Grad filters - worth it?

[Shaun Fisher]

Hi all.

I've had a look though the forums for grad filters since I enjoy the landscape photos.

I came across this tutorial Graduated ND Filter Effect in Photoshop and wondered whether its possible to get the same quality photo out of using RAW & software. Is it just as good as a graduated filter?

If the grad filters are better, could someone tell me what brand are best since I saw one for 15€ and another for 130€.

Thanks

[kirbinster]

I use the graduated effect in Lightroom all the time and it works great.

[nemesis256]

I don't have any ND Grad filters and I'm not interested in them. There are a lot of cases when your horizon won't be perfectly straight (mountains), and I get a feeling it would limit your composition. I've become a fan of fusing multiple exposures.

[sybren]

I want to get ND filters. If you're going to apply such a filter later on in post processing you will lose quality. Mergin multiple exposures can work, but only if there is nothing moving in the frame. You won't be able to shoot a HDR of a marathon, just to name an example.

[Nicole]

I want to get a set of ND / Grad ND filters as well for pretty much the same reasons that sybren gave. I've been doing it in Photoshop / Lightroom, but the fact that I'm doing it frequently to me says that since there is a way to do it before the post-processing that would actually save me a lot of time and improve the quality of the end result.

[Shaun Fisher]

Thanks all for your replies. I now have some thinking to do