What are GND’s, or Graduated Neutral Density filters? GND’s are pieces of Glass, Resin, or Plastic that are clear at the bottom half, but tinted at the top half. There are two main types of GND filters, Soft Edge and Hard Edge. Soft edge gradually “fades” as it goes towards the bottom, so it’s a gradient. Hard edge is tinted all the way to the half way mark, then stops abruptly.

What is the point to using GND’s? GND’s essentially “block” the light from coming into the camera. If you’re taking a picture of the ocean at sunset, you want the sky to be exposed correctly. But normally, if you expose for the sky, the foreground will be completely dark. But, if you expose for the foreground, the sky will be completely blown out. So, if you take a Hard Edge GND, place the line at the horizon, the “tinted” part of the filter will “block” out the light from the sky. So, you will then be able to get a correct exposure for both the sky and the foreground.

This is with NO Filter

This is with the .3 GND

This is with the .6 Filter

This is with the .9 Filter

I recently purchased some LEE GND’s… and LOVE them! I’m going to have so much fun learning how to use these things. Below is the best shot of the ones I took today. It was taken looking South off the Mogollon Rim.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 11:22 PM and is filed under Photographs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.