Z121s (x2) Z125

A filter can dramatically enhance the scene you are shooting.  A stack of filters can pimp-slap your scene and really wake it up.  Though I am becoming somewhat of a purist in my shots, I believe that the use of filtering is fair game.  But not only for color.

GND8 - Midscreen

GNDs to Stop Down Skies

I love using my Cokin GND’s to stop down the sky when shooting landscapes.  I find that when (especially) doing long exposure of sunsets and landscapes at dusk, the sky just comes out way too bright.  It’s a challenge to balance the light in just a single exposure and though I sometimes will do HDR landscapes, I prefer doing single exposure ones.

In this image to the right, I had my camera mounted on a tripod and my Z-Pro filter mounted to the glass.  I placed in a Cokin Z121s filter -having the gradient stop right below the tree line in the photo- and exposed for 2.5 seconds.  Without the filter, the sky was bright and blown out in the middle, yet the lake in the foreground was just as dark as you see here.  The filter really balanced the scene.

Some people will say why pay all that money when you can filter in Photoshop? Easy, though Photoshop can put in color filters, gradients, ND’s, CPL’s and anything else you want – you are still patching a poorly exposed photo in your post production.  Wouldn’t you rather have it come right off the camera with your curves already in balance?  Maybe it’s just my, but I feel much better about a photo ending up the same way I took it – not changed with software.

Tobacco Filter

Tinted for Ka-Pow!

Not only can a GND stop down the light, but it can also add a splash of color to an otherwise meh sunset.

The shot to the left was taken with the Z125 Tobacco (hand held) in front of my lens.  Rarely do I use the holder anymore, but more on that in a bit.  You can see where the gradient stops here – where the blue and orange meet in the bottom 1/3 frame.

Without the filter, the sky was ok, but bland.  The Tobacco really added to this scene; and shooting a longer exposure through the filter gave some really dramatic effects.  This is NOT Photoshopped.

One nice thing with the color filters is the more you change the exposure time, the more you change the color.  This is 1.6 second exposure.  Drop it below 1 second and there is a much more deep Tobacco (orange/red) to the scene.  The shot at the very top of the page is just 0.3 seconds – but also has two GND8′s placed in front.  But that deeper red is caused by shorter time.  I suggest you play with tons of exposures.

Don’t Mount Your GND Filters

OK, that’s not a rule.  But I am finding this new trick to be great for GND’s.  What happens when you mount for a long exposure is you can get a line that defines where the gradient stops.  It’s not obvious, but you can find it in some shots.

My solution is to not mount the filter, rather, to hand hold it in front of the lens and move it up and down a bit during the exposure.  It really blends that line a lot more – softer is the right word I guess.  Yes, you may get some minor scratches on your filter if you press too hard, but nothing that will affect your shot.  Luckily, I don’t have any scratches on my Cokins as I tend to be be very gentle.

So, if you’re shooting with filters or thinking about starting, get out there and play!  You can really get some dramatic effects.

SOOC

In my quest to become a better photographer, I am getting into a phase where I want to do as little post work as possible.  Not because I am über lazy – that’s an aside, but because I want to shoot as pure as possible.  I want to point my D700 at something pretty, grab the shot and then upload it to Flickr, or where ever – no middle man.

Defining SOOC (for me)

Every photographer has their own idea what it means to shoot straight out of the camera (SOOC).  For the purpose of today’s post, I’ll give you my definition:

• Image shot RAW – WB applied at import (you have more control this way)
• Photoshop used to add border or text / copyright
• Filters (on camera) are OK (Cokin Filter System)

That’s it.  There are no color curves, high pass filters, color boosting, etc.  The only thing I apply post is the WB (and of course the copyright text).  The image above is an example of my SOOC standards.

Testing DOF with SOOC

Why Shoot SOOC?

For me, it’s an inner challenge.  Photoshop (PS) can become a crutch for shooting poor.  You can adjust your exposure, adjust your colors, brightness, take out annoying artifacts or other objects, deepen tonal contrasts… you get the idea.  Don’t get me wrong, use PS CS4 all the time to adjust my curves of nature shots to bring out highlights and shadows.  You can really make a good picture great with a few adjustment.  Also, while shooting on the D80 with lesser glass, I always used PS CS4 to high pass and/or smart sharpen some areas.  I am finding with my newer glass and D700, this is not a necessity, though I do it out of habit quite a bit.  Wanting to stop that.

So, this challenge for me is to become a better shooter, not a better post-production engineer.  I want to learn to use the power of the D700 to see the shot and take it in the final form.  It forces me to learn better camera control.  Better use of light metering, better framing of my subject, using a tripod to get the shot tack sharp right out of the barrel.

The shot here was done without a tripod, but the shutter was quick enough to have it sharp.  The colors and sharpness are right from the camera.  The text and border was added, but that’s all that went on.

Cokin Filter + Color Boost + Highpass

Why Photoshop Then?

Because sometimes good just isn’t good enough.  Sometimes there was a bug that flew into a perfect shot.  PS can whack it.  Sometimes you screwed up your exposure to an otherwise clean shot.  You can fix that (when shooting RAW).  Sometimes, that extra little punch of color will really make a photo scream.  All that happened on the shot to the right.

This shot was done with Cokin filters (Tobacco Z125 GND8) at 24mm for 1 second.  The color is from the filter on the camera, not from post work.  It was a little muted from how I saw it through the view-finder, so my post work involved putting it back to how my eye saw it.

Also, a mosquito landed on the filter during the exposure – right in the nice blue water.  Other than the little smudge he made while walking around, it was a clean shot.  So, the power of the healing brush healed his ass right out of the scene.

Patience

I think patience is what I need most.  I always look back to purist Edward Weston.  He didn’t shoot digital.  He didn’t have Photoshop to clean up his mistakes.  He shot and developed in a dark room.  Yes, you can tweak contrasts that way (think Ansel Adams), but Weston was a purist.  I am not turning myself down that road, but I really want to be exposed to shooting RAW and clean.  It won’t be all the time though, as I really love the extra boost of color, contrast or sharpness that PS can give you.