grad filters when and why

[bogeyes]

When looking at a landscape, lets say its green fields trees, lake etc plus bright sky, what parts of the scene do you measure and how do you judge what strength of grad filter to use (grey grad for B&W, maybe blue grad for colour)? Can you over do the blue sky? I have never used grads before and I dont particularly like to see purple or tobbacco coloured skies. I can see a use for grey grads to even out the brightness in a scene but in my opinion some colour photos I have seen have been overdone or the dividing line of the filter sticks out like a sore thumb.How can this be avoided and what filters can be used in combination? Any input welcome thanks.

 

[Ian Grant]

You'd struggle to over do a blue sky in the UK

You really need to experiment using grad filters, the lens aperture makes a huge difference to the sharpness of the division, the more you stop down the sharper.

Ian

 

[A.C.]

You'd struggle to over do a blue sky in the UK

You really need to experiment using grad filters, the lens aperture makes a huge difference to the sharpness of the division, the more you stop down the sharper.

Ian

Ian's put it in a nutshell here:
My own 2p worth is that you try sticking with grey grads. They can be obtained in both hard and soft edge form from LEE flters, but there is a much cheaper, if more limited, option from Cokin. Different users have their own views on which is the right choice for them.
Spot metering is usual, the typical object of the excercise is to control the brightness range of the scene.
Aynsley

 

[Dave Miller]

When I did colour work I used Cokin filters for this purpose but found they introduced a colour cast with some emulsions; they may be better now. I always metered off grass or the palm of my hand, and used that exposure. As Aynsley said the object is to reduce the contrast range down to a level that the film can handle. Ian's comment about the aperture is pertinent too.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Tobacco grads are usually hokey for color, but nice for B&W, because they can increase contrast in the sky as well as bringing it down a stop, without changing the tonal rendition of the ground.

 

[vet173]

David hit the nail on the head. No change in the tonal seperation of the ground. When you use an orange or red, there goes the shadows. Open for the shadows and you lose what you put the filter on for in the first place. I will use color filters now to seperate colors that might be to close together in B&W without.