Skip to main content

How to use a 10 stop square shaped neutral density filter?

Since the beginning of my photography journey, I have always been a fan of clouds, stars, sunset, sunrise and ocean. 11-16 mm and a 70-300 mm telephoto lens can definitely be called as my best friends. Having purchased a 10 stop neutral density filter recently, this post is about my experience using an ND filter for the first time. It will also serve as a step by step tutorial for using a neutral density filter.
Let's start with a bit of introduction. A neutral density filter is a dark piece of glass or resin used to minimize the amount of light hitting the DSLR sensor. They can be either circular (ring mount) or rectangular (square mount) in shape. Brands like Haida, Hoya, Cokin, B+W, Singh-Ray, Lee, etc are some of the major neutral density filter manufacturers. The darkness of material stays uniform in a classic ND filter unless it is a graduated ND filter. Graduated neutral density filter is a sub-type of ND filters which can be divided into further 2 parts:

Soft grad: The darker-softer part merge is gradual, smooth and hard to notice. 
Hard grad: The darker-softer part merge is sudden, rough and easy to notice. 

The image below represents my classic 10 stop Haida neutral density filter.

Rectangular filter from haida
Haida 10 stop ND filter
Silver metallic ND filter box
Haida filter box
It came in a really nice metal case with a shiny and smooth touch. If you are wondering about the meaning of ND3.0 or 1000x, check out one of the old posts explaining the nomenclature of neutral density filters. As the filter is square in shape, we need something to hold it properly in front of the lens. For this, a ring matching the size of the lens filter and a slot mount is required. A typical set up for rectangular filters looks similar to my camera image shown below.

10 stop ND filter set-up
Rectangular ND filter set up

Coming to the photography, a good tripod and DSLR remote shutter is a must for getting decent shots using a neutral density filter. This helps to avoid possible shake issues due to camera touch or slight wind. Here is the step by step process for using a rectangular 10 stop ND filter:
1) Connect the ring and slot mount to the ring of your lens. 
2) Connect the remote shutter and set the exposure value. 
3) Compose the shot, focus (manual or auto..up to you). 
4) Switch to manual focus once composed and position is set. Or you can use the back button focus technique here, but it would require you to consistently hold a button.
5) Slide the ND filter into the slot with extreme caution. You don't want to disturb the focus or composition while sliding it in. Once done, it would be totally dark and impossible to see. 
6) Activate the remote shutter and wait for the filter to do the magic. 

Here is a 10-second exposure shot I took recently just before sunset.
Enjoy the silky water and cotton ball clouds doing long exposure photography. 
Pro Tip: A lens with a rotating front element for focusing will be harder to work with ND filters as compared to a lens with a fixed front element.

If you enjoyed this post, share the photography love by sharing this post:)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best ultra wide angle DSLR lens for astrophotography

Selecting a DSLR or lens for a particular type of photography is never easy, speaking from personal experience. Photography is an expensive hobby, which is the reason we want to get the best out of every dollar spent. I am writing this post to help my readers know the various options available in the market for ultra wide-angle camera lenses. Tokina 11-16 mm F/2.8 ultra wide angle lens is still a part of my night photography or astrophotography gear. It is one of the best purchases I ever made when it comes to photography. An ultra-wide angle camera lens is a lens having a range less than 15 mm for a cropped (APS-C) sensor. For a 35 mm film or full frame camera, the value is 24 mm. In simple terms, an ultra wide angle lens covers an extremely wide area or offers a wider field of view. This makes even bigger mountains look smaller when an ultra wide angle lens is used.  Milky way shot using Tokina 11-16 mm There are so many third-party manufacturers of lenses in additio...
13 comments
Read more

Canon CR3 raw format guide

A raw image file is like a digital negative without any lossy compression and minimal processing applied to it. A digital camera shooting images in raw format provides output in the best possible quality, which means files are larger in size and take more space. The benefits offered by shooting raw format overpowers the slight storage hassle though. Few of the well known raw formats include CR2, NEF, RW2, RAF, PEF, ARW, etc.  In this post, we will talk about the new compressed raw format introduced by Canon starting with its mirrorless series of cameras. History of Canon raw formats Back in the early 2000s, Canon cameras produced raw photos in CRW format. Cameras shooting in CRW include Canon D60, Canon D30, Canon 10D, and Canon EOS 300D. Most of the cameras released after the year 2004 shoot raw photos in CR2 format. Examples of CR2 format Canon cameras include 350D, 6D, 7D, 5D, 5D Mark II and many more. In 2018, Canon introduced its new mirrorless camera known as th...
20 comments
Read more

Depth of field photography guide for beginners

Depth of field in photography is essentially what's in focus. It could be +/- "y" feet from point of focus. There are a lot of discussions on the internet about bokeh vs background blur which makes depth of field a confusing topic for beginners. Terminologies such as bokeh, background blur, shallow depth of field and deep depth of field are all interlinked with the concept of depth of field. Commonly abbreviated as DOF, depth of field forms a very important part of modern-day digital photography. It can tremendously help to achieve creative shots in literally any field of photography. In the next section, I will describe the above terms in simple words skipping any involvement of physics. Shallow depth of field means everything except the focused subject is blurred out. This can include an object either from foreground or background. A deeper depth of field means everything is sharp and in focus. A good example of deep depth of field photographs would be landscape phot...
2 comments
Read more