Photoshop Creative

I have known about these for some time, never owned one. Sooooooooo, I decided it would be a good idea to buy myself a birthday present. The advice from my friendly full-service camera store was to consider only a rectangular style, said circular would drive me crazy. Two of the guys agreed that Cokin would be a good choice. Because my store doesn't stock this item, I figured that was probably unbiased advice.

I didn't get the greatest subject but, after two days of rain, I jumped on the chance to shoot anything; I would have liked a deep blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Oh well... I spot metered the sky and the foreground and saw a bit more than three stops difference in exposure. I took one shot "as is" and then mounted a 3-stop graduated filter; cool results...


I didn't have to touch the sky in my "filtered image", good foreground exposure and not a bit of blown highlights anywhere. I put a full-size image in the Make Art thread.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6838&p=77242#p77242

I know from experimentation that I am capable of hand holding the camera with the filter assembly attached, but it's so putzy fooling around to get the filter positioned for desired results, I can't see using it any way other than on a tripod.


As you can hopefully see, you just slide the filter up and down in the holder while looking thru the viewfinder. I obviously wanted the dark part of the filter over the sky and the clear over the foreground.

Rusty

Rusty, thanks for the helpful info & images. I'm trying to learn as much as I can before buying my first dSLR.

Rusty, I am at the same point as you and have been playing with Neutral Density both solid and graduated. I worked with the Cokin. Doing research I found that many advanced users hand hold the Graduated ND to get the positioning right. I watched a Kelby training video by Moose Peterson and he explained it. He holds it against the lense and adjusts the position.

Nice demonstration, Rusty...

I presume you can use the filter holder on different lenses, of different diameters - does the filter holder come with adapters for the different sizes, or do you need to "accessorize" it, or...??

I have also heard of simply hand-holding the filter over the front of the lens; can easily see how that would work. The "Cokin System" consists of an adapter that screws onto the lens; they don't call it a "flange" but that's what it is. The filter holder then slides down (or up) over that with the flange engaging slots within the holder ... that is what attaches the filter holder to the lens.


Cokin, of course, wants you to buy multiple adapters, one sized for each lens diameter that you own. I bought one adapter, sized at 77mm, which is the largest diameter lens that I own. I then bought step-up rings, one for each of the three other diameter-size lens I own. A step-up ring costs less than than a Cokin adapter; this lets me mount the 77mm adapter onto lenses sized 67mm, 62mm and 52mm which are what I currently own.

The adapter, which includes the filter holder, costs $17 The graduated ND filters cost $58 -- that's for a set of three filters which are: 1-stop, 2-stops and 3-stops. Because you can mount as many as three filters in the holder, that gives me a range, in combination, of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 stops of adjustment.

The one word of warning that the camera store guys gave me was to be very careful handling the Cokin filters because they can be scratched. They are what looks to me like some king of poly-carbonate material as opposed to optical glass -- hey, that's why I could buy three for fifty-eight bucks. I compared two images, one with the filter and one without, at a 100% view in Elements and could see absolutely no difference in sharpness.

Rusty

Good stuff, Rusty. I've been thinking of going with the Cokin filters myself. Thanks for the info and review!

I used to use both Cokin and Lee systems. They are great if not much sticking up into the sky. I found myself composing with objects that I wanted exposed differently in the sky, so have gravitated towards hdr. Last year I realized I hadn't used any neutral grads in a couple years, so traded them to a pro who wanted them for his old 40D. I ran into him at a conference this month and razzed him pretty good when I found out he hasn't used them yet, while I love my new to me camera!

Very interesting. Thank you Rusty for your tutorial & examples. Well done.

Thanks Rusty for the information. Been using Cokin filters for years, first with my film SLR and now with my little point and shoot (until I determine what DSLR I want (other than all of them)).

I agree, that they appear to be easy scratched, but I like them a lot. Since I use a tripod all the time, hand holding the filter in from of the camera isn't a problem, but I also have adapters. I have found that sometime it just easier to do the effect within the camera than to do it thru Photoshop.


Have fun filtering.


Edited: I buy my filters thru B & H as all of my Wolf camera stores are now closed around me. Plus I have gotten lazy since I hurt my back.

B&H was also my source, Dane
I did a little more research and determined that these rectangular filters are made of "resin", the same material as in my glasses. I know from experience that, if I clean my glasses with the wrong kind of cloth, I will get a very fine pattern of really faint scratches on the surface. That's obviously what I need to avoid with these filters.

Rusty