GND or no GND for sunset?


Shuichi79

New Member
Jul 6, 2009
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Had wanted to post these pics for critique but because I was comparing more than 1 pics my post was deleted. Anyway, hope this is the place to post.


Got sight of this awesome sunset view yesterday after the big rain outside my HBD flat and immediately grabbed my cam to take the following shots....

Using UWA at 11mm to capture the whole area of cloud formation which was so majestic with the setting sun as a backdrop lighting up the blue sky and some of the HDB at the bottom. Sun area a bit overexposed with highlights, but if i lower the exposure, the HDB wont be seen that clearly... esp the sun's rays hitting the flats on the bottom right.
Sunset1b.jpg



Few mins later, using another zoom lens at 28mm, to zoom in a bit and cut off the HDB, the exposure was reduced and the lighting seems better with the 'tobacco' & smokey effect colors in the sky. But this time, the bottom HDBs are totally out...
Sunset2b.jpg



Only remembered a GND filter could be used and tried it out today, but it seems with sun in the middle, the GND effect wont work because top part is totally underexposed... :(
Sunset310.jpg


Appreciate any comments on this dilenma.... or any comments on how to improve the shot? Should HDBs be included? My GND usage wrong?
 

In some situations layering will work, in some situations GND will work better. In some situations, you need to use both GND and layering.
 

It should be rather clear on Singh Ray's website:

The Benefits of Galen Rowell's Graduated Neutral Density Filters
http://www.singh-ray.com/grndgrads.html


: schroll down for


Daryl Benson Reverse Neutral Density Graduated Filters
 

anybody bought this before? easy to get in shops here?
 

just curious,whats the different between reverse gnd and the normal gnd filter?

abit confusing :dunno:


hahaha

Okay. Let me try to explain this.

Normal GND dark-light-clear
Reverse GND light-dark-clear

In reverse GND, the gradient goes from light to dark in the middle, before cutting off into clear glass.
 

whoa... did not know that such a filter existed.... End of the day, I guess its hard work... that counts... whether making the effort to use a GND or PP afterwards.

Learned quite a lot of new things though... will check out and learn blending/layering too...

Thank all bros for the lessons taught... :) cheers
 

Bracket and blend layers in Photoshop. Never need another GND filter ever again.

i beg to differ.. GND still essential in bringing the the diff between the 2 (BG/FG) closer and helps in retaining more highligts details though the effect of it can be easily replicated with digital blending..
 

yeap, i do both GND + post processing without hesitation because u need these techniques to make up for the limited dynamic range of our cameras. The point of GND is not to make the sky darker, but to make the foreground lighter :p But many sunset pics featuring totally dark foreground + silhuettes also work because less details make the viewer concentrate more on the beautiful sun instead.
 

anybody bought this before? easy to get in shops here?

Dun think so David... u hd better luck online with US cam stores..

And for ur info, these are freakingly exp but freakingly gd as well :)