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.

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.

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.