I went to Sandymount beach yesterday with some photo friends with the purpose of trying to take photos of the reflection of the twin chimneys in the sea. So timing was important, I had heard to get there within an hour of high tide as that was the optimum time for to have enough water for the reflection to work. Unfortunately 9.20 on a breezy Sunday morning wasn't the ideal conditions, the light is better just after sunrise and the breeze didn't help.
I decided to experiment with my filter system to see the effect of the filters. I have displayed the sequence of shots taken with the filter and settings used. I use the NiSi V7 filter system which I am happy with although it took a while to get the hang of attaching the polarizing filter. I had previously used both Lee and Kase filters but am happier with NiSi. I felt the Lee filters gave a blue colour cast beyond what one would expect of blue hour! and was very frustrated that the polarizer was attached with screws. I liked the Kase adapter and used it with a combination of both Kase and Lee filters but two of my filters broke I decided when replacing to re-appraise the situation. Friends seemed comfortable with the NiSi system so having looked at theirs I felt it might be the time to switch.
The polarizing filter takes the glare out of the water as well as providing stronger colour, however I unfortunately often forget to adjust the dial (as I did on this shoot) to ensure that the glare is reduced or eliminated. The graduated filters provide shading, like sunglasses, over a portion of the filter. I always get soft grad as it is more subtle. I used the soft grad extending from the top to darken the bright sky in this exercise. The neutral density filters (ND) darken the area completely allowing you to use a slower shutter speed. They tend to come in 3 stop, 6 stop and 10 stop but I only had the 3 stop and the 6 stop, however I can combine the 3 and 6 stops to get 9 stop. If you look at the images below you will see the varying shutter speeds as I added or changed each filter. It really depends on the image you are trying to achieve. For some too slow a shutter (higher NDs) can smooth out the clouds so much that the image looks completely unnatural and fake. In this particular sequence I think my favorite is the one with the 6 stop as the sea is calmed but there is still detail in the clouds in the sky. I don't like the sky in the 9 stop on this occassion.
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