Recommendation on filters

[bangchew86]

Hi folks, hope to get some advice on the follow.

I understand that there are various filters in the market that help in exposure of the image. Very often when I'm shooting in the day, if i were to shoot someone with proper exposure the background tends to be over expose.

Can a Nd filter be suitable in this sort of situation? Which nd filter would be recommended?

And there are no. assigned to those filters eg. nd 8 or nd 400. What are the numbers?

 

[spree86]

In your situation, an ND filter would not help, i recommend you read up on fill flash, this will help with your problem. The numbers are in exponentials of 2 ND4 is 2 stops, ND8 is 3 stops and so on.

 

[Octarine]

Very often when I'm shooting in the day, if i were to shoot someone with proper exposure the background tends to be over expose.

This is due to the dynamic range of the scene. The exposure settings for foreground and background are too far apart. No filter can help since they will reduce the light for the entire scene, not selectively for the background. Thus, the gap between foreground and background remains.
Fill flash or othe rmethods of brightening up the foreground (reflectors) will be a solution.

 

[bangchew86]

Thanks for all the replies.. I roughly get the idea..