Grey Grad Filters

Grey Grad filters are one of the easiest and most effective filters you can buy - and they're perfect if you're starting out.

Check out these two pics taken on a very dull day, one taken with and one without a grey grad filter and I think you'll be able to appreciate the difference.

There are many makes of grey grad on the market but I have to say in my opinion the Lee filters system is far and away the best - so I asked professional landscape photographer Tom Mackie to demonstrate because he uses them all the time.

Grey Grad filters work by evening out the exposure difference between an over bright and over dark areas of an image, bringing the difference in contrast closer together. When you look at the sky on a dull day you can still see the cloud detail but your camera often can't so you need to darken the sky with a filter.

In this video Tom and I go through positioning and shooting through a grey grad and explain the difference between hard and soft grads and the conditions in which to use them.