Difference between hard and soft ND filters?

Yeah, I'm sure this has been asked about a zillion times already, but
what's the difference between the hard and soft NDs? I'm going to
pick up a 3-stop grad ND shortly, and noticed that Singh-Ray has both
"hard" and "soft" types. ????

Thanks!
Jack


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In article ,
Jack Black wrote:

Yeah, I'm sure this has been asked about a zillion times already, but
what's the difference between the hard and soft NDs? I'm going to
pick up a 3-stop grad ND shortly, and noticed that Singh-Ray has both
"hard" and "soft" types. ????

It means the edge of the grey part is harder or softer. generally
speaking soft is more useful for wideangle, and hard can be used with
tele. A "hard" filter on a wide lens at f/16 will show a very clear
transition between the ND part and the blank part.

Lourens

Jack Black wrote:
Yeah, I'm sure this has been asked about a zillion times already, but
what's the difference between the hard and soft NDs? I'm going to
pick up a 3-stop grad ND shortly, and noticed that Singh-Ray has both
"hard" and "soft" types. ????

Thanks!
Jack

It has to do with the nature of the transition from dark to light.
A gradual change would be soft, while an abrupt change would be hard.

Jack Black wrote:

Yeah, I'm sure this has been asked about a zillion times already, but
what's the difference between the hard and soft NDs? I'm going to
pick up a 3-stop grad ND shortly, and noticed that Singh-Ray has both
"hard" and "soft" types. ????

Thanks!
Jack

Hard has a more abrupt transition between the clear portion and the ND
portion.

Jack Black writes:

pick up a 3-stop grad ND shortly, and noticed that Singh-Ray has both
"hard" and "soft" types. ????

As others have said, the transition between clear and grey is abrupt in the
hard types. I use hard NDs when I'm photographing a view with the ocean in
the background, and I want to lower the brightness of the sky so that it
stays blue. The abrupt transition works fine for the equally abrupt
transition from dark ocean to bright sky. For landscapes where the
transition is say, land, thend trees, then sky, the hard ND will give you a
sharp line across the scene. You probably don't want a sharp line across
the trees. Soft NDs will ease the transition so that it is less
noticeable. Think of what's in the background between the sky and the
ground: mountains of uneven height? trees of uneven height? a jagged row of
buildings? a hill sloping left to right? Or flat ocean, flat land?

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