How to use ND grad filters… and when to avoid them

Learn how to darken the heavens and create better landscapes as we show you how to use ND grad filters… and when you should avoid them.

You have a beautiful landscape before you, but capturing one balanced exposure of the bright sky and darker land is an impossible task. What you need is a graduated neutral density filter (ND grad).

With an ND grad attached to the front of your lens you’ll instantly be able to capture landscapes with much darker and more dramatic skies, while also exposing for the darker landscape to brighten up your foregrounds.

The top half of an ND grad is coloured neutral grey, graduating into clear at the bottom.

The top is positioned to cover the brighter sky, while the clear section leaves the darker land area unaffected. You then set your exposure for the brighter land, while the ND grad ensures the sky remains dark.

It’s also easy to add digital ND grad filters in Photoshop – as I demonstrate over the page – but capturing a brilliant, balanced exposure of a beautiful landscape in-camera can’t be beaten.

SEE MORE: Using ND grad filters – how to fix murky foregrounds and overexposed skies

How to select and set up your ND grad filter

01 Stop! ND grad time!
ND grads come in different strengths; a set of grads usually has 1-stop, 2-stop and 3-stop filters (labelled 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9, or ND2, 4 or 8, depending on manufacturer) enabling you to pick the right filter for the brightness difference in your scene.

SEE MORE: 5 essential camera filters you and why you can’t live without them

02 Soft or hard?
ND grads have ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ graduations from dark to clear. Hard ND grads are ideal for straight and uncluttered horizons, such as seascapes. Soft ND grads are better when the horizon’s more irregular, such as typical landscapes with trees and hills.

SEE MORE: 10 quick landscape photography tips

03 Holders & adaptor rings
You’ll need a filter holder to slot your ND grads into, plus an ‘adaptor ring’ – one end screws into the filter thread of the lens, the other snaps into the holder – you’ll need an adaptor ring for each different-diameter lens that you intend to use.

SEE MORE: 9 common filter mistakes every photographer makes (and how to avoid them)

04 Which brand to choose?
For those on budget, a set of three square Cokin ND grads with holder costs around £39 ($80). While larger rectangular Lee Filters are favoured by many professionals, as they capture minimal colour casts, but a set of three costs £155 ($275).

SEE MORE: Using filters – the only cheat sheet you need to get beautifully balanced exposures

05 Which strength filter?
To work out which ND grad you need, in Av mode at f/16, zoom in and take a shot of just the land, then only the sky. If the land reads 1/200 sec and the sky 1/25 sec, that’s three stops difference (1/200-1/100-1/50-1/25) so you’ll need a 3-stop filter.

SEE MORE: Best photography accessories – transform your images for less than £100!

06 Capturing a balanced shot
Screw on your adapter ring, attach the holder, and slot in a 3-stop ND grad filter. Use a tripod to compose your shot, then adjust the filter so the graduation is over the horizon. Switch to Manual mode and use the ‘land’ exposure of 1/25 sec at f/16.

Quick Tip
Turn two filters into one mega 5-stop ND grad by stacking 2-stop and 3-stop filters together in your filter holder

SEE MORE: How and when to use ND filters (and what the numbers mean)

When to avoid using an ND grad filter

Don’t use graduated neutral density filters on the following types of shots

Big objects
As you can see, using an ND grad here has left the tree looking very dark and underexposed. Avoid using filters when large objects fill most of the sky.

Very uneven horizons
If your landscape has mountains or trees at the sides, an ND grad will darken the tops of these, making them look very underexposed compared to the lighter skies.

Skies that are already dark
If your scene already has a dark and moody sky, you’ll end up with a very unbalanced, unnatural shot if you use an ND grad filter to darken it further.

SEE MORE: How to use a graduated filter the wrong way round

How to add a digital graduated filter in post-processing

Learn the fast way to darken the skies and brighten the foregrounds of your Raw images in Adobe Camera Raw

01 Use Adobe Camera Raw
One of my favourite tricks these days is to take an average exposure for a whole scene, then add two digital ND grads to my Raw image in ACR; one to darken the sky, the other to brighten the land. Open digitalgrad_start.CR2 in ACR in Photoshop CS/CC.

02 Boost the landscape
First, I’ve enhanced the landscape area by setting Exposure +75, Contrast +37 and Shadows +22. I’ve also set Clarity +6, Vibrance +7 and Saturation +2. Now click the Graduated Filter button (among the top row of icons) to fix the overly bright sky.

SEE MORE: A layman’s guide to ND filters

03 Darken the skies
Set Exposure -1.50, Contrast +10, Clarity +10, and Saturation +5. Click once in the middle of the sky then drag the graduated filter to just below the horizon. As our mountainous horizon isn’t level, I’ve angled the graduation slightly to compensate.

04 Add more digital filters
You can quickly add more filters; zooming out helps to position them and check they look good. I added another higher up to further darken the top of the sky, but set Exposure to -1.00, and another at the bottom of the image to darken an overly bright patch of land.

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