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| © Marc Adamus |
| Adamus combined two exposures in Photoshop for a single spectacular image. Click photo for more images. |
How to Meter
There are two ways to figure out which filter you need: Trial-and-error or measuring the light. Either way, first set your camera to manual mode, then meter for the dark parts of your image -- usually the ground.
If you want to eyeball it, put on your 3-stop filter, take a shot, and check your LCD. If you're losing too much sky, or if it's unnaturally dark, switch to the 2-stop.
For precision, meter for the sky, determine how many f-stops brighter it is than the ground, then pick the corresponding filter.
When to Use Software
Getting your photo right with filters will save you a lot of time, but there are times when you'll need additional help from Photoshop. In the shot on the previous page, a big sea stack intersected the line where the filter transitioned from dark to light. Not even a soft graduation helped.
Adamus solved the problem by shooting the scene twice, with and without the graduated neutral-density filter. Then he combined the shots in Photoshop to create exactly the image he envisioned when he saw the scene. Here's how you can do the same thing: Click here for the steps.
Marc Adamus proves that it can actually be easier to make bright, sharp, dramatic landscapes in the camera with a split neutral-density filter. Who would have thought that -- with occasional aid from Photoshop -- making something so beautiful could be so simple?
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