Beecher's Handouts /

Lighting Contrast / 6.9 - Graduated Neutral Density Filter

In the photograph below, I'm holding a graduated neutral density filter in front of the camera.

The filter is dark at the top, and gradually fades to clear.

The filter enables you to put "sunglasses" on the bright portions of a scene, such as the sky in this photograph.

The filter above is a "two-stop" graduated neutral density filter (also designated by .6 or 4X).

The shaded portion of the filter blocks two stops of light.

The photograph below, with the filter positioned properly, is more the way the scene was when I was standing there.

We'll look at the Polarizing filter and graduated neutral density filter in more depth below.