[madison_wi_gal]

I was having a chat with a colleague (Canon dSLR user) who asked me if I ever used a ND filter. I said no. He asked me "why not"? I had no answer. I said "I can fix things in Lightroom if needed", he said "this gives you some help".

So... ??

[jatrax]

ND filters are one of the few I carry along with a CPL. The ND is used to reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor so you can slow the shutter speed down in bright light. I use them to make silky waterfalls, dreamy clouds and so on. They can also be used to remove moving people from shots.

And no, you cannot replicate the effect of an ND filter in Lightroom because it allows you to show the motion of things with a slow shutter speed.

[filoxophy]

It also allows you to use a wider aperture if you are hitting the limit of your shutter speed. If you have f/1.4 selected and a 1/8000 shutter speed still overexposes your scene, an ND filter will get your shutter speed back in range.

[madison_wi_gal]

Ah! OK.

[clackers]

Love that your Canon friend couldn't explain.

[robgski]

Just as being able to get really high shutter speeds to "freeze time" is a great photographic trick, or using smaller apertures to get everything in focus, as the other pointed out above, using ND filters allowing longer shutter speeds and wider apertures in brightly lit scenes is pretty amazing. Unlike most filters, ND filters don't really change the quality of the light, or the filter out or add in colors, they merely block out a percentage of light.

One photographer, Ken Lane, has used this capability in a really creative way. He uses an ND filter to darken a daylight scene, then uses a strobe to illuminate the subject, the effect is truly eye-catching
[IMG][/IMG]

[mattt]

Google:
-Alexey Titarenko's "City of Shadows"
-Michael Levin Black & White

You will discover some other wonderful effects that can be had with ND filters.

[kiwi_jono]

ND filters can be very useful but something to consider is to avoid really cheap ones as they often introduce a bit of colour cast. I have had a couple of ND filters now that introduce a brown cast.

Another point worth noting is the latest Pentax cameras that have a mulit-exposures / composite image mode with more than 9 images, can achieve a similar effect. I find you need say 30 - 40 shots to get a good effect. This is very handy if you are travelling light without filters etc. Example:

[robgski]

-Alexey Titarenko's "City of Shadows"

Wow, thanks for that tip, incredible photos!

[madison_wi_gal]

Love that your Canon friend couldn't explain.

Maybe it was the look on my face that stopped him, or...

---------- Post added 02-23-17 at 21:55 ----------

ND filters can be very useful but something to consider is to avoid really cheap ones as they often introduce a bit of colour cast. I have had a couple of ND filters now that introduce a brown cast.

Another point worth noting is the latest Pentax cameras that have a mulit-exposures / composite image mode with more than 9 images, can achieve a similar effect. I find you need say 30 - 40 shots to get a good effect. This is very handy if you are travelling light without filters etc. Example:

What a beautiful photo!

[awscreo]

ND filters are one of the few I carry along with a CPL. The ND is used to reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor so you can slow the shutter speed down in bright light. I use them to make silky waterfalls, dreamy clouds and so on. They can also be used to remove moving people from shots.

And so, you cannot replicate the effect of an ND filter in Lightroom because it allows you to show the motion of things with a slow shutter speed.

You can stack exposures in photoshop and get the same effect, plus literally no noise

[volley]

You can stack exposures in photoshop and get the same effect, plus literally no noise

Really?

[IggzDaLoc]

Stacking is not as smooth nor allows practical wide aperature long exposures...

[othar]

You can stack exposures in photoshop and get the same effect, plus literally no noise

You get similar effects for continuous movement of e.g. water and it probably works to remove people on crowded places, but to get the lighttrail of a passing car I certainly prefer ND filters

Stacking is not as smooth nor allows practical wide aperature long exposures...

+1

[awscreo]

Really?

Worked for me before.

---------- Post added 02-24-17 at 05:44 AM ----------

Stacking is not as smooth nor allows practical wide aperature long exposures...

Depends on how much light is available and how many frames you're willing to take. I had smooth enough results when I tried it.

Such as this one (not with a Pentax camera, but it doesn't matter for the result. except maybe showing how clean the images can look noise wise even with a x2 crop sensor)
https://flic.kr/p/EAMNK8