VE6AB Technical

Graduated Light Control

What your seeing here are a pair of Neutral Density filters, the one on the left a hard-stop 3X ND, and the one on the right a soft-stop 3X ND filter utilized by mounting the adapter seen in the photo into the filter threads found at the front of the lens, then sliding the ND filter of choice in the mount.

Many of the most dramatic landscape scenes we try to capture have a spread of highlights and shadows — bright skies and dark foregrounds — that exceeds the dynamic range of our camera.
The result is often an image that’s overexposed in the highlight areas or underexposed in the shadows — in other words, nothing close to the scene we were seeing.

Some photographers take multiple exposures and try to recreate the scene with HDR software, but more often than not, the final image jumps out as “processed” and rarely looks realistic.
I have found that through the use of ND filters, realistic images can be created in camera that contain the full contrast of the scene, in a single exposure, no post required.
If you go this route, don't cheap out, but get the best ND filters you can afford, the one's seen here built by Singh-Ray featuring optical quality and color fidelity.

If you can only afford one due to the cost of each filter, get the 3X hard. The 3X hard is the most versatile and useful. I love the ability to take a photo directly into the sun without much worry about these filters flaring. I'm always pleased with the results.
Singh-Ray filters come in a well designed case, as you don't want to scratch these filters and the case emphasizes that. I've owned these filters for at least 15 years, and they are still scratch free.

I also own a 10X ND filter that creates images with beautifully blurred clouds that are moving and blurred moving water.

Expand the photo for a closer look.....