What Stop Nd Filter To Get

The neutral density (ND) filter is one of those tools that should be in almost every photographer'southward camera pocketbook. Withal, ND filters are mysterious to some, and many folks just don't sympathize how, where, and when to utilize them. Beyond that, manufacturers seem to vary in their preferences as far every bit how they proper name ND filters—adding to the confusion. In this article, let usa navigate the world of the ND filter together and meet if nosotros can make sense of the classification and as well name some advisable times for their use.

What is a Neutral Density Filter?

The ND filter is basically a filter that, placed before the lens (or dropped into a filter slot) reduces the corporeality of light making its way into the camera. Think of the ND filter equally sunglasses for your photographic camera—admitting sunglasses that do non change the color of the light being captured by the camera and lens—hence the "neutral" nomenclature.

Photographs©Todd Vorenkamp

Morning in downtown Brooklyn afterward a snow fall. Captured with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 16-stop ND filter.

What do Neutral Density Filters do or allow you to do?

There are a couple of existent-globe uses for the ND filter—one involving discontinuity and ane involving shutter speed.

1. Discontinuity — Shallow depth of field in brightly lit environments

In the world of photography, generally speaking, more light is meliorate. But, if you lot have ever been outside with an older analog or digital camera and tried to shoot your 50mm f/one.8 lens in broad daylight at wide-open up apertures, you might recall seeing your exposure needle seemingly glued to the top of the low-cal meter, or your digital calorie-free meter screaming "OVEREXPOSURE!" because the camera'southward shutter could non cycle fast enough for the amount of low-cal present.

The ND filter allows photographers to shoot their broad-discontinuity lenses in bright light without overexposing. This allows shallow depth of field and selective focus effects while under lighting weather condition that exceed the shutter speed capabilities of the camera.

Even with the blazing-fast shutter speeds of today's professional cameras and the previously unattainable shutter speeds introduced by electronic shutters, there is still a place in photography for the ND filter here.

I could shoot deject abstracts all day with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra sixteen-end ND filter.

2. Shutter Speed — Slowing your shutter

The more "classic" apply of the ND filter regards its result on shutter speed. With less light entering the photographic camera, you lot will need to slow the shutter for a given discontinuity setting. The slower shutter speed will allow anything moving in your frame to become blurred.

In general, camera blur is not desired, but if you work with a tripod or culling support with an ND filter and a slow shutter, that which is static in the frame stays static and that which moves becomes blurry.

Where can you use this? Basically in whatsoever photo with which you want to emphasize motility. Popular subjects include waterfalls, vehicular traffic, people (not normally portraits), seascapes, rivers, streams, clouds, and fume.

The Brooklyn-Queens Freeway during early weekday rush hour. If it merely looked like this in real life. This is a 2-minute exposure using a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 16-finish ND filter.

What do the numbers on ND filters mean?

ND filters come up in different strengths or darkness levels. For the photographer, the easiest thing would be to have ND filters that tell you lot how many stops of light they will darken your exposure. Designed by optical engineers, most brands of ND filters label their products with either an ND filter factor number or optical density number. Unfortunately, for the lensman, neither the filter factor nor the optical density number are equal to the number of stops past which the low-cal is reduced.

And then, here is a handy chart to reference when shopping for an ND filter or employing a filter you lot already own.

Stops of Calorie-free Reduction (In that location are filters that are measured to a fraction of a stop, but, for simplicity, nosotros are using whole numbers here with the exception of a few filters.)	Optical Density Number (Sometimes prefaced with an "ND" earlier the number)	ND 1 Number	Filter Factor Number (Sometimes prefaced with an "ND" before the number)	Amount Light is Reduced
0	0	—	0 (a.k.a. Clear Filter)	0
1	ND 0.3 or "ND 0.3"	ND 101	two or "ND2"	1/2
ii	ND 0.6	ND 102	4	1/four
3	ND 0.nine	ND 103	eight	one/8
iv	ND i.2	ND 104	16	1/16
five	ND 1.5	ND 105	32	ane/32
6	ND i.8	ND 106	64	one/64
6 2/3	ND 2		100	ane/100
7	ND 2.one	ND 107	128	ane/128
8	ND ii.4	ND 108	256	1/256
9	ND 2.seven	ND 109	512	1/512
10	ND 3.0	ND 110	1024 (a.k.a. ND1000)	ane/1024
eleven	ND 3.3	ND 111	2048	1/2048
12	ND 3.6	ND 112	4096	1/4096
thirteen	ND 3.9	ND 113	8192	1/8192
13 ane/3	ND 4.0		10000	1/10000
14	ND 4.2	ND 114	16384	i/16384
15	ND 4.5	ND 115	32768	1/32768
16	ND 4.viii	ND 116	65536	1/65536
16 2/3	ND five.0		100000	i/100000
17	ND 5.1	ND 117	131072	1/131072
eighteen	ND 5.iv	ND 118	262144	ane/262144
nineteen	ND 5.7	ND 119	524288	ane/524288
xx	ND 6	ND 120	1048576	1/1048576
22	ND 6.half dozen	ND 122	4194304	1/4194304
24	ND 7.two	ND 124	16777216	1/16777216

Then, for every stop of ND filter, you halve the corporeality of low-cal inbound the camera. When the light is halved, to maintain the aforementioned exposure, you need to double your shutter speed. Add together another ND terminate; double the shutter speed again.

Sunrise in Brooklyn. The ND filter non only smooths the clouds a bit, simply, if you look closely, the steam from building heating systems shows the slow shutter speed. Captured with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra sixteen-stop ND filter.

Let'due south meet, in graphical form, how an ND filter effects exposure time:

Original Shutter Speed	ND Filter Stops	New Shutter Speed (Rounded to standard camera shutter speeds when applicable)
1s	0	1s
1s	1	2s
1s	2	4s
1s	3	8s
1s	4	15s
1s	v	30s
1s	6	1m
1s	7	2m
1s	8	4m
1s	9	8m
1s	10	16m
1s	xi	30m
1s	12	1hr
1s	xiii	2hr
1s	fourteen	4hr
1s	xv	8hr
1s	sixteen	16hr
1s	17	32hr
1s	18	64hr
1s	nineteen	128hr
1s	twenty	256hr
1s	21	512hr
1s	22	1024hr
1s	23	2048hr
1s	24	4096hr (170 days 16 hours)

Sunlight captured in the windows of a skyscraper. The ND filter permits the shutter speed to be slow enough to let the clouds to streak even with reflected directly sunlight in the frame. Captured with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 16-stop ND filter.

Practical Examples

Hither is an example of the alter in exposure affecting shutter speed when using an ND filter where your goal is to shoot at a slower shutter speed to blur a waterfall. Because of the bright daylight, the original shutter speed, even with the lens stepped downward to f/16, is a fast ane/800th and freezes the water. You have a 6-stop ND filter in your pocketbook and you screw it onto your lens. Here is the result:

Original exposure: ISO 200, f/sixteen.0, one/800.

Exposure with 6-stop ND filter: ISO 200, f/16.0, 1/thirteen.

Here is an example of an exposure aligning for trying to maintain a specific aperture when using an ND filter. You are shooting in wide daylight and desire to take a photo of a blossom with a soft background. You lot open up your lens to f/1.4 and your exposure meter is pegged because the camera cannot fire the shutter faster than 1/4000 to become a proper exposure. Add an ND filter and meet what happens:

Original exposure: ISO 200, f/i.4, 1/4000 overexposed.

Exposure with 6-finish ND filter: ISO 200, f/1.iv, i/60...still overexposed, but the shutter speed is easily achievable by the photographic camera. So, now you tin shoot the same scene at, say, 1/500 and go your shallow depth of field in straight daylight.

A edifice at sunrise. Over again, the Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra xvi-stop ND filter allows the clouds to blur and the steam to streak.

Stacking Filters

One technique photographers use is filter "stacking." If you have more than ane ND filter, you may combine the two (or more filters) to get more ND stops for different photographic needs. The stacking math is easy: If you combine a 6-finish ND filter and a 10-stop ND filter, you lot now have a 16-stop ND filter.

The downside to stacking filters is that, for each filter yous add together, you lot are forcing light to pass through more and more glass (or resin) elements. The more things that the light has to traverse, the more information technology is probable to get slightly refracted in some fashion that causes softness or chromatic aberrations in an image.

Urban landscapes with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 16-finish ND filter

Filter Shapes

Most "solid" ND filters are round and screw onto the front of the lens. Larger lenses may have circular drop-in filters. However, some ND filters are rectangular or square-shaped and are inserted into special holders that braze to the front end of the lens. The filter ratings for circular and rectangular filters are identical.

That is the sun, not the moon, in the frame. The clouds were not particularly thick, merely the shot required a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 24-cease ND filter.

Other Types of ND Filters

Graduated Neutral Density Filter (GND) — The GND filter is an ND filter that transitions from lite to dark. The rectangular GND filters are more popular than circular considering they allow the photographer to conform the position of the transition expanse from light to nighttime. The main purpose of the GND filter is to residual exposure in an image that contains a vivid sky and relatively darker foreground. Landscape photographers are big consumers of GND filters and they perform specially well when capturing sunset images.

Variable Neutral Density Filter (VND) — The VND filter gives the photographer the power to "dial in" the amount of filtration by turning the outer band of a dual-ring filter. The maximum and minimum ND rating differ with different filters, only the 2-stop to 8-stop variety are near popular. The advantage of the VND filter is that you only need to conduct i ND filter with you to get a variety of darkness levels. The disadvantage of the VND filter is that, due to the pattern of the filters, as you approach the maximum ND setting, you lot can get a cantankerous design across the epitome. This is remedied by dialing the ND setting back a bit.

Heart Neutral Density Filter (CND) — The smallest category of ND filter, the CND filter has a darkened center and lighter edges. It serves to balance exposure across the frame when using farthermost wide bending lenses.

Polarizing Filter — Yeah, your polarizing filter is an ND filter that you may already own. Most polarizers give a 2-terminate ND filter outcome while providing the cannot-achieve-it-in-post-processing polarizing effects of cutting down glare, darkening the blue skies, and seeing farther into water.

Yes, an object 93 million miles abroad tin can have movement blur if your shutter speed is dull plenty and the Earth rotates during your exposure. This 15-minute exposure was captured with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 24-end ND filter. The varying diameters of the sun is caused by refraction through passing clouds.

Solar Photography

This is ane more thing you can do with your ND filter(s). Many ND filter manufactures land that filters with a density of 16-stops or greater (shaded in the above tabular array) are suitable for solar photography and solar eclipse photography. WARNING: If using an ND filter (or stack of ND filters) for solar photography, do Not use an optical viewfinder. Specialized solar imaging and viewing filters not only filter visible light, but harmful UV and IR radiation every bit well. ND filters exercise NOT provide this protection. Use them only with electronic viewfinders and/or Live View mode.

The dominicus captured through a Leica APO-Televid 77 spotting scope with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 18-terminate ND filter. The orange color was added in postal service-processing.

Recommended ND Filter Factors

Many mural photographers recommend that you lot head out into the field with a 6-stop ND filter that should exist perfect for slowing your shutter speeds enough to show shine move in mount streams and waterfalls. Add your polarizer to get in an 8-stop ND stack.

Clouds passing overhead. Image shot with a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra sixteen-finish ND filter.

Some hymeneals and portrait photographers prefer the 3-cease ND filter to give them a broad-open discontinuity option while shooting in sunlight. Combine this with a 6-stop for a 9-stop combo when needed.

The ten-stop and darker ND filters are becoming pop with many photographers as they allow extremely slow shutter speed shooting and extremely wide aperture shooting under bright sunlight. If you have the time to crank out night photography-like shutter speeds, you can get some pretty cool effects with these super-nighttime filters in urban and natural settings. At the extreme end, the 24-stop ND filter is great for images with the sun directly in the frame.

Sunset behind Manhattan through a Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra xviii-stop ND filter. Non the smooth waters and sky.

Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra Neutral Density Filters

The images used to illustrate this article were captured using Formatt-Hitech Ultra Neutral Density Filters. Firecrest filters feature extremely neutral optical coatings in betwixt two pieces of optical glass—protecting the coatings from wear and tear and delivering enhanced durability and lifespan over normally coated filters. The new Firecrest Ultra filters are the only photographic filters that undergo an additional finishing process referred to every bit "lapping & polishing" that brings the filters upwards to cinema-course standards of clarity, sharpness, and optical flatness.

The moment of urban sunrise. The sun is directly peeking into this frame, merely the Formatt-Hitech Firecrest Ultra 24-cease ND filter allows some blurry steam activeness regardless.

Do you take whatever questions about neutral density filters or ND filter photography? Practise you have some creative uses for ND filters? Feel gratis to ask questions or get out comments below!