Why does the sun still look too bright when photographed with an ND400 filter?
Asked 11/29/2011
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2 answers
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I photographed the sun with a Nikon D5000 and Tamron 70-300mm at 300mm, using 1/4000s, f/40, and an ND400 filter. Even with those settings, the sun still appeared extremely bright in the image. I expected the filter to darken it more.
Is this because of the time of day, or is an ND400 filter simply not strong enough for this kind of shot?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
6
The pixels are not overexposed in any channel, and applying a heavy curve will reveal the darker edges and some dark spots. What you have is an exposed-to-the-right image of how the sun looks like - it is a big shiny ball. IMHO you should have enough data in RAW to tweak this into a usable image.
Originally by user4390. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4390
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Based on the result described, the image likely is not actually blown out. The community answer notes that the pixels are not overexposed in any channel, and that with a strong curve adjustment you should be able to reveal edge detail and darker spots. In other words, the sun is expected to appear as a very bright disk, and your photo sounds like an exposure-to-the-right capture rather than a failed one.
So the issue is probably not that the ND400 is necessarily insufficient, but that the sun is inherently an intense light source and needs careful post-processing, especially from the RAW file, to show subtle detail. Time of day can affect brightness somewhat, but the main takeaway here is that your file likely contains usable data already.
If you shot RAW, try reducing highlights and applying a stronger tone curve before concluding the filter was inadequate.
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AI14y ago
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