the shutter speed is easily doable by the camera. So, now you tin shoot the same scene at, say, one/500 and go your shallow depth of field in direct daylight.
Stacking Filters
One technique photographers employ is filter "stacking." If you accept more than than one ND filter, y'all may combine the two (or more filters) to get more ND stops for unlike photographic needs. The stacking math is easy: If y'all combine a six-stop ND filter and a 10-stop ND filter, you at present take a 16-stop ND filter.
The downside to stacking filters is that, for each filter you add together, y'all are forcing light to pass through more and more drinking glass (or resin) elements. The more things that the light has to traverse, the more than it is likely to get slightly refracted in some way that causes softness or chromatic aberrations in an image.
Filter Shapes
Most "solid" ND filters are round and screw onto the forepart of the lens. Larger lenses may take circular drib-in filters. Nevertheless, some ND filters are rectangular or square-shaped and are inserted into special holders that affix to the front of the lens. The filter ratings for round and rectangular filters are identical.
Other Types of ND Filters
Graduated Neutral Density Filter (GND) — The GND filter is an ND filter that transitions from low-cal to dark. The rectangular GND filters are more popular than circular because they permit the photographer to adapt the position of the transition expanse from light to dark. The main purpose of the GND filter is to balance exposure in an image that contains a bright sky and relatively darker foreground. Landscape photographers are big consumers of GND filters and they perform specially well when capturing sunset images.
Variable Neutral Density Filter (VND) — The VND filter gives the photographer the ability to "punch in" the amount of filtration by turning the outer ring of a dual-ring filter. The maximum and minimum ND rating differ with different filters, simply the two-finish to eight-stop variety are virtually popular. The advantage of the VND filter is that y'all only demand to acquit one ND filter with you to get a variety of darkness levels. The disadvantage of the VND filter is that, due to the design of the filters, as you approach the maximum ND setting, you lot can get a cantankerous pattern across the epitome. This is remedied past dialing the ND setting dorsum a fleck.
Heart Neutral Density Filter (CND) — The smallest category of ND filter, the CND filter has a darkened center and lighter edges. It serves to balance exposure beyond the frame when using extreme wide angle lenses.
Polarizing Filter — Yep, your polarizing filter is an ND filter that you may already own. Most polarizers requite a 2-stop ND filter effect while providing the cannot-attain-it-in-post-processing polarizing effects of cutting downwards glare, concealment the blue skies, and seeing further into water.
Solar Photography
This is ane more than thing yous tin can do with your ND filter(south). Many ND filter manufactures state that filters with a density of sixteen-stops or greater (shaded in the higher up table) are suitable for solar photography and solar eclipse photography. Warning: If using an ND filter (or stack of ND filters) for solar photography, do NOT utilise an optical viewfinder. Specialized solar imaging and viewing filters not just filter visible lite, only harmful UV and IR radiation as well. ND filters practise Non provide this protection. Utilize them only with electronic viewfinders and/or Live View mode.
Recommended ND Filter Factors
Many landscape photographers recommend that you caput out into the field with a 6-terminate ND filter that should exist perfect for slowing your shutter speeds plenty to show polish motility in mountain streams and waterfalls. Add your polarizer to make it an eight-end ND stack.
Some hymeneals and portrait photographers adopt the 3-stop ND filter to give them a wide-open aperture option while shooting in sunlight. Combine this with a half-dozen-stop for a 9-stop combo when needed.
The 10-terminate and darker ND filters are becoming popular with many photographers as they allow extremely slow shutter speed shooting and extremely broad aperture shooting under bright sunlight. If you have the fourth dimension to crank out nighttime photography-similar shutter speeds, you lot can get some pretty cool effects with these super-nighttime filters in urban and natural settings. At the farthermost cease, the 24-stop ND filter is great for images with the sun directly in the frame.
Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra Neutral Density Filters
The images used to illustrate this article were captured using Formatt-Hitech Ultra Neutral Density Filters. Firecrest filters feature extremely neutral optical coatings in between two pieces of optical glass—protecting the coatings from wear and tear and delivering enhanced immovability and lifespan over usually coated filters. The new Firecrest Ultra filters are the only photographic filters that undergo an boosted finishing process referred to as "lapping & polishing" that brings the filters up to cinema-grade standards of clarity, sharpness, and optical flatness.
Do you have whatever questions nigh neutral density filters or ND filter photography? Do yous have some creative uses for ND filters? Feel free to ask questions or leave comments below!
How To Buy Nd Filter,
Source: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-review/guide-neutral-density-filters
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