Advice on ND filters for outdoor shoot

[xhridhar]

Hello all,

I was hoping to get some advice on what ND filters one should take on an outdoor all day shoot to be quite safe. It is autumn sun in East Europe ( Serbian forests) . No snow yet.

Any preferences on brands? Tiffen or something else?

Many thanks.

 

[Duke M.]

I was hoping to get some advice on what ND filters one should take on an outdoor all day shoot to be quite safe. It is autumn sun in East Europe ( Serbian forests) . No snow yet.

Any preferences on brands? Tiffen or something else?

No one has responded yet so I'll put in my 2 cents worth.

In the forest, the issue for me has not been the brightness of the sun, but rather the huge dynamic range caused by spotches of bright light and deep shadows.



I'd make sure you have S-Log turned on for the dynamic range you're going to need to contend with.

You could bring one medium filter, but frankly the built in ND filters will probably be enough. Maybe one fader (half tinted) too. Don't forget, you can stop down the aperture a bit if you need to. As for brands, Tiffen has always been fine, or Schneider, etc. I don't like polyester filters much as they seem to have imperfections. Glass, less so.

Also, use a mattebox because outdoors some angle that you're going to want to use will be in direct sunlight.