Review | ND filters in landscape photography in real life experience
20Sep,2023

Review | ND filters in landscape photography in real life experience

BY : H&YFilter

As a landscape photographer, every time I go out to create landscape subjects, I need to carry multiple cameras and lenses, as well as a variety of photographic accessories and various filters, so the need for lightweight equipment is crucial to me.


In the past, I preferred square ND filters for landscape photography, but these filters are expensive and take up most of the space in my backpack.


On the other hand, traditional threaded round filters don't fit all my lenses, which means I need to buy filters with different apertures; and changing filters frequently outdoors increases the risk of damage to the filters, and the cumbersome operation often causes me to miss a lot of great moments.


Therefore, I was looking for a lightweight and versatile filter set. The H&Y Magnetic Filter Kit I received includes a 67-82mm adjustable adapter ring, ND8 filter, ND64 filter, ND1000 filter, CPL filter, storage bag, and a magnetic lens cap. This set of filters is compact, lightweight and easy to store, perfect for photographers on the go shooting landscapes, solving the problem of inconvenient carrying and cumbersome installation on the go.

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter



H&Y filter use a variable aperture adapter ring with magnetic filters, which solves the inconvenient and cumbersome problem of installing traditional threaded filters, allowing me to easily switch filters when using different apertures and different environments, as well as making it easier to stack different filters.


The weight of this set of filters after stacking is only about 142.7 grams, even with the included filter bag and magnetic lens cap, it is only about 275 grams, which is very lightweight; and you can use a mountaineering buckle or other means to fix the filter set included storage bag on the shoulder strap of the camera bag to save space in the bag.

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter



Not only that, but the workmanship and quality of the filters is completely comparable to other brands of high quality filters, and I'm very happy with the results of this set.

In order to show the function of the filter more intuitively, after I got this set of filters, I carried it to many places and shot waterfalls, flowing water, sea, clouds and many other applicable nd filter, cpl filter scenes, let's look at the comparison before and after the use of filters. (In order to show the effect of the filter, the photos are only exposed to restore and unify, no style processing)

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter
H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter
H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter


Through the photo comparison can be seen to find that the use of cpl after the use of reflections on the surface of the distant buildings, reflections on the water surface, as well as the reflections of the trees, are easily eliminated, and then use the b-gate superimposed on the nd, the long exposure can be obtained even if there is no post is also a very soft photo.


In order to show the effect of the use of this set of filters, I chose to shoot a group of control photos downstream of the waterfall at noon when the sun's rays are the strongest, you can see the remarkable effect of cpl filter and nd filter in shooting water flow and tree reflections.

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter



Scene 3: Streaming Clouds

nd filter in addition to shooting the water flow, you can also shoot clouds, I demonstrate how the addition of nd filter in different weather conditions to make the photo "icing on the cake".

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter



This group of contrasting images was shot on a sunny morning, the seaside village, windmills and flowing clouds look like those in anime, and by adding nd filters, the clouds become fuller and softer, creating a more dreamy and romantic atmosphere.

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter



This set of comparison pictures was taken in the dormitory corridor a few hours before Typhoon "Anemone" landed in Fuzhou, the clouds in the sky flowed very fast, I used this set of filters to quickly combine the capture, the long exposure to make the clouds have more impact, there is a kind of "doomsday" sense of vision, and soon after the rain began to fall, I took the picture. The rain started to fall soon after the shooting.



Scene 4: Seaside Fishing Harbor Single Long Exposure

nd filter in the shooting of seascape, in addition to shooting rough waves, you can also use the long exposure close-up local, to create a sense of tranquility and beauty, the following two photos were I used 120 seconds and 30 seconds long exposure shooting, did not do any color processing.

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter utilization effect



This photo is I found a lighted house in the fishing row, when the beach is not windless, the sea directly shot out of the effect is not satisfactory, in the long exposure after the nd, shot out of the smooth water, reflection and flow of clouds, set off this house of serenity and faraway.

H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter utilization effect



This photo was taken at the blues hour, when stars were already appearing in the sky, I used 120s long exposure while ensuring the lowest iso, which gave me a feeling of opening a blind box while waiting for the finished photo, and in the final photo, a single star track was realized to embellish the overall atmosphere.


You can see that under the premise of choosing the right gear filters, you can easily shoot the effect conceived in your mind, not only interesting, but also reduces the workload of post-processing.


4.Summary

In these months of photography journey, this set of magnetic ND filters has given me a great help, H&Y's magnetic system not only has CPL and ND filters, but also black soft, white soft, gradient mirror and asterisk mirror filters, etc., which can meet the needs of the photographer in different scenarios, and the cost-effectiveness is very high.


I believe it will become the right hand of every landscape photography enthusiast, I hope this experience sharing can help you and inspire you in your photography creation!

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H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter utilization effect
H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter utilization effect
H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter utilization effect
H&Y Magnetic Circular CPL filter IRND Filter utilization effect