Graduated ND Filter for video????

G

Gene Sung

Veteran
Anyone on here use a Graduated ND filter for video?

I know still photographers use it a lot for landscapes, but I'm wondering if video people use it as well since many times there are actors / talent constantly moving in the shots, and I would hate to have their upper half get darken'd by the darker end of the ND. I would be buying the "Soft" Grad ND as opposed to the hard edge Grad ND.

There are times (mid-day, bright sun) when I need to cut down the sky to match the talent's exposure. I know a polarizer can do the trick sometimes, but I noticed mid day, bright skies a polarizer sometimes doesn't have much of an effect; and that's where a Graduated ND would come in handy. But then again, if you have talent moving in the shot, their exposure would obviously be different in half the picture which would not be good.

Thanks for any opinions before I plunk down some cash for a Grad ND.
 
Even more problematic than actor movements, is camera movement. Unless you're on a tripod and won't pan or tilt or anything, a grad ND will most likely look quite weird.
Having said that, I've never tried to use one. I read about this somewhere, decided it was not worth it, and never tried that route.
 
Samuel H said:
Even more problematic than actor movements, is camera movement. Unless you're on a tripod and won't pan or tilt or anything, a grad ND will most likely look quite weird.
Having said that, I've never tried to use one. I read about this somewhere, decided it was not worth it, and never tried that route.
Click to expand...

I was thinking pretty much the same thing, especially since I shoot hand held a lot. Probably more of a still photographers thing since it's much easier to stage a still photo.

Guess I'll stick to the polarizer, but they're kind of strange because sometimes they have a huge effect and other times not so much. Seems to really depend on the angle of the camera maybe?
 
I really only use grads for video if I'm shooting something like "master planned acreage community" or "acreage homesite with lake view" kind of stuff. If you're shooting 422 video, it does help hang on to some sky.

Many people say never shoot skin with a polarizer - I've never had to so can't comment on that. The "pro" approach is get the lighting up on your talent to match BG exposure, via lights, reflectors, etc... on low budgets this is, of course, problematic at times.
 
I used an ND .06 soft edge grad all the time and found it absolutely indispensable particularly for interviews where I used a window in the background. Makes for interesting shots and brings detail back into the shot. It also makes it easier to expose flesh tones for things like news standups. Never used it handheld, this would give it away and look artificial.

I went into Project Mgmt for several years and am now just getting back into cinematography so I haven't added it to my kit.
 
Hmmm... you got more detail out the window, but the top half of your interview subject went a stop darker too? Why not just stop down?
 
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