AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Upon running these three tests, I soon realized that not every filter produced the exact same exposure, so I added an exposure test that compared the overall darkening effect caused by adding the filter to the lens.If you are a landscape photographer, ND filters are a crucial tool for smoothing out rough water and giving your skies a nice blurred effect.For portrait photographers, neutral density filters are great for maintaining wide open apertures in super bright situations while using strobes.Recently, we tested five different brands filters to see which one produced the sharpest and most accurate color renditions.
Best Pixelactive Cityscape 1.8 2017 - And Reviews 2017 Series Of ProductsSince Fstoppers is not sponsored by any camera company, we are in a unique situation in which we can pretty much review any series of products and pit them against each other in an all out winner takes all competition. Some of our reviews are pretty subjective, based on our own desires and applications (take our Sony vs. Nikon vs. Canon high-megapixel camera shootout video, for example), while others are much more objective in nature. In todays neutral density filter review, we find ourselves in the latter category. As a photographer who values capturing the highest quality imagery, I can understand how one might buy into this hype and shell out a couple extra dollars to buy the best of the best. ![]() Recently, I was able to test five of the most popular neutral density filters side by side and see for myself how different ND filters affect the overall image quality of my photographs. Instead of opting to take these filters out into the real world and photograph a beautiful landscape, I wanted to run my test in the studio and reduce as many variables as possible. Since I use neutral density filters much more often for portraits than landscapes, this seemed not only like a great variation on a common test, but one that would produce the most compelling results as well. We used one Nikon D750 camera outfitted with a Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 lens (our favorite all-around lens for both video and stills) so that every filter would be shot on the exact same camera and lens system. This lens was set to shoot at the widest setting (24mm), and we set our aperture at f8.0, which would reproduce a common setup any landscape photographer might choose. We then used a single Profoto D1 studio flash firing at a white cyclorama wall to emulate our constant sunlight. We kept this light hard-edged so that no light modifier fabric would add any color to our tests. Having six stops of light reduction is pretty heavy for any serious studio work, but as I found working with Elia Locardi for his Photographing the World landscape series, six stops is a very common filter density for many landscape photographers. Elia actually includes a 1.2 and 3.0 ND filter in his signature Formatt Hitech Kit, which correspond to four stops and ten stops respectively. So, for this test, I wanted to split the difference and use a six-stop filter since it would cover most of the exposure times desired by landscape photographers. ![]() Here are the actual filters we used; Ive linked to them on BH so you can see the overall reviews and prices. Many landscape photographers, like Elia, prefer square filters and a filter holder instead of the ones that thread directly onto the lens. I did not test these square filters, but I do think they might have significantly less vignetting because of their overall design. Keep that in mind when reading this review and ultimately choosing which filter system to buy. The main things I wanted to compare between the five brands were color consistency, overall sharpness, and the amount of vignetting each filter might add to our photograph.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |