HDR VSFILTERS
Love it or loathe it, HDR photography is a useful technique and one that allows photographers to ditch their square filter systems in favour of lightweight and less expensive options.James Abbott puts the two approaches head to head
Landscape photographers often look for workable ways to reduce the weight of their kit; when walking mile upon mile, a few hundred grams here and there can make a huge difference your back and shoulders will undoubtedly appreciate. There are a few simple ways to cut weight, but one that’s growing in popularity is to ditch 100mm glass square filter systems in favour of magnetic systems or screw-in filters.
100mm glass filters provide the best image quality and the greatest flexibility when it comes to controlling exposure and stacking filters to achieve the desired result, but they’re also the largest and heaviest filter system. By swapping over to magnetic systems where a polarising filter can be stacked with ND filters, weight can be drastically reduced. The downside, however, is that ND grads are unavailable so the answer here is to use HDR to capture detail throughout high-contrast scenes.
HDR stands for high dynamic range and is a technique where photographers typically capture three or five bracketed exposures at 2-stop increments. This provides a ‘base’ exposure for the midtones in the middle, with one or two under- and overexposed shots to capture detail from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights. These are then merged in software to create a single photo with detail throughout the entire tonal range.
Graduated neutral density filters are square filters that are placed into a filter holder allowing their position to be adjusted, both vertically and horizontally, according to the horizon. At the top of ND grads, there’s a light-reducing coating that graduates to no effect in the middle of the filter, allowing t
