One of the challenges of digital photography is its limited dynamic range. While a RAW file gives you more than a compressed JPG, when you’ve reached the limit of the camera sensor, definition in highlights and shadow areas is finite.

Previously, I’ve experimented with a Lee 0.6 soft graduated filter as means of holding highlight detail in the sky, while providing a satisfactory exposure in foreground areas. Without this tool, I’d risk losing sky detail.

The 0.6 filter offers a very subtle graduated change. Fine for improving cloud detail on an overcast day, but not as useful in situations with greater contrast. So recently, I upped the ante with a 0.9 soft graduated filter.

In short, this is darker at one end, thus blocks greater amounts of light, and so provides more effective exposure control in scenes with greater contrast.

As a test, using my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera I exposed this view at Fitchburg, Massachusetts looking east on the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg Mainline toward Ayer and Boston.

Admittedly this image is unrefined. It is but the first step toward something else, and I’ll continue to explore this topic in later posts.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!