I had a question on my Facebook page today about Variable ND (Neutral Density) filters and my answer turned into a full on guide to selecting and understanding ND filters which deserved it’s own blog post.

So thanks to Michele for suggesting the topic and I hope I answer your question

History

Back in the days of film photography a professional photographer would have had a wide variety of filters in their camera bags but these days Photoshop has replaced nearly all of them, thankfully!

Pretty much the only filters a professional photographer will carry these days are a Polarising filter and a set of ND filters. I won’t go into Polarising filters here except to add that with the popularity of ultra wide angle lenses and images stitching they are becoming less and less used.

The Options

The effect of using ND filter is to increase or equalise the exposure time for an image by darkening all or part of the camera’s view, it’s a bit like having sunnies for your camera
ND filters are generally used to either increase shutter speed to smooth out motion or reducing the dynamic of a scene by darkening part of the view. Another use of these filters is to allow you to decrease depth of field in very bright situations.

A word of warning when purchasing your ND filters, to work effectively an ND filter must be a true neutral gray otherwise a colour cast will be introduced so avoid cheaper filters. For example I have read that the ND filters in the Cokin filter system are not at all neutral an introduce a pinkish colour cast

There are two options for mounting ND filters to your lens:

1. Buy 1 or more glass filters to screw onto the end of your lens
2. Buy a filter system and a collection of ND filters to slot into it

Additional there are 4 types of ND filters available:

1. Solid ND filter
2. Hard graduated ND filter
3. Soft graduated ND filter
4. Variable ND filter

Finally, ND filters come in a variety of strengths, indicating how much light they block out.
Unfortunately filter manufacturers have several different ways of measuring the light reduction values which can be very confusing, check out this wikipedia page and scroll down to “ND filter types” for a comprehensive table of light reduction values.

Graduated ND Filters

Graduated ND filters are used where there is a large dynamic range between the brightest parts of a scene and the darkest part of a scene. For example a sunset or a scene taken towards the sun where the sky is very bright compared to the land.

Without a graduated ND filter you would have to select either the sky or the land to be properly exposed and sacrifice the other to be blown out (pure white) or under exposed (black). So a graduated ND filter will allow to get a much better sunset shot in a single frame, the alternative being to take multiple exposures and blend them together afterwards in Photoshop or Lightroom.

Graduated ND filters come in 2 types, soft & hard, the difference between them is the transition from the clear part of the filter to the gray part. As the names imply soft grad’s fade smoothly from clear to gray whilst hard grad’s transition abruptly along a hard line. Soft grads are much more popular and a lot easier to use as they are more forgiving whilst hard grads are really only suitable in certain scenarios such as oceanic scenes where you can align the transition line along the horizon.

It is important to be aware that ND graduated filters are a compromise, very rarely will the transition occur exactly where you need it, so you will get trees that are darker on the top than the bottom or sand dunes with a similar problem. Horizons are rarely flat in well composed images and nature has a way of doing things outside our plans, as always it’s about finding the right tool for the job at hand

Solid ND Filters

Solid ND Filters serve a different purpose to graduated as they affect the whole image.

Typical uses for a solid ND filter would be when taking waterfall scenes when you want to smooth out the flow of water and can afford a longer exposure time or when you are shooting on a very bright & evenly lit day and want to decrease your depth of field by opening up the lens.

Variable ND Filters

Finally we have variable ND filters. These tend to be more expensive and are usually created by having 2 specially designed circular polarising filters placed next to each other with one of them fixed and the other rotating. Simply rotating the outer filter ring will change the effecting light reduction of the filter within a set range.

The benefits of Variable ND Filters are:

• Flexibilty, you only need 1 filter for a variety of scenarios
• No need to keep changing filters (which is a pain with screw-on filters)
• Easy to experiment with different settings

The drawbacks to the Variable ND filter approach are as follows:

• Very limited brand options with conflicting reports on image & build quality
• Expensive if you mostly need a limited range of light reduction
• Expensive if they don’t provide the image quality you are looking for
• You cannot get graduated Variable ND Filters
• Only come as screw-on filters (that I know of) so see below for the pros and cons of screw-on vs filter systems

Filter Systems

By far the most cost effective and flexible way to purchase any type of filter is to buy a filter system which consists of a filter holder, an adapter ring for each of your lenses and a set of filters.

The benefits of using a filter system over screw-on filters are:

• You only need to buy one of each filter
• Filters can be rotated and slid up and down to allow for ideal positioning
• Lens vignetting can be avoided with the right system for your lens collection
• Filters can be quickly & easily installed and removed
• Easier to attach multiple filters

The negatives of a filter system over screw-on filters are:

• Higher start up costs as you need to buy the holder and attachment rings just to get one filter
• There are some low quality systems out there which should never be put in front of decent lenses!
• Variable ND filters are not available in this format

If you do go down this path then it is important to make sure you get a good quality filter system as all you future filters will come from a single manufacturer and what’s the point buying quality camera equipment and putting a piece of cheap plastic in front of it!

Personally I would recommend the Lee Filter System which is used by most professional photographers and they provide the highest quality products.

Screw-On Filters

The simplest way to get filters in front of your lenses is to buy a circular screw-on filter. There are many filter companies out there that sell single screw-on ND filter of varying quality, basically you get what you pay for so don’t skimp.

The benefits of screw-on filters over filter systems are:

• Low start up cost
• Less bulky
• Plenty of options

The negatives of screw-on filters over filter systems are:

• Wide angle lenses can produce lens vignetting as the filter edges are so close to the lens, especially if multiple filters are stacked
• Need to purchase a new filter for each diameter lens in your collection
• Bulky to carry around large filter collections
• Graduated ND filters are not available as screw-on filters
• Much harder to attach & detach filters

Michale’s Answer

As far as Variable ND Filters go (to answer the original question from Michele) no I have never used one and in my opinion they have limited use and would have to be proved to produce a quality result with professional build quality before I would consider buying one myself.

That doesn’t mean they don’t have a place for certain photographers but as a screw-on only solution that wouldn’t integrate with a filter system they would not work well if you also needed to use Graduated ND filters.

As far as I can tell the Singh-Ray Vari-ND Filter is one of the best around but I’ve also read some bad reviews on it and at #350+ USD (depending on filter diameter) it’s not cheap. They are also quite thick so the chance of vignetting is increased over standard screw-on filters, in fact Singh-Ray themselves have a disclaimer about vignetting on their Vari-ND product page lol.

Also, I gather some portrait photographers are using Variable ND filters to achieve certain unique lighting effects, so intended use always plays a part in such a decision as well.

If anyone has any good / bad experiences with Variable ND filters then I would love to hear them

Summary

So to sum, up ND filters are one of only two types of filters you still need in your camera bag but that doesn’t make choosing the right filter easy.

Personally my approach to filters is to avoid using them whenever possible to enable me to produce the highest quality image possible from any scenario.

I will always opt for multiple exposures of a scene over a filtered version, sure it takes a bit longer to blend the images to get a finished result but I’m much happier with the quality I end with.

On the other hand there are always situations where an ND filter is the only way to achieve the desired result. I currently own 2 x ND screw-on filters which I rarely use, if I ever found myself using them more frequently then I would without doubt purchase a Lee Filter System with a set of ND filters and ND Soft Graduated filters.

Of course whenever I approach a waterfall the ND filters come out of the mothballs to produce the ol’ clichéd “Smooth Flowing Water” look .

Note: All of the images shown in this post were taken without the use of any kind of ND filter using HDR techniques to show the full dynamic range of the scenes.

These images are all for sale on my web site, simply click on any image to get more information.

Have you ever noticed apparently random *_MVM_*.tmp files being generated at the root level of your hard drives?

For ages I have been wondering where these files came from and worrying that they may be the result of some sort of file corruption, so finally I decided to find the source of these files.

It would appear that these files are created by Adobe Photoshop CS5, or more accurately by the Mondo Framework that Photoshop uses for certain functionality such as Liquify & Saving to PNG. Whilst these tmp files are supposed to be located in your PC’s TEMP folder (as defined by your systems environment variables) that isn’t always the case.

Now I very rarely use Liquify but as a Web Designer I am constantly saving PNG images so it would appear that this is the cause of my random temporary file problem.

It’s a Big Relief that it’s nothing to do with corrupt files but incredibly annoying that these tmp files are generated by Adobe Photoshop CS5 in but not tidied up. Apparently I’ve got it good as my tmp files are all 0 bytes in size where some people are finding tmp files 100′s of MB in size chewing up all their free disk space …

The other problem this scenario causes is that Photoshop functions can be slowed down considerably if it chooses to create these files on slow drives such as USB drives or older HDD’s completely circumventing that expensive super fast SSD drive you bought for Photoshop caching.

So the good news is that everything is “Working as Intended” and nothing is corrupt. Sadly though there appears to be no fix for this problem until Adobe take it upon themselves do the right thing and sort it out.

If you’re interested in reading more on this matter then here are a few links I found useful

http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=208685
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3257006
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4081007

Perth really is a fantastic place to holiday, whether you live here or are visiting from over east or abroad. There are tons of great things to do and the people are so friendly you’ll always feel welcome and never get bored of our naturally beautiful environment

Working with Noleen and her team and a group of professional models was a great experience, here are a few samples of some of the images you can expect to see in the new brochure.

You can also see a larger sample of the images taken on the day on our web site portfolio.:

Over a period of several days we traveled to Lane Pool just outside Dwellingup, Serpentine Falls and the Mandurah Ocean Marina photographing yacht races, mountain biking, luxury yacht’s and families having fun on the beach. It was a blast, we had a great time and got to explore a few new places along the way.

The Mandurah Region really is a great place to holiday, check out some of the images we took or click here to see the gallery on our web site:

Their first project has been run in conjunction with the Canning Stock Route Exhibition recently running at Perth’s Entertainment Centre.

Here are some of the images from the launch and some teasers from the exhibition.

Click here to see the full photo shoot galleries

Firstly I’d like to remind everyone that I don’t do weddings!

Having said that I was very happy to be asked to photograph the wedding of Lee & Kiara last weekend. Lee is the son of Pete & Tracey Roberts, very dear friends of ours, and last weekend we were invited to Lee & Kiara’s wedding at their home in Mindarie.

It was a beautiful wedding with the ceremony held on the balcony overlooking the sand dunes and Indian Ocean. Hopefully the photos do justice to the occasion

For those of you that were at the ceremony here is a slideshow of the day, enjoy …

Last Friday Maggie and I went on a photo shoot to Carnac Island with a group of fellow photographers from around Perth. A big thanks to Mark Stothard for taking us out there on his boat

Sadly for Mark he was the only sailor amongst us and we sure did everything we could to cause him a few dramas but he was up to the task and proved why he is qualified to run a business like the True North

This is the first image release from that trip which, to me, represents how simple life should be … Sadly life is very rarely simple but walking on the beach on Carnac Island surrounded by Sea Lions certainly gave us a bit of a release from the complicated lives we lead

This is the third release for my new Print of the Month Special Collection. The image was taken earlier this year at one of our favourite local spots, Yanchep National Park.

Read my personal comments on the story behind this Fine Art Print

My Prints of the month are available at a discounted rate (25% off) and include a special Print of the Month Certificate of Authenticity and free shipping within Australia.

More Information
All Prints of the Month are available as a Fine Art Glossy Print or Coated Canvas at our Studio size, which means a 16″ x 20″ print or canvas for an traditional aspect such as this one.

My Print of the Month represents incredible value, especially during their month of release. More information about this Print of the Month can be found on my web site along with my personal comments on this image and links to purchase directly through PayPal with a credit card.

Of course if you prefer the more personal approach you are more than welcome to call or email us to arrange or discuss your investment.

The markets are open all day from 10am to 4pm and we’ll be running our usual competition for 1 lucky winner to win 2 of our high quality Matted Fine Art Prints. The prints to be given away on Sunday are shown here in this post (see above and below).

Everyone is eligible to enter our competition and as an added bonus entrants will also be entered into our monthly prize draw to win a $50 Gift Certificate.

Event details:
Sunday, 31 July
10am – 4pm
Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre
3 Rocca Way, Wanneroo

This is the second release for my new Print of the Month Special Collection. The image is a new release taken earlier this year at Mindarie Marina during another of our spectacular Western Australian sunsets.

My Prints of the month are available at a discounted rate (25% off) and include a special Print of the Month Certificate of Authenticity and free shipping within Australia.

More Information
All Prints of the Month are available as a Fine Art Glossy Print or Coated Canvas at our Studio size, which means a 10″ x 30″ print or canvas for an panoramic aspect such as this one.

My Print of the Month represents incredible value, especially during their month of release. More information about this Print of the Month can be found on my web site along with my personal comments on this image and links to purchase directly through PayPal with a credit card.

Of course if you prefer the more personal approach you are more than welcome to call or email us to arrange or discuss your investment.

We have just sent out our June 2011 newsletter with some exciting new special offers:

• For the rest of June we are having an End of Financial Year Special Offer giving you 20% off any of our Fine Art Prints and Canvases.
• Starting this month we have begun our Print of the Month promotion offering you a unique opportunity to start / continue collecting our Fine Art Prints and Canvases at a special price.

You can find out more about these special offers and much more by reading our June 2011 newsletter.

Getting good pictures of Koalas can be tricky, they sleep all day and when they do something exciting you can guarantee they will wait till you look the other way first …

But you’ve got to love em, they’re just so cute

The challenge is to combine good composition with a bit of character and some great colours, if you can look at the image and see a story unfolding then you’re starting to get there.

In this image the sun was just starting to take on its “magic” golden quality as it started to set and this guy just sat there in the crook of the tree oblivious to the world around him and hugging his tree.

I just love watching wildlife like this guy. Is he dreaming? Is he aware that I’m taking a picture of him and ignoring me? What is important in a Koalas life?

Well, one thing is for sure this guy certainly loves his tree

Are you a Koala lover too?
You can have this guy hanging on your wall, click here to visit our web site and purchase a Fine Art Print or Canvas that will love you back for the rest of your life …

Here’s another image I overlooked from several years back. What really struck me when I came across this image again was the complete lack of any real patterns, and the total chaos of the water being blown from the top of the wave by the strong winds.

In fact it’s so chaotic I find it mesmerising and the contrast of the beautiful shades of green, blue and white just add to that chaos.

It’s just one of those images I can sit and stare at and appreciate the chaotic nature of the world around us and how little control we really have over our lives.

I love images that make me think, and this one makes me appreciate what I have in this chaotic world of ours. It reminds me to make the most of life while I can and help others do the same.

No doubt this image will invoke different emotions in different people, that’s the great thing about art it’s objective and it’s never bad, just different

It’s not like the boardwalk at Mindarie is lacking in things to draw you there, with the Indi Brewery, the Boat and the new Waterfront Cafe all set on the one of the most beautiful marina settings in the world.

But now there is another great reason to visit Mindarie, we have been given considerable space in the Mindarie Marina Hotel Foyer to extend our permanent display of Fine Art Photography.

Currently on display are over 15 Fine Art Photographic Canvases of Western Australia, including 60 inch panoramas of our very popular “Sunset” over Mindarie Marina (see above) and our new image from Monkey Mia, “Solutude” (see below).

So Before you settle down in the Indi for a locally brewed pint, party away in the Boat or have a relaxing lunch at the Waterfront Cafe take a side trip to the Mindarie Marina Hotel Foyer and see our latest display of Fine Art Photographic Canvases. You’ll be blown away by the colours and beauty of the world around us …

Yanchep National Park is a great place for a day out and what better way to end our visit than a quick trip through the Koala enclosure.

The Koala’s were in their naturally laid back state, perched on branches and snuggled into the nooks and crannies that they always seem to find up in the heights of the trees.

These guys sure make a stress free life look appealing, it sure is a Koala’s life

Capturing these sleepy little guys is not as easy as you’d think, here’s a few tips for getting better pictures of Koala’s as they doze the day away in the tree tops:

• Whenever possible shoot away from the sun, that will help you get those nice blue skies while lighting up the Koala at the same time
• Use a higher ISO speed (400 – 800) to make sure you get a fast shutter speed
• To get a well lit shot of the Koala try overexposing your shot by a few stops as the auto metering will try to expose for the much brighter sky
• Hang around for a while, eventually even sleepy Koala’s will move around or shift into a better position
• Using the longest lens / focal length you can will get you some nice close ups of the Koala’s but make sure you keep your shutter speed high enough to avoid camera shake
• Sometimes it’s nice to zoom out a bit and get a shot of the Koala in his surroundings
• Try to keep the surroundings natural, avoiding sprinklers and buildings in the background
• Have fun and remember these guys are endangered so no touching or disturbing them
• Respect the animals and environment you are photographing, always remember the old adage “Leave nothing but footprints”
• Respect the owners of the park you are in and abide by their rules at all times

The very kind owners of the house gave me a demonstration of how smoothly and easily each of the slide out drawers moves in their newly refurbished kitchen. What was even more stunning was that you couldn’t tell they were cupboards so nicely finished and flush with the wall as the work was.

Of course Wayne does not just do kitchens he does bathrooms, laundry’s and purpose built cabinets to fit any space as you can see from the video, enjoy!

Posted by Maggie Catley

We had our “Thongy Postcards” on display and they proved to be very popular

If you were there or if you want to know what you missed out on then watch our video slideshow of the event on youtube:

The other day I was happily Photoshopping away sharpening an image for a new print size when I stumbled across a small problem.

I wanted to select the part of the image so I could apply a different sharpening technique to it, I switched to the trusty Magic Wand tool and clicked on the sky. Imagine my surprise when, instead of selecting the just the white the whole image was selected.

I checked all the obvious solutions:

• Did I have the correct layer selected? – Yes
• Was the Tolerance setting ok? Yup it was set to 10
• Was the other parameters set appropriately? – Yes
• Restart Photoshop – No change
• Try a different image – No change
• Restart PC (getting desperate now) – No change
• Blame the kids – Still no change (only kidding )

I’d checked all the obvious and no luck, so having eliminated the probable solutions it was time too tart looking for the improbable ones

The Solution

I remembered playing around with the Eyedropper tool a few days before, so carrying on with my search for the improbable I selected the eye dropper tool and had a close look at it parameters. The only one the made any sense in relation to my problem was the Sample Size (which I remembered changing) so I set the Sample Size back to 1 point and returned to my Magic Wand tool.

Amazingly the problem was fixed, the appropriate area of sky was now selected and I adjust my Tolerance to get the result I wanted.

Admittedly I could have just used the Quick Selection Tool but that would not have helped me next time I had to use the Magic Wand so I was extremely happy to have fixed the problem though a little confused as to why the Magic Wand and would be connected in this way.

As far as I can tell this relationship between the Magic Wand and the Eyedropper tools has existed since at least CS3 so it obviously isn’t a “Bug” rather more of an “Undocumented Feature”

Summary

To summarise, if you are having a problem with the Magic Wand tool selecting more of your image than is appropriate for the parameters you have set and you have tried all of the solutions listed above then:

• Select the Eyedropper tool
• Go to the parameter toolbar at the top of the screen (or right click anywhere on the image)
• set the Sample Size to Point Sample

and all your problems should be fixed

If that fails then blaming the kids is the only option left

View or purchase prints of the image displayed above: Moonset, Bunker Bay, Margaret River Region (BBP1.2-V2-PH1)

Here’s a slideshow of some of the photos from the shoot:

Shown in this video is the Chef & owner from the new Waterfront Cafe & Restaurant, due to open in a few weeks on the Marina Boardwalk along with 2 of the superb staff from the “Indi” brewery.

We will be at the festival as usual with the MADCAT Photography stall alongside the “Indi” as well as being the “Roving Photographer” for the day.

The 5th annual ‘A Toast to the Coast!’ – Food, Beer and Wine festival is set to be the biggest yet! Tantalise the taste buds with tastings from local gourmet producers including chocolates, olives, cheeses and more and they are all for sale!

Sample the range of wines from near and far from 10am at the Wine tasting tent and there will be loads of live entertainment throughout the day.

Food gurus and celebrity chefs will be cooking up sensational gourmet delights throughout the day at the Cooks Corner, plus there will be a range of children’s activities and entertainment wandering the boardwalk.

As always it will be a great day out so make sure you put it in your diaries and we’ll see you there

In true Australian tradition these Postcards are die cut in the shape of an Aussie Thong sat on the beach, boardwalk or forest trail and each one portrays a unique Western Australian Fine Art image from MADCAT Photography.

Created from an concept by local printer Adam Hollister and designed by MADCAT Photography these new themed postcards are already proving to be very popular, both as quality postcards to send home and mementos of a great holiday in Western Australia.

All of our images are available for purchase as Fine Art Canvases or Prints through our web site, click the image above for more information.

After successfully trialling some prototypes of our “Thongy Postcards” last year we have just taken delivery of our first batch of production cards featuring a new updated design and new images.

Starting with some of our most popular images we will be expanding the range to cover Western Australia and with luck ultimately they will go Australia Wide.

If you would like to purchase a “Thongy Postcard” then you can visit Oceania Gifts at the Mindarie Marina or Sunshiners at Two Rocks or contact Maggie directly.

If you are interested in reselling our “Thongy Postcards” in your retail outlet then please contact Maggie and we will arrange to come and visit you with some samples