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ND and GND filters esp. for the Fuji X series

rayyan

Well-known member
Hello.

I want to try my hand at some landscape and long exposure photography.

I have zero practical knowledge of the filters people use and which brand to purchase. I tried one 10 stop ND filter with a bad but correctable color cast.

I do not foresee lugging the xf 16-55. It would mostly be primes I have ( all <77 mm filter threads ). I have been researching the Lee seven5 filter system.
Screw on filters are mostly solid ND. And the few GND screw on filters are not what I need.

I need the experience of forum users to advise me on which brand, type ( rectangular or screw on ), the brand and most importantly the densities that you
folks carry in your camera bags.

Any references to take long exposures for a beginner would be welcome.

I shall be most grateful for your help.
Thank you.

Best regards.
 

Shashin

Well-known member
Rayyan, I just saw this.

I assume you are looking to smooth water motion in your images. There really is not any special techniques beyond having a stable tripod. The camera usually calculates the exposure well, but you may have to tweak with exposure compensation.

The biggest issue is IR contamination. Some ND filters can let through IR radiation in larger amounts so you get a magenta cast in images. This can be compensated to a certain extent with a WB eye dropper tool when you open in RAW. However, filter manufacturers are making better filters to eliminate the issue. I would look for a filter that states it corrects for IR.

This is what IR contamination looks like with a 10-stop ND filter:



This is the same image after it was corrected by the WB eye dropper tool:



This is a corrected image with the same filter with an addition IR cut filter:



BTW, the stronger the filter, the greater the IR contamination. You will find very weak ND filters simply do not show this problem.

How much ND is the next question. Personally, I use 6-stops (64x) of ND. First, IR contamination is less and second I can focus through them with an optical viewfinder (not an issue with an EVF or rangefinder). I find that give me long enough shutter speeds at ISO 100 in most cases. I also have 10-stop filters, but I don't really use them.

Here is some work with a 6-stop ND filter:









10-stop will make water much smoother, but sometimes more like vapor than water.
 

Shashin

Well-known member
I have not done a lot of ND long-exposure work with my Fuji, the ones above are with my Pentax, but I do have this of my forest canopy in on a windy day with a 6-stop ND filter and 14mm.

 

rayyan

Well-known member
Will.

Thank you so much for your images and explanation of color cast.

Personally, I very much like the first set, with the 6 ND.

Take care.
 
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