How to judge placement of Grad NDs with the Fuji G617

[chanj]

Ok, this question is directed towards Ellis, Mark, and the other G617

users.

 

I have committed to a Lee Foundation system and the ND Grad kit

(0.3,0.6,0.9). My concern is the judgement of the "horizon" on the

big Fuji WITHOUT the benefit of a groundglass. I have noticed that

there is enough of a "reflection" on the front element of the 105/8

to "see" the horizon line so can you just use this as a guide? I've

read that you have to stop down substantially to actually "see the

transition" if you are going TTL but the image on the groundglass

would be pretty dark right? I'm aware that most of the upper and

lower portion of the lens doesn't contribute to the final image

(shape of the lens hood opening).

 

Ellis and the others, do you have any tricks?

 

Thanks,

[rosswordhouse.com]

<p>Ivan,</p>

<p>Try this, take the lens shade and your filter holder and line

them up with

the filter holder being on top. Now mark on your filter holder

where the lens

shade opening starts and stops. This will give you a guide to

the "live"

area that is being captured. You might even want to add a third

mark for the

center line between these two marks.</p>

<p>Now, when you look through the viewfinder take note to

where your horison falls.

Use this to reference where to put the blend area of the filter in

relation

to your live area marks on the filter holder.</p>

<p>I haven't done the relective thing because of angle of sight

differences. I

found that the relfection horizon will change when you move

your angle of sight

up and down. I base my placement of my filter by where the

horizon falls in

the viewfinder. Then I use my guides on my filter holder to let

me know where

to put the blend of the grad.</p>

<p>Hope this helps,</p>

<p>Ross Wordhouse - The Panoscape Photographer<br>

<a

href="http://www.rosswordhouse.com">www.rosswordhouse.co

m</a></p>

[mark_denton]

Ivan, I've mailed you a response to the same question which someone asked me a while ago. Useful keeping these things on draft.

 

bw Mark

[ellis_vener_photography]

I hold the filter in the holder in front of my eye starting with the center edge in the middle

ofthe holder and adjust up and down as the subject in the composition warrants. Works

pretty well. It isn't exactly rocket science but it works esp. with practice.

[chanj]

ok, Mark I recieved your response, thanks.

 

The specs for the direct viewfinder say 94% FOV vertical, 90% FOV horizontal @ infinity and I want to try Ross' idea out. Should I split the last 6% difference evenly between top and bottom or skew it towards the top as its "optical center" is farther from that of the lens. Does it matter? I guess if you're using hard grads placement is more critical right?

 

Thanks,

[rosswordhouse.com]

<p>Ivan,</p>

<p>Split the difference on your vert FOV.</p>

<p>I would use a soft grad with this wide lens unless you are

shooting a super

flat horizon. The hard edge grads are just too unforgiving with

guestimation

filter placement. Soft grads help by giving you some slop in the

transition

so you can be off a little with your placement.</p>

<p>By all means try to do it right in the camera, but if you are

unsure of your

filter placement then just take two images for saftey. One for

your foreground

and one for the background and then merge them in pshop. If

it's an amazing

scene that won't happen again, have a saftey net.</p>

<p>Ross Wordhouse - The Panoscape Photographer<br>

<a

href="http://www.rosswordhouse.com">www.rosswordhouse.co

m</a></p>

[mark_denton]

This is where I differ from Ross and Ellis. Certainly with Lee hard grads, the graduation is superb and forgiving enough. I think it's more important for the grad to get into the bright light near the horizon, which is often brighter than above. I hate seeing a visibly graduated sky. Can't honestly think when I'd ever use a soft grad with a 617, unless side-on to compensate for light fall-off on one side of a scene.

 

What does Matt use....?

[chanj]

Thanks alot guys,

 

Just for the record, I got a great price on the Lee system from Robert White in the UK. I went with the Foundation system, ND set (hard grad), and one 0.6 ND soft grad. For now, I'll be paring this system with an older Singh-Ray UV KN (81a-81b) screw-in filter. I'll see what can be produced with this simple combination.

I have to agree with Mark about the use of hard grads. If your paying Lee/Singh-Ray prices there should be some "forgiveness" with these filters. Anyways, the 0.6 soft is there when the horizon gets choppy.