The problem I have here in the Alps is that I hardly find any flat horizons and in most cases the GND will affect the surrounding mountains as well. That’s when I have no problems to make a exposure blending with my digital equipment but hesitate to do it with my large format camera. So I’m always happy when my metering tells me that everything is in range. If not I might have to bite the bullet and decide between using the GND or go for two exposures.

Thanks for your support.

Take care,
Andreas

I’m strongly considering taking B&W on future trips so at least it will be a possibility.

I selected a 2 stop hard ND because I was planning for a morning shot when the sky and mountains would have more light than the foreground.

My general rule of thumb is to use a 3 stop hard grad when shooting toward the sun at sunrise/sunset, and use a 2 stop grad if I’m shooting toward the north or south at sunrise/sunset. Also, if it’s a cloudy sunrise/sunset and I’m aiming toward the sun, I’ll use the 2 stop.

On 8×10, a hard stop ND filter becomes a very soft ND, so I rarely use my soft grads.

On my trip to DV a year ago, I watched a sunrise and sunset at badwater before deciding what I wanted to shoot. I didn’t take my camera with me that day, but I did take my grad filters. I held a few different ones up to my eye, and that’s how I figured out which ones to use.

From a technical standpoint, you can use your spot meter to tell you how much of a grad you need. Set your exposure for the foreground, then meter the sky. If the sky is metered at +4, I know slide film can’t handle that, so a 3 stop grad ND will bring it back to +1 which is more natural.

One last thing on the not of grad filters. Just like you said, I can always remove the filter if necessary. If on the other hand I decide I need to add a stronger filter, I an do that without having to look at the ground glass again. I measure the distance between the top of the filter and the holder with my finger, then insert the stronger filter the same way. I use the wrinkles on my knuckles to measure the distance.

enjoying your trip and thought processes.

Re. adjusting the grads, a trick I learned from Michael Gordon is to use a Post-It note on the “seam”- that makes it much easier to see the transition point. Of course you will need to remove it before shooting

Rick

I’m still a bit hesitant to use the GND and in most cases I hope that the dynamic range of the film covers it all.
Do you know by experience that the 2-stop-GND will be necessary in low light conditions or might it happen that you remove the filter later when you meter for the final shot and see that 2 stops is too much?

Looks like a great composition and I’m curious how the final result(s) turn out.

Cheers,
Andreas