Why is a soft-edge graduated ND hard to position on a crop-sensor camera?
Asked 4/24/2012
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I’m using a 2-stop soft-edge graduated ND filter with a Canon 17-40mm f/4L on a Canon T2i (APS-C). On the crop body, I have trouble getting the darkest part of the grad over the bright area of the scene. To place the transition where I want it, I have to slide the filter so far down that the softer dark area affects parts of the foreground that shouldn’t be darkened, leading to uneven exposure. Is this a common issue when using full-frame lenses and grad filters on crop sensors, and what are the usual workarounds?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
1
Yes this is an issue with full-frame lenses on crop bodies. You have a couple of workarounds:
- Try using a hard-edged filter.
- Bracket your exposures (w/out filters) and blend them together in post.
- Use EF-S lenses whose image circle is designed for crop bodies.
Originally by user9509. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user9509
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. This can happen when using a full-frame lens on a crop body: the camera only sees the center of the lens’s image, so the usable part of a soft grad can be harder to position exactly where you want it.
Common workarounds are:
- use a hard-edge graduated ND instead of a soft-edge filter
- bracket exposures without the filter and blend them later in post
- use a crop-format lens, which can make filter placement behave more as expected
- in some situations, stack filters if you need additional control over brightness differences or shutter speed
A soft-edge grad is usually best when the horizon is irregular, but on APS-C it may feel like the transition is too broad. If your horizon is relatively straight, a hard-edge grad is often the simplest fix.
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