Field skills Controlling contrast

It’s often said that the best use of filters is when you can’t actually tell that filters have even been used in the image you’re looking at. For instance, would you have realized that Frans used a graduated neutral density filter for this particular shot if we didn’t tell you? Frans explains the reasoning behind his decision to use a filter when he took the image: “It helped with reducing the contrast between the sunlit sand dunes and the clay pan, which is several stops darker. And because the tree trunks are practically silhouettes, we were able to blend the two portions of the image together better in post-production.”