Slice a: added default colour tint
Slice b: increased the shade (amount of tinting)
Slice c: increased the feather (the degree of merging)
Slice d: changed the angle of the horizon (by clicking to left or right of centre)
Slice e: picked a new colour
Slice f: combining all the above - see final photo
It begs the question: why bother buying the filter if it can be done in Picasa? I think the real filter provides greater freedom e.g.:
a) you can tilt it 90 degrees (which you can't do in Picasa without rotating the picture first
b) you can take the shot, preview it in the field, and adjust settings as necessary (rather than get home and find Picasa can't produce the desired result)
Graduated filters are commonly used to reduce the contrast between ground and sky. Pretty important on sunny days or when you want to bring out the features of good-looking clouds.
holy crap man. you don't know how many shots i would have discarded/not taken because the sky looked too bright.
ReplyDelete!!!!!!
wow. i feel like i've just jumped 10 miles forward in photography. (and to think...it can be done with picasa. sigh....)
Haha... happy to help...
ReplyDeleteBeen shopping for graduated ND filters - need to buy:
- filters (Cokin filters ~ $50)
- filter holder (Cokin has a P-series holder which can hold up to 3 filters)
- adapter ring to mount the holder to your lens (about $20)
I probably won't get a straight ND filter because I can use grad ND filters and polariser filter to get a similar effect.
One compelling reason to get the grad ND filters is when you have a high contrast scene such as sky and ground. Without a filter, you may end up getting a normal ground but washed out sky (which can't be fixed by software) or a good sky but underexposed ground (which can't be corrected with software without introducing a lot of noise).
And so my wallet continues to leak...