Gray Filter / ND Filter / Variable ND Filter

Gray filters - indispensable for breathtaking landscape photography & cinematic video shooting

Where are the filters used?

The gray filter, also called ND filter, short for neutral density filter, is used for long exposures. These are often desired for waterscapes as well as flowing waters to soften the water and thus achieve beautiful effects, such as the water mist in waterfall photographs and rapid flowing waters as well as surf shots. Another very popular use for ND filters is shooting against the sunlight or even at times of day when the sun is particularly low. If you want to use an ND filter for filming, then you should make sure that it has as little color cast as possible, because this can be a real headache when colorgrading in post-processing. The ND filter also helps in videography so you can keep the exposure times in a cinematic range and thus get a more homogeneous image and the viewer can enjoy the video more.

Advantages of Gray Filters / ND Filters

An ND filter reduces the amount of light that enters the image, effectively preventing overexposure of the shot, which is why the outdoor gray filter is an important tool for your camera lens. With the help of the filter, you can capture particularly beautiful light shows, atmospheres and outdoor portraits. Many unique weather and sky shots are also created by using a gray filter. In good weather and for water shots, it is therefore almost always recommended to work with an ND filter. When shooting video, the ND filter offers the advantage of maintaining exposure times at an open aperture.

What types of gray filters are there?

There are rectangular filters, also called plug-in filters, and circular screw filters, which are screwed directly onto the lens. The latter are also suitable for beginners. For rectangular filters, a special filter holder is required, but this offers greater flexibility in return, since several filters can be used at the same time. Caruba, for example, offers a set of four plug-in filters for this purpose. In addition, there are variable gauze filters, such as Rollei has in its range, which create continuously variable strengths by rotating two glasses.

What are the differences between gray filters?

The main difference between the products offered is first of all the varying light transmission. The darker the filter, the more light incidence is reduced and the longer the exposure time may be. There are ready-made tables for this correlation that you can refer to. Not every filter is equally suitable for the respective shot, it is worth trying out different intensities.

The second basic difference is in the design. With circular ND filters, which are screwed directly onto the lens, you have to choose a single filter, while with plug-in filters you can theoretically work with several filters at the same time. When doing so, however, it is advisable to take a test shot, as the combination can lead to undesirable effects. When using them for video recording, it should be noted that in addition to the fixed ND filters, variable ones mentioned above are also available. Both variants offer advantages and disadvantages, so fixed gray filters with a certain strength guarantee good imaging performance, with variable filters you always have to make sacrifices here, but you can use different strengths in one shot with only one filter.

Qualitatively there are also discrepancies, resin is inferior to glass in terms of image quality, which is why resin filters are actually hardly offered anymore, but they are cheaper. Ideally, you should prefer high-quality and durable coatings, these are usually more expensive, but pay off in the long run. Nisi and B+W have products of different price ranges in their portfolio, depending on the requirements and budget. For beginner or pure hobby photographers, affordable models usually already achieve good results. In addition, you should consider in advance where, for what and at what time of day the filter is to be used, since different areas of use place different demands on the filter. You can decide which one is most suitable for your use by looking at pictures taken with different filters. You can often find such sample images on photographers' websites or also on manufacturers' websites.

Which ND filter for landscape photography?

As already noted, this is always individual and depends strongly on the subject, as well as the desired effect strength. Nevertheless, to give a rough recommendation, you can use the following values as a guide.

• 0.6 (2 f-stops; ND4)
• 1.2 (4 f-stops; ND16)
• 1.8 (6 f-stops; ND64)
• 3.0 (10 f-stops; ND1000)

Which ND filter for waterfalls?

The last two strengths are also popular for water shots. What works for water can be applied to anything that moves. Plants in the wind, trickling sand, there are no limits to your creativity and experimentation. It makes sense to have at least one weaker and one stronger filter with you, so that most areas of application are well covered.

In general, however, you must be aware that any filter used will always be at the expense of image quality, no matter how high quality the purchased product is!

Which Variable ND filters are available?

There are many different versions of the Variable ND filter, which essentially differ in strength and whether they tend to form an X in the image, which is due to the design in which two polarizing filters rotate in opposite directions, darkening the light. In video, these filters are quite popular as they save time on set as you can simply rotate the filter further to darken or brighten the image.

These strengths can be obtained from a variable ND filter:

• ND8 - ND64
• ND8 - ND128
• ND8 - ND2000
• ND3 - ND1000

These filters are also available in combination with a polarizing filter to remove light reflections.