Strike The Right Balance

Tom Welsh shows you how to use an ND graduated filter to capture all the colour and detail of a high-contrast landscape

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30 MINS

You’ll sometimes find that you have a beautiful landscape before you, but that capturing both the bright sky and darker land, perfectly exposed, within a single frame is an impossible task… unless you have the right kit. What you need is a graduated neutral density filter, or ‘ND grad’. With one of these attached to the front of your lens you’ll be able to retain the colour and drama in very bright skies that might otherwise have blown out, while exposing the landscape below correctly. 

Unlike circular filters, ND grads are rectangular or square, and attach to the lens via a dedicated holder. The holder features slots for the filters, which can then be slid up and down as needed.

The top half of an ND grad is tinted a neutral grey, graduating to clear at the bottom. With the help of the holder, you can position the top part of the filter to cover the sky, while the clear section leaves the darker landscape unaffected. You then set your exposure for the land, and let the ND grad take care of the sky by toning down its brightness.