REFINE ND GRAD WORKFLOW

Make sure you are correctly selecting and aligning your grad filters

3

ARRANGE FILTERS (STRONGEST FIRST)

Place your strongest filters closest to the lens as this will act as your baseline filter. In many cases, this will be all you need, but if you want to add more filters, any additional filtration increases should be subtle and controlled.

1

SET YOUR COMPOSITION Before sliding your filters into place, work handheld to find the ideal composition for your image. Decide where the optimal level for your horizon line is, as this may affect your choice of filter gradient and density.

4

ADJUST POSITION Move the grads in the holder until the transition just touches the horizon (hard grad) or overlaps it by around a centimetre (soft grad). If using multiple filters, avoid the transition of each filter aligning too much, to prevent an overly sudden gradient change.

2

CALCULATE EXPOSURE RANGE Take a meter reading from the brightest areas of the scene and from the midtone regions to identify how far apart these are tonally.

This allows you to choose a filter strength to hold the sky and reveal foreground detail.

5

ALTER ROTATION Rotate the filter holder to align the gradient with the terrain of the scene you are shooting. If you have a sloping clifftop for example, angling the grad will prevent obvious darkening of areas of the land. You can also use this technique to compensate for uneven polarisation.