NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTERS

Solid ND filters are the secret to long-exposure seascapes and more

REMOVING COLOUR CASTS

The simplest way I find to remove colour casts is manually in Lightroom by using the custom white balance Temp and Tint sliders. If you have a section of white in your image then you can also use the white balance eyedropper tool to set the white balance automatically, based on the white point you selected. You may need to make minor adjustments from this, but it’s a good jumping offpoint providing you have a white point in your photograph.

Before

AFTER

Solid neutral density filters (as opposed to the ‘graduated’ variety) are one of the landscape photographer’s most essential tools. These are semiopaque, and reduce the amount of light passing through them across all wavelengths equally, so that when they’re placed in front of a lens they reduce the amount of light reaching your camera’s sensor, but without affecting colour transmission.

This allows you to use longer shutter speeds and higher apertures in conditions that wouldn’t normally allow them, and they’re ideal for lengthening exposures in order to capture motion blur, such as the silky smooth effect you often see in moving bodies of water, or creamy streaking clouds that add atmosphere to skies in your images.

Filter strengths