Summer Sunrises in Eastern North Carolina are, well, Hot! The Sunlight is incredibly intense. Often the light blows out any clouds in the sky. Enter the Neutral Density Filter. I shot the above using a Neutral Density X8 Filter. Without the filter, No Shot. I would have just packed up and headed back to the house. The ND X8 Filter reduced the Aperture by Three Stops which cuts the intensity of the light to something the camera can handle. X2 and X4 filters are also available. I’ve used the X8 filter quite a bit on sunrise shots here on the farm and at the beach. It really can save the day. Film Shooters use these filters to enable slower shudder speeds especially with high speed film.
My next filter purchase will be a Graduated Neutral Density Filter which allows one to reduce the intensity of the rising sun without darkening the foreground. I’ve been putting it off but the time has come…..because the summer isn’t going to get any cooler and the skies are going to stay……Hot! See you next time on most of this same blog.
