What about a gradient filter?

[ddvitale]

Hi -- I shoot a lot of landscapes and was told / or read that a gradient filter (half clear half slightly and decreasingly grey from the edge in) will help by toning down the brigtness of the sky and allowing colors from the ground to show out. Has anyone used one of these yet?
dave

[JMare]

Surely you could acheive the effect in photoshop without much effort?

[coffee]

Surely you could acheive the effect in photoshop without much effort?

Yes but once you blowout the details of the sky because it's overexposed, you won't get it back in PS right?

[jerryph]

You definitely could recreate this effect in PS. I recently saw a little quiz where a guy posted 5 pictures and all had ND effects. The goal was to tell which one was done with the filter and which one was done with Photoshop.

It was impossible to tell. No one could tell except the guy who took the pics.

[reval8r]

I'm with Joseph on this one. I think a good 2 & 3 stop graduate filter should be part of the landscape photographers camera bag. It's pretty easy to have a sky that's three or more stops brighter than the rest of the image. I personally like the Cokin filters for these. I would rather spend a few minutes to get in right in camera, then spend a lot of time in PS. In PS you have to have another image with a good sky to use if the sky was blown out in the original image. It can be done in PS and very hard to tell, but you'll have much more time involved. I'm a big advocate for getting it right when you shoot it.

[dkippen]

I'm with Joseph too - in fact, I just ordered some Cokin filters and can't wait to try them out. I did see first hand how well they work on a sunrise - convinced me to give it a try.

[ca7696]

hi Debbie, I was looking at the Cokin filters.....but I was a little unsure about the big square filters in the holder thing....how would a hood fit onto the lens with the setup? I Like the idea of using the filters with different lens but thought the big square thing would be awkward.....how do you like the cokin sstem??? thanx

[Fusion07]

Grad filter an essential in any landscape photographers bag IMO !!