Day 5 of the Better Landscapes in Just 7 Days tutorial in the current issue of Practical Photography focuses on the use of the polariser and ND grad filters in landscape photography.
"Every photographer needs a little help to capture the landscape on the sensor or film. This is because you won't be able to capture the massive range of brightness and colours in many landscapes without a little help. There are many different filters available, but you really only need to use two types for 90% of landscapes - the ND grad and polariser. Both of these filters allow ou to change the colours and tones so that the camera can capture them and give you better pictures....
Polariser
Blue skies and the saturated colours of the landscape can look muted and dull in your landscape shots without a polariser filter. Using a polariser you need to rotate the filter while looking through the viewfinder as the effect changes according to the position of the filter. ... The effect on the sky is most pronounced at right angles to the sun, so if the sun is directly behind you the changes can be quite minimal.
ND Grads
Keeping detail in both the land and the sky is almost impossible in a single image without the help of an ND grad. One half of this filter is a dark grey colour, which should be positioned over the sky, while the clear area should be over the landscape.
...Rememeber that the exposure for the foreground won't be affected by the filter, so expose for this and use the right strength filter to make sure the sky is correctly exposed."
Polariser
Blue skies and the saturated colours of the landscape can look muted and dull in your landscape shots without a polariser filter. Using a polariser you need to rotate the filter while looking through the viewfinder as the effect changes according to the position of the filter. ... The effect on the sky is most pronounced at right angles to the sun, so if the sun is directly behind you the changes can be quite minimal.
ND Grads
Keeping detail in both the land and the sky is almost impossible in a single image without the help of an ND grad. One half of this filter is a dark grey colour, which should be positioned over the sky, while the clear area should be over the landscape.
...Rememeber that the exposure for the foreground won't be affected by the filter, so expose for this and use the right strength filter to make sure the sky is correctly exposed."
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