Graduated Red or ND for black and white

[Ed Richards]

While we get a few clear blue days in South Louisiana, mostly the sky needs serious filtration to show much detail - a R25 or even R29 gives about the same effect as a good yellow in the West. I am thinking about trying some graduated filters to reduce the brightness range without the adverse effects red filters have on foliage in the foreground. I ran across Lee's graduated red filters, which seem like a good way to approach this. Anyone tried these for black and white, and, if so, are there advantages over ND graduated filters?

[Alan Davenport]

Ed, this is just a guess: I think a red grad will give increased cloud/sky contrast, as it should pass more of the red/yellow wavelengths from the clouds. An ND grad will darken the clouds the same amount as it does the blue sky.

So the ND grad will darken the blue sky AND the clouds. A red should darken the sky but won't darken the clouds as much as would the ND.

I think.

[Joanna Carter]

We use grad red and orange filters for B&W to improve the contrast of skies without affecting the rest of the scene.