Landscape Photography Ireland - Graduated Neutral Density
As a landscape photographer who practices my trade in both Ireland and abroad, I cannot stress enough the importance of graduated neutral density filters. Landscape photography which prides itself on getting the image right in camera, is mostly a futile exercise without the presence of this important filter. So why is this the case?
When we take a photograph, either film or a digital sensor, is used to record what we the photographer point the camera at. However, our eye is far better equipped to perceive detail in both shadow and highlights, areas of bright light and areas of low light, than our film or digital sensor. The difference between an area of darkness and a bright area is called the dynamic range. Our eyes have a far greater dynamic range than our medium for recording what we see. This is especially true when using high contrast slide film.
As a landscape photographer it is very important to understand this reality as we are often faced with situations where the dynamic range between sky and foreground exceeds the abilities of our cameras. In practical terms, this manifests itself in situations where the brightness of the light in the sky is far greater than the light on our foreground. While our eye may be able to perceive detail in both, our camera cannot. Photographing such a situation without graduated neutral density filters will lead to three possible outcomes for the landscape photographer:
1. The sky will be perfectly exposed and the foreground will be underexposed. (The detail the eye perceives in the sky will be present but the foreground will be too dark)
2. The foreground will be perfectly exposed and the sky will be over exposed. (Detail will be present in the foreground but the sky will be a 'white out')
3. Both will be incorrectly exposed. (The correct amount of detail will not be present in either the foreground or the sky. The foreground will look a bit to dark and the sky will look a bit too bright)
Obviously none of the above could be described as the desired result. While there is often room for breaking the rules, in most cases, a balanced natural exposure is what makes the best landscape image.
So how do you achieve this elusive balance? Well as you might have guessed it’s the graduated neutral density filter. The filter as pictured beside is a rectangular shape and has a dark area (neutral density) at the top and clear glass at the bottom. This allows the photographer the pull the neutral density over the bright area (the sky) while the transparent glass is left over the shadow. This traditional photographic technique allows us to get the balanced and even exposures we all desire.