First of all, if the title has you singing or humming Return of the Mack all day long, I apologise, but I’m also smiling. If that means nothing to you, move on quickly… as my Mum has often said “Little things please little minds…” (thanks Mum).
If you are new to filters, I explain next what a graduated filter is and I’ve also written a separate blog post here explaining all about the popular set of filters that most photographers will have in their kit bag.
If you are familiar with graduated filters, please skip the explanation of grads below and jump straight to my filter journey.
Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filters aka ‘Grads’
These filters have a partial dark area such that you slide them down in a holder over the front of the lens to cover a bright sky.
One of the tricky aspects of this is getting the filter to line up accurately with the horizon. This is what many photographers (as stated above) hate which is where a mistake here can cause problems if not a ruined shot.
Obviously the easiest scene is a coastal one where you have a scene with no or minimal objects on the horizon.
GNDs do provide challenges if you have objects in the scene, e.g, Hills or mountains. To overcome this, manufacturers helpfully provide a gentler graduation filter referred to as a soft grad. All these filters tend to come in soft, medium and hard levels.
And by the way, these filters are not cheap so most photographers will begin with a starter kit and build up their collection, or use medium grads and love within the capabilities of those.
Of course, those who prefer multiple exposures (bracketing) can brag at this point that they’ve saved themselves a ton of unnecessary expenditure.
My filter journey (over the last few years)
Forgive the title but these days, isn’t everything a ‘journey’? Below is my journey summarised:
Cokin -> Lee -> Nisi -> Kase Wolverine (no grads) -> Kase Armour (return of the grads)
My experience with filters has been topsy turvy over the years. I started out with a cheap set of filters from Amazon – I think they were a brand called Cokin. I had fun doing the slow water shots albeit I acknowledge looking back i overdid the blurry water shots.
I then moved to premium brand Lee filters. Then when I switched camera systems, and bought a big ass wide angle lens that needed a special holder and massive square filters. The filters were huge and added significantly to the weight of my backpack.
On holiday in the Peak District, I cracked the 150x150mm glass square polariser without realising and that alone would’ve cost me £150. I remember even now opening up my bag and seeing the crack across the glass. It was enough to make a grown man cry, internally if not externally!
The amount of money in that single filter plus the gear I was lugging around just felt wrong. I took the opportunity to reconsider my filter system.
I switched to Nisi filters, downsizing to the very compact 100mm set. Although Nisi are excellent quality filters, I found the sponge surrounds peeled off when using the filters which really annoyed me. I had regretted switching but stayed with them for quite some time.
As I’ve learnt to my cost many times, significant sums of money can be sunk into filter systems, well any photography gear really, and even more cash lost switching systems.
On the back of one of my online mentors Nigel Danson recommending ditching grads, I did just that and copied him by moving to the Kase Wolverine circular magnetic filters. These are excellent, small, compact, easy to use, no fiddling with a holder and take up less space in the bag.
I rarely had a scene where I missed a grad… although looking back, I didn’t ever do sunrise shoots!
Return of the Grads
So, what’s happened?
After joining a photography club and doing lots of sunrise shoots, particularly at the coast, I realised that some of the scenes I was shooting were really tricky without grads.
The multiple exposure option might be fine, but I’m also trying to get specific effects from the sea water as it recedes back, and I don’t want to blend multiple shots of that.
Initially, I stubbornly held off going back to grads, convincing myself that I could live without them. Observing all my fellow club members sporting their grads at these shoots also made me think. These folks are experienced pro-level photographers who know their stuff.
With competing thoughts in my head along the lines of “Stick to the No grad scheme” vs. “Get yourself grad options”, and the money needed to invest, I held off. I had the Lake District trip coming up and had little time to acquire the kit and try it out. This was a convenient excuse to leave it for the moment.
Lake District 121s with Pro Photographer Chris Sale
While in the District with Chris Sale, on both dawn shoots, we had a brighter sky later after sunrise and Chris asked if I had any grads. As I didn’t, he helped me learn more about bracketing some shots so I had that option.
As it turned out, I was able to pull back the bright sky from one of the shots where the foreground was darker, and then lift the shadows to get a decent final image. There could be an issue here in potentially losing some quality of the image by heavier post production, but I was delighted with a superb image so not an issue.
I came back from the Lakes with a nagging thought in my head that I need to reconsider my ban on grads. With this grad doubt on my mind, I started half-heartedly to look more into it. I didn’t want to go back to the traditional filter system and dragged my heels.
On a subsequent club coastal sunrise shoot, I realised again that where the sun is fierce as it come up, I do need the grad option.
It was now obvious that to have the grad option would be far more favourable and allow me the chance to get a shot there and then on location.
At this point, Kase had just released their new magnetic filter system which provides the traditional circular and square filters but in a magnetic system which provides fast attachment and use. It was very timely, stoked my interest, and I looked more into it.
My new filter system
After a lot of thought, I’ve gone for the Kase Armour system which is a snap on magnetic holder, magnetic circular polariser and NDs, and a magnetic square grad option allowing the grad(s) to just snap on.
This is a great system as you get the convenience of speed of use with magnets and the ability to apply multiple filters as you need them.
It is very annoying that my existing filter rings and filters aren’t compatible however, I’ve discovered that my Wolverine magnetic ND filters do seem to attach so I’ll probably see how I get on before racing to buy the Armour versions.
This return of the grads has currently cost me just shy of £700!
I would add that I’ve got a soft, medium and hard grad option and I’ve also got a reverse grad which has the dark section on the horizon where you need to reduce the light specifically for the horizon and sunrises. That’s definitely one filter I’ve never had before and should be a useful option in future.
I used the new system and grads on the club sunrise trip to Bawdsey and I was pleased with the shots I got.
So, I now have options… no grads if I can, or using grads if the scene is challenging and I want to try and get a shot in one image. Always good to have options.
I am very cautious though as one of my pet hates is where photographers use grads, and you can see the effect in the foreground or under the horizon evidenced by over dark areas. I worry about that, and console myself with the option of brightening any such areas in post-production after the event should I cock up like that, but that is a real faff.
If on scene I’m quick, I can also take some bracketed shots too, although clicking away getting lots of rushed shots at a scene does spoil the enjoyment of taking your time, applying your learning and taking in the view.
I think for coastal shoots, I will have an uncluttered horizon therefore lining up a grad is much easier and less risky to the final image.
Adobe Lightroom masks
Since purchasing the grads, Adobe have brought in a significant update to Lightroom where you can automatically detect the sky or object as a more accurate version of the grad filter.
While this has made it easier to recover detail in a highly exposed sky without any worry of the grad encroaching any objects or foreground, it doesn’t change the fact that a captured image with an over-exposed sky (or ‘blown’ highlights) leaves you stuck with no detail to recover. But then we should all be avoiding any such over-exposure in-the-field using our camera’s light metering systems.
This new Adobe functionality has tipped the pendulum a little more into the favour of those preferring a grad-less, non-destructive post-production to calm over bright skies but having a grads option feels right to me than not having it. I’ve got choices, and choices are always good.
Any downsides?
Yeah, I now have a big filter pouch and need a bigger backpack to get all my gear in on shoots!
To be fair, a new and larger backpack has been on the wish list for quite a while but it’s more money to spend, and I haven’t to date found the perfect bag.
There’s definitely a blog post to be had on camera bags. Although, there’ll be a need to confess to another story of how my wife is always right, so I’ll wait a little longer to write that one!
Onwards and upwards…