land scape tip

When a bit of blur is a good thin g

80 A graduated filter is a boon for practically every landscape you take. The grad does not just darken the sky to stop it blowing out, it also reduces the contrast in the scene and gives you a better exposure for the land or water below the horizon.

Coloured grads are not popular in the Photoshop era, but grey ND grads are. They reduce the brightness of the top part of the scene without affecting its hue, hence the ‘neutral’ part of their name. You can get them in various strengths, and with hard or soft graduations. If you buy just one filter, get a soft one, as this allows better for structures protruding above the horizon; a 0.6 soft is a good choice, reducing the contrast by two stops.