Hello!

So I bought myself some ND-filters. Works, but I really want to make a test vs "Auto", if u know what I mean? What du u suggest for me to do that test? Not just getting the shutter speed down, but how the scene look with/without...?

I was always curious about this too, looking forward to your test.

Acidsnow Posted at 2017-4-18 02:56
I was always curious about this too, looking forward to your test.

Hi!

No idea?

, ND filters are an essential tool for video photography. This is for one very simple reason, unlike in stills photography, where you have the full range of manual exposure controls, settings when filming are less flexible.

When recording videos, we’re restricted to a single shutter speed and while you can adjust the aperture, you’re unlikely to want to do that whilst recording. Also, if you want to shoot at a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field, you’ll struggle with overexposed scenes when in bright light. Using an ND filter makes it possible to maintain your chosen aperture settings, while still reducing the amount of light
passing through the lens.

But when it comes down to a question of too much light (say, at high sun for example), videographers often have a problem. You can shut down your aperture, of course, and pull your ISO down to 100 in the Mavic , but at some point, you hit a wall and can’t go any lower on ISO or smaller on your aperture. Also, sometimes you don’t want that small aperture and its deep depth of field. Sometimes you want a really shallow depth of field at high sun.

In auto you can get good results, but it really needs perfect lighting, it becomes more possible at all times of the day to shoot good footage with the use of Nd filters.

I haven't used them much for stills photography but am experimenting with them and trying to learn where I can use them for stills.

ND for Video / Auto and Manual for Stills...

If the ND filters are of good quality, a change in shutter speed is all you will notice. However, that change in shutter speed purportedly makes for a more cinematic motion experience when the shutter speed is twice that of the frame rate. To get this ratio of shutter speed/frame rate, you must shoot in manual mode and select the appropriate ND filter and ISO to get a properly exposed scene.

In most cases, exposure will look exactly the same with or without ND filters.

In some cases, you might need ND filters just to keep the camera from overexposing (think desert or snow-covered scene in bright light).