Xenedis's ND Filter Shutter Speed Cheat Sheet

[Xenedis]

During an entirely sleepless night last night, I came up with the idea of compiling a cheat sheet for determining the correct shutter speed to use after applying ND filters of varying strengths.

Quite simply, it is a table which lists, in third-stop intervals, every unfiltered shutter speed from 1/8000th to 30 seconds, and the corresponding shutter speeds to use after reducing light intake from a range of one to six stops via the use of one or more ND filters.

This may come in handy for landscape photographers, and will save a bit of mental arithmetic when chasing the light in the pursuit of images.

My ND Filter Shutter Speed Cheat Sheet can be downloaded from the following URL:

http://www.xenedis.net/ndshutterspeeds.pdf

I recommend that photographers print the cheat sheet and carry it in their camera bags to serve as a quick reference whenever it's necessary to determine the correct shutter speed to use after, say, stacking two ND8 filters in front of the lens.

If I've made any glaring mathematical errors, please let me know so I can update the document.

I hope you find it useful.

[carrg1954]

my thanks for sharing this

[Xenedis]

One thing that should be noted is that if you're using ND filters during increasing or decreasing light, such that the exposure time is long (a minute and longer), the changing light during the exposure could result in over- or under-exposure respectively.

My table simply lists the corresponding shutter speed values without reference to the variability of light intensity changes.

[accesser]

Ok possibly a stupid question does this chart only apply to non gradient ND filters?

[Xenedis]

Ok possibly a stupid question does this chart only apply to non gradient ND filters?

It's intended for non-grad ND filters, but the mathematics applies equally to the filtered portion of a GND filter. It's probably less useful for that application, as GNDs are almost always used to even out the exposure between land and a much brighter sky.

[accesser]

Indeed I usually just meter for the foreground when using grads and just keep adding them until they sky is exposed, Handy info for when using the ND400 filter however :th3:

[Xenedis]

The ND400 is an interesting filter, in that 400 is not a power of two.

It results in a light intake reduction of around 8-2/3rds of a stop.

A bit of a pain to mentally calculate on the fly...

[Xenedis]

All,

I recently bought a ten-stop ND filter, which warranted an update to my ND Shutter Speed Cheat Sheet.

It now includes shutter speeds to use after reducing light intake from a range of one to ten stops.

My ND Filter Shutter Speed Cheat Sheet can be downloaded from the following URL:

http://www.xenedis.net/ndshutterspeeds.pdf