But what does an ND filter actually do and when should you use one? By reducing the amount of light that comes through your camera lens, a neutral density filter lets you shoot in harsh lighting conditions and manipulate your photos to achieve really creative results. With an ND filter you can do one of two things:. Use a wider aperture to capture beautifully shallow depth of field.
Use a slower shutter speed to capture long exposures and motion blur for a longer period of time. Wider apertures are great for portraits, when you want the person in the photo to be the sole focus of the image, and the background to be soft and not in focus. With slower shutter speeds, you can add movement or blur to objects that are moving, while keeping the rest of the scene static. This effect is especially awesome when shooting moving water, such as waterfalls or choppy waves.
It adds drama and visual appeal to an image. Whether lens filters affect image quality or not is one of the most debated topics in photography. But in short, the answer is no. An ND filter has uses in almost any type of photography. By adding motion or shallow depth of field to images, you can bring otherwise dull scenes to life.
This is where a neutral density filter comes to the rescue. It lets you use a wide aperture to achieve a shallow depth of field, without causing any overexposure. Cutting back light reaching your camera reduces depth of field and isolates an image from its background. This makes it appear sharper, without causing overexposure. Animal or bird images can be brought to the fore without any background interference when using this filter, for instance.
ND lens filters also earn their worth when used to capture clouds and sky scenes. This clever filter can blur the motion of clouds making them appear more dramatic, streaky and magical, giving your scene an extra helping of visual intrigue. Many landscape photographers shoot images of foliage and fields, and capturing the perfect scene can often prove tricky. If you take photos of water in motion , such as trickling streams, gushing waterfalls or the ocean being battered by waves, an ND lens filter is indispensable to achieve the perfect, ethereal shot.
By using longer exposure times, this filter can capture silky, softened, smooth, foggy, dreamy or blurred effects from water. This adds drama and atmosphere to a scene, bringing it to life. It also helps to draw the viewer in, without any distracting overexposure.
In particular, scenes of moving vehicles, sports matches or crowds of people can be blurred or distorted to great effect. This helps to add atmosphere to images that may otherwise appear flat or static. The beauty of using ND filters for video and film is that you can shoot a shallow depth of field and achieve a dramatic effect. My first Neutral Density filter was a cheap screw-on filter found at a local electronic shop. As a beginner photographer these where the perfect filters to begin with; they allowed me to use a slightly longer shutter speed but perhaps more importantly they helped me understand the relation between the essential camera settings.
I used these filters for a while before understanding that I needed a darker filter that could make it possible to achieve an even slower shutter speed. These were a lot more expensive but the quality was also better. Having a darker filter and reaching shutter speeds of up to a few minutes made it worth it. It took me about one year until I switched to a square filter system as I wanted to use Graduated Neutral Density Filters too. As mentioned previously, the cheapest Neutral Density Filters only add a slight darkening, not nearly enough to properly smooth out the water.
For this you need a darker filter and these tend to have a less welcoming price-tag. Understanding the difference between the darkening of filters can get a little complicated. These are the most common terms to use when talking about the degrees of darkening. Simply put, the terms tell you how much less light reaches the sensor when placing the filter in front of the lens and, consequently, how many stops you need to extend the shutter speed with. For example, a 1 Stop ND Filter reduces the amount of light with 1 Stop and requires you to extend the shutter speed with the same.
In other words, you can double the exposure time. The much darker 10 Stop ND Filter allows you to extend the exposure time by This is when you can properly blur the water and stretch the clouds. In addition to the terms 6 Stop or 10 Stop, you might also see a classification such as ND1. This is another method of explaining the darkness of the filter but, for now, stick with understanding the stops.
This can quickly get confusing! There are even darker filters, such as the 16 Stop, that can be used to create minute-long exposures even during broad daylight. So how exactly can you use Neutral Density Filters to improve your photography? Is it as simple as just mounting one to the camera and start getting good results? Remember, a 3 Stop ND Filter requires a shutter speed that is 8 times longer than the original no-filter image.
Take the image above as an example. The clouds, however, still remain frozen. For that to happen, you need to use a darker filter. In the image below I used a shutter speed of 20 seconds.
This has successfully blurred the ocean and you start noticing a slight blur in the clouds too. Without the filter the water would still be choppy and the clouds would have no motion blur at all. This is the result of a seconds exposure time and a 10 Stop ND Filter.
Capturing images with such a slow shutter speed requires some more planning and a few more steps than normal.
Polarizing filters can enhance the color of the image while ND filters just block the light entering the camera.
It does not change the overall color of the image. An ND filter can block the light entering the camera sensor. It can help you to use slow the shutter speed or wide aperture in a harsh light. This is useful when a sufficiently long exposure time is not otherwise attainable within a given range of possible apertures at the lowest ISO setting.
One of the biggest frustration in landscape shooting is the lack of color. The quickest way to reduce the reflection of the image is to use a polarizing filter. The best angle of using a polarizing filter is at a degree angle to the sun.
Photo Brandon Nesbitt.
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