What Size Nd Filter Do I Need

What does the ND filter number mean?

ND filters come in different strengths or darkness levels. For the lensman, the easiest way is to take ND filters that tell you how many stops of calorie-free they will darken your exposure. Most brands of ND filters label the nd filters with either a factor number or optical density number. But for the photographer, neither of them is referred to the number of stops by which the calorie-free is reduced.

There are two common means of quoting ND filter strengths, and 1 less common:

2x, 4x, 8x, etc. Sometimes these are referred to as ND2, ND4, ND8, and and so on. These refer to the amount by which the low-cal is diminished. An ND2 filter halves the light, while an ND8 filter reduces it to one eighth.
ane stop, two stops, three stops, etc. Sometimes these are referred to as EV, for exposure value. These are probably the well-nigh convenient measurement considering they tell you lot how many stops they'll adjust your exposure by.
Numbers similar 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 etc. These are basically merely 0.3 ten the number of stops of EV. These are less mutual.

Each stop of exposure value refers to a halving of calorie-free, so:

i end = ND2
2 stops = ND4
3 stops = ND8
4 stops = ND16

And so on.

Stacking multiple ND filtersadds stops, andmultiplies strength values.

So, ND500 sounds like a lot, but it'd be the same as stacking an ND16 and an ND32 (16 ten 32 = 512; manufacturers round it to 500).

What is an ND Filter?

The neutral density (ND) filter is one of the basic gears that should be included in every mural lensman's camera haversack. Many beginners may don't know how, where, and when to use them. In this article, we will introduce some basic knowledge of it.

The ND filter is a filter that, placed before the lens reduces the amount of light reaching the photographic camera's sensor. Information technology acts like a pair of sunglasses to your lens.

When would I employ an nd filter?

One question you probably have is why and in what situations would you want to reduce the amount of light coming into your camera sensor.

Beneath are 5 situations yous might need an nd filter to assist.

Landscape

When y'all want to bring the brightness of the sky down then it would be a perfect time for a certain blazon of ND filter.

Video shooting

Video shooting with wide aperture lenses outside is some other application if you want to shot in a two.8 or even wider. you are doing the mean solar day when it's very bright. mode too much calorie-free coming into the camera kind of locked into out shutter speed. Yous cannot plough the ISO downward further and that is a trouble you can't solve without an nd filter. many high-end video cameras have nd filters built into them.

Strobes

We likewise applications for strobe use.

Over again if y'all're trying to become with a very very wide aperture on a sunny day well cameras have sync speed limits which mean y'all cannot really use super-fast shutter speed and so one of the best ways to manage that is to lower the amount of light coming in-photographic camera through an nd filter

Long exposure

For instance, the long exposure shots like if you're shooting a river or a stream or waterfall and y'all want to go that misty expect. An ND filter is a spectacular way to become. Notwithstanding, information technology might be confusing in terms of what the class of nd filter y'all have. You take to know how dark information technology is going to get and the problem is these are nomenclatures are used interchangeably then let's just dive into the chart.

Stop

A stop is an arbitrary amount of light. If y'all have a shutter speed that'south twice as long as i before. You're letting in twice the amount of light that is 1 terminate. ND filters are rated in the amount of calorie-free that they reduce coming into the lens. so if we say this is an nd filter with the one-cease intensity that means it would let in one-half the amount of light as information technology did before and this is how nd filters are rated. And so they accept dissimilar intensities from 1-9 or 10,000?

There's only a few of them that yous actually need to worry nigh I am gonna bespeak those out here.

How to buy one?

When you go to purchase an nd filter often it is going to have an nd number that volition say something like nd 2 nd iv nd 8 nd sixteen.

What is that referring to? At present the easiest way to keep rails of this is to recall of information technology in terms of fractions

So if yous take an nd filter with strength or intensity of two all you need to do is plough it into a fraction past putting a 1 above it. So nd filter of 2 is going to permit in half the corporeality of calorie-free. An ND filter of 4 is going to let in 1/iv amount of light and so on. So if it's a 3 stops reduction it's going to permit in ane/8. if it'southward a four-stop reduction and so information technology's an ND 16 it's going to let in ane/16. if it'south an nd filter than reduces it by 5 stops that would be an nd 32 . and that'due south going to let in a fraction of 1/32. and so on and so along.