I just picked up a new Singh-Ray vari-N-Duo filter (thin mount) for use with landscape shots and I decided to take it for its maiden voyage by shooting the Kernsville Mill in Lehigh County Pennsylvania. Unfortunately there were a bunch of fishermen fishing right in front of the mill and with my goal of doing some long exposure shots with the water and the mill, that idea was squashed. So I improvised and shot the reflections on the water downstream from the top of the bridge.
The new filter really brought out some of the setting sun’s “magic light” and the colors just really popped. The damn thing costs as much as my first used car but I think it will pay dividends for waterfall, stream and fall foliage type shots. The unique thing about the filter is that you can “dial in” less and less stops of light for use with long exposure shots so that, for instance, waterfall shots come out even more milky white and dramatic. Instead of having to stack filters for the same result, a single filter can give you the same effect as blocking out up to eight stops of light. The filter also includes a polarizing filter to help block out glare on water surfaces. For more info on the filter, check out their web site.
Combined with multi bracketed HDR techniques, the filter realy provided nice results in my tests so far. This was shot as seven bracketed RAW frames then combined into an HDR and tone mapped in Photomatix Pro.
