Landscape kit

D7100-79

Senior Member
I'm new to photography. D7100 is my first DSLR camera. I've bought Fundamentals of photography and Landscape photography course at creativelive to build my foundation. I would love your feedback on this kit i'm considering. Thank you for your inputs.
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[FONT=&quot]- Tokina 11-16mm ($399.00)[/FONT]

  • LEE Filters Graduated Neutral Density Soft Filter Set 4 x 6" - Consists of Three Graduated ND (Neutral Density) Filters (.3, .6, .9) - Soft Transition ($275.00)
  • LEE Filters Foundation Kit (Standard 4x4", 4x6" Filter Holder) ($80.00)
  • LEE Filters 77mm Wide-Angle Lens Adapter Ring for 100mm System Filter Holder ($55.00)
  • Hoya 77mm NXT Circular Polarizer Filter ($93.90)
 

pforsell

Senior Member
Thumbs up for the pola, and a 10 stop ND filter would be nice.

About the ND grads... well I am not so sure in this day and age. I have a box full of Lee filters but the last time I touched them was at least 10 years ago. First of all, resin filters soften the image and are prone to flare and ghosting. These artefacts alone can ruin your image.

Secondly, current digital cameras have a lot of dynamic range and if you really put it to good use, you can expose for the highlights and lift the shadows with no penalty. In any case, if you insist on a ND grad go for the darkest (0.9) since the effect is subtle. And instead of resin get a good quality glass filter, like one of those manufactured by NiSi, or the Lee iRND series.

And all of this is just my opinion, feel free to disagree. But $355 sounds a lot for a few pieces of tupperware plastic. That would almost have bought you a D7200 instead of D7100.

Before shelling out one cent of your hard earned money, set the Active D-Lighting in your camera to HIGH and go out experimenting. Remember to bracket your landscape shots, try for example 5 images with one stop differences (-2 -1 0 +1 +2) and see what you get. I bet you a nice café latte you'll realize pretty soon that your camera is amazing and doesn't need pieces of plastic in front of the lens. You can forego the bracketing once you get the hang of the ADL and the interplay with the exposure meter in your particular camera.

Good luck.
 
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pforsell

Senior Member
You got me curious so I dug out my filters, gave the 0.9ND a good wash with soap water and made a few test shots of my yard from the second floor balcony. I provide links to flicker since these are the full jpegs straight out of camera and cannot be embedded in the forum. I think my memory served me well and I'll use these plastic pieces of ... well, plastic ... as air rifle targets next summer.




No filter, straight out of camera. Neutral or "flat" settings. This is the "control image" to compare the filter effect.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/62383894@N02/40794091895/sizes/o/






Lee 0.9 ND Grad Soft with neutral/flat settings. ADL off. The image is exposed 3 stops hotter than the first one thanks to the ND grad. Higher exposure reduces noise. But look at the thin branches in the top corners... looks like the oblique light rays don't like the plastic filter because there's a lot of chromatic aberration. Also I think there's some contrast loss (flare) caused by reflections off the filter. Furthermore, I think there's a weak greenish cast caused by the filter. Small details seem a little bit mushy too.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/62383894@N02/26825140627/sizes/o/






Vivid picture control, enhanced contrast and ADL at Extra High and no filter. My choice is to start with this image and process it to taste. I don't miss the filter one bit. The deepest shadows are noisier than with a filter, but the other benefits more than compensate the slight increase in noise, which anyway is hidden in the darkness of the shadows where it can't be seen.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/62383894@N02/40974817584/sizes/o/
 

Chris@sabor

Senior Member
I'll let others comment on the filters.

The first "real" lens I bought was the Tokina 11-20 2.8. It is sharp and great at what it does. However, it mostly gathers dust. The thing is, these ultra wide lenses tend to be about the foreground. For example, If you shoot the sunrise at 11mm, the sun is the size of a pinhead. I have mile high mountains just 3 miles away, at 11mm they appear small and insignificant. The distortion can look very cool with the right foreground element but for me this type of lens is very limited.

I bought the 18-140 next and for half the price. The versatility was game changing! It is my preferred lens for sunrise and landscapes. I also recently bought the Sigma 17-50 2.8, I love the pictures it takes, this might be a better choice for landscapes.

Good luck!
 

nikonpup

Senior Member
start with better glass, filters can come later if needed. Suggest getting a 18-140mm lens, reconditioned from a nikon dealer. Get a good photo processing program and learn it inside and out. Creativelive is a good place to learn, youtube is better (free). Start by looking a d7100 videos. Take lots of picture, if you are not taking pictures you are not learning imo.
 

D7100-79

Senior Member
Thank you guys for ur inputs. I think i'll take off Lee rasin filter off and go for NiSi iRND 3-stop, B+W 77mm Solid ND(6 Stop), Hoya 77mm CP. I'm also using lightroom and getting used to it.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
In my experience, the polarizing filter and the solid ND filter are the only two filters whose effects you cannot replicate in post processing. As others wrote above, you can use bracketing or even Camera Raw to balance exposure over a picture, so you don't need graduated filters. The polarizer is great for blocking out reflections and adding depth of color. The solid ND is great of letting you shoot at a long exposure if you want to capture motion effects (such as a stream or waterfall), or even make crowds disappear from a static shot.
 
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