Help: Graduated ND Filter Question

[Bob Gruen]

I'm running Canon primes on my Red One and I'm putting together my filter kit. I have NDs .3, .6, and .9 for the lens bodies, a 4x4 linear pola, and a 4x4 hot mirror for the three stage mattebox (should of got the 4x5.65, oops). I'm going to pick up a 4x4 1.2 ND for outdoor use as well.

I need a graduated ND filter to knock down the summer sky. My lenses are:

85mm f/1.8
50mm f/1.2L
35mm f/1.4L
28mm f/1.8
10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

I was planning on a 4x4 .6 graduated ND. Would I get more mileage out of a hard edge or a soft edge. As I understand it the more you iris open the softer the edge effect becomes. Considering outdoor stuff is iris-ed down into the 4s, would I want a soft edge or a hard edge?

Bob

 

[Shawn Booth]

What do you shoot?

Curious, as I would save the cash on the hot mirror and ND 1.2.

As far as grads... I would think soft is the way to go. You can always watch any episode of CSI:Miami to see how they look though...

 

[Bob Gruen]

Shooting a narrative feature.

 

[substrata]

My money would go for a set of NBRA Attenuators. No edge of any sort, just a smooth graduation from the effect to clear. Best size is 6X6 as you can rotate and position them any which way to dodge down skies or hot spots on the ground etc. Best thing is you can get away with playing them in the same shot as talent, the graduation is fairly forgiving on that.

If you go 4X5 get them in horizontal flavor, you can flip it two ways, sky or ground....

Panchro makes the best, partially silvered mirror, but pricey. I just had a set made for a feature I'm on by Schneider... took them a week to have them made.

Use them all the time and love them dearly

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I'd say that the most common grad filter I use is a ND.60 Soft Edge grad, followed by an ND.6 Attenuator. ND.3 grads are too subtle most of the time and ND.9 grads are too obvious. Hard edge grads are only useful in long-lens shots, and usually your wide shots with the sky in the frame are on shorter focal lengths -- which is why the Attentuator is occasionally useful if you are using really wide-angle lenses and want a very, very subtle gradation across the entire frame.

Usually I use 6x6 grads though to give myself more up & down adjustment room.

 

[Mark Pugh]

My money would go for a set of NBRA Attenuators.

I love the Schneider attenuators and Formatt Blenders on the RED. Get them square and you can tweak your exposure over a greater range - they become like infinitely variable NDs.

 

[ericyoung]

Lee do good quality 4x6 vertical soft and hard grad sets and individually, in optical resin for reasonable prices, although you'll have to pick up a filter tray for them. Don't confuse them with the cheapo polyester ones they also do!