From the course: Photography Foundations: Specialty Lenses

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Understanding neutral density filters

Understanding neutral density filters - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photography Foundations: Specialty Lenses

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Understanding neutral density filters

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One of the most useful filters that you can use is one that doesn't actually alter the light that passes through your lens. A neutral density filter does nothing more than cut the amount of light that passes through it. An ND filter doesn't alter the light's qualities in any way. It doesn't change its color or diffuse it or anything like that, what they do is broaden your range of exposure options. For example, say I'm shooting some moving water in the daytime, and I'd like to use a slow shutter speed to create a blurry, silky look on the water. If it's too bright out I might not be able to get a slow enough shutter speed to smear the water even if I slowdown my ISO as much as I can. With the Neutral Density filter I can cut a bunch of light out of my scene, which will allow me to use a longer shutter speed. Neutral density filters can also be used to buy yourself more aperture latitude. As you stop a lens down, you run the risk of softening your image because of something called…

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