The Wedding Photography Tips: Neutral

Monday, July 16, 2012

To Get Better Landscape Photography, Your Camera Gear Should Include Neutral Density Filters!

Today's photo tip concerns the neutral density filter. To get better landscape photography, this is another piece of camera gear that should be in your bag at all times! It's another filter effect that can't be duplicated after the fact. It has to be in the camera.

I'm sure you've seen landscape photography of a waterfall.

You can shoot it so that every drop of water is in sharp relief... or you can shoot it so that it looks like a massive string of cotton candy! And everything in between!

By the way, did you know that Niagara Falls actually stopped flowing in 1848 for about 20 hours because there was ice that was blocking the Niagara River? Imagine a before and after shot of THAT!

Anyway, back to our tip...

We know that to get the sharp image, we need a fast shutter speed and to get the cotton candy blur we need a slow one.

Another good reason to put your camera on manual! You will never get award winning shots on automatic! They will look like everyone else's.

What if we want a really slow shutter speed, but it is a bright day? As you know, only a certain amount of light can be let in for a good exposure - if you let in too much, it will ruin the shot.

So we first start closing down the aperture. What if that isn't enough? What if we are at the smallest aperture setting - and we still have too much light.

Our next option would be to go with the slowest film or ISO setting we can. That is nice, it will give us nicely saturated, noise free shots... but there are limitations.

Since our problem is that too much light is entering the lens, the simple fix is to block some of that light.

Enter the "Neutral Density Filter".

The neutral density filter is a filter that is designed to block a certain amount of light. That's all! It doesn't alter the light in any way - it's neutral. The light entering the lens has all the same properties; there is just less of it.

Voilla! You are now able to shoot that silky, cotton candy waterfall - on a bright sunny day!

Neutral density filters come in various strengths. You can block one stop of light, three, five, and so on. Plus various densities can be "stacked" for even more light blockage. You could put a five stop and a three stop neutral density filter together for eight full stops! (That is a LOT of light!)

Neutral density filters have lots of uses, not just for waterfalls. In tomorrows photo tip article, I'll go into even more cool things you can do to improve your landscape photography with these indispensable camera gear accessories.

To learn more and enroll in a FREE "photo tips" course, go to: http://ontargetphototraining.com/

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Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years - his data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that learning photography is easy, if you know a few tried and true strategies.

View the original article here

Friday, July 13, 2012

Using The Neutral Density Filter For Better Landscape Photography

Photo Tip - using the neutral density filter. Neutral density filters are used to block light coming into the lens so that we can have longer exposure times than the available light would allow without the filter. As a piece of landscape photography camera gear, it is indispensable.

I've written about neutral density filters in a previous article and this one will build on that!

Let's review... To explain how a neutral density filter works, I used an old standby, the waterfall - shot on a bright and sunny day.

By the way - Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall, at 979 meters. This waterfall is sixteen times the height of Niagara Falls.Imagine shooting that!

Actually, don't imagine it... set a goal and find a way to go do it!

With the available light, we may have a fast shutter speed that will freeze every droplet in place. If that is what we want, great!

What if we want that long and silky cotton candy effect we see so often?

To do that, we need a longer exposure time. That's where the neutral density filter comes in. It blocks light entering the lens and allows for the longer exposure times needed.

Neutral density filters come in various filtration densities and can be stacked to get to the exposure times we want.

This works on water flowing in a river too! Fast shutter speeds freeze the water - slow shutter speeds make it a long silky cotton candy string.

If you live near the ocean, try going to the beach and shooting the waves as they crash onto the shore. With enough neutral density filters, you can totally flatten them out and make it look like there were no waves at all! Toss in a dramatic sky and you have a contest winner for sure!

Today we will delve even further into the neutral density filter.

In previous articles I've written that the best time of day for landscape photography is at dawn and dusk. That will give us the most beautiful light on our subject.

But there is a problem. Because of the dramatic difference in light (on the ground vs. in the sky) at that time of day, half your photograph is improperly exposed!

If our subject is the dramatic cloud formations in the sky, that's great. We make them the star. We expose for all the light in the sky, but that makes the ground go dark. (The ground is under exposed.)

If our star is the ground, we expose for the minimal light on the ground, but that lets the sky get blown out. (The sky is over exposed.)

How can we shoot at the best times of day, still have a star in our photo - either the ground or the sky - but not have the rest of the photo be improperly exposed?

Enter the split neutral density filter!

This is a filter where half of it is clear and the other half is a neutral density filter. They come in various degrees of density and the dividing line can be sharp or a gradual fade.

This way we can hold back some of the light in the sky and not affect the light on the ground.

All you need to do is determine what the amount of difference there is in exposure value between the sky and the ground - then add enough neutral density light blockage to the sky to make them the same!

Since it is "neutral" it will not take away any of the colors or drama in your shot... it just cuts back on the light being admitted to the lens.

Adding neutral density filters to your landscape photography arsenal it vital. They are an essential piece of camera gear that you should never leave home without - if you want to put some of the "WOW" factor into your landscape photography. For more information, check the resource box!