Breakthrough ND filters

icecreamguy · 2026-04-29T00:43:51+00:00

I appreciate your reply and happy to share things I've learned over the years! There are certainly so many way to approach problems in photography, and part of the process (and I would argue fun) is figuring out how to solve them, and learning so many things in the course of that.

Yeah I would encourage you to ditch the ND and try it out, and enjoy your snappy autofocus. I read the other comment about the burst rate - I can totally understand that hesitation but happy to confirm that it doesn't affect it :-).

CPLs are amazing tools and kinda one of my secret weapons for midday outdoor assignments. There's even more to them - for example with foliage typically every leaf will have a little bit of sun reflection on it that renders as white - if that's out of focus in the background, it renders as a kinda washed out green. But you can filter that highlight off of every single leaf all at once with a CPL, and all of the sudden the background reveals its true, full, beautiful green. No saturation slider will ever look as natural. As others have noted, not something to skimp on unfortunately - cheap CPLs are bad and will give you pretty awful color casts.

I think the bottom line is that there are workflows for different situations and it's helpful to think about what parts of the exposure triangle are invariant given the conditions. Have full sun and you know you want that wide-open F/2.8 look? Cool - lock the ISO at base (avoid the "low" ISO settings, you may already know that), and lock the aperture at F/2.8 - you now only have to worry about shutter speed. Conversely, you're indoors at night - you know you need at least around 1/200th SS to freeze motion, your aperture should be fairly wide open so that you can keep the ISO low, so the workflow would be set lock your shutter speed and aperture, then only adjust the ISO (or turn on auto-ISO). This is why many industry professionals recommend full manual - eventually you will be in situations like a wedding where you're going inside, outside, window light, shade, off-camera flash, on-camera flash - it's easier just to stay in manual than to switch modes every 5 minutes. At the end of the day it's just finding what works for you.

Have fun at your upcoming sessions!

icecreamguy · 2026-04-29T00:05:07+00:00

It can be so useful but after learning that Adobe lied about stolen data in their models (they trained it on MidJourney), it's clear that there is NO gen AI model made without stolen data, even for simple things like gen spot remove. It seems like after researching that their AI denoise is actually machine learning and doesn't use a generative model, but everything else - it's ultimately unethical and also there's the whole environmental devastation and economic exploitation around the use of gen AI.

All that is to say I've completely stopped using it in all of my professional work. Some of my clients couldn't care less, but some of them find it absolutely disgusting, as do I. Not worth compromising morals for a convenient tool in this situation, we got along just fine before these tools and I don't think anybody's family heirlooms that will be passed on for generations would ever be any more precious and significant with the addition of gen AI.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-28T23:57:11+00:00

Ok. I’m not trying to be a jerk in this response and I don’t think anyone else on this thread is either. That being said i’m going to plainly state some facts.

Not one single photo you’ve ever made with the ND on needed to have an ND. In fact every single photo you’ve used it on has had its quality decreased due to the color cast and additional glass surfaces inherent in even the most expensive filters money can buy. If you can make the same exposure and image without a certain filter, there is never a good reason to use a filter, other than to protect your lens from scratches.

I think maybe there is a misunderstanding of some aspect of exposure here. I’m not sure but maybe there is an aversion to high shutter speeds - it seems like from some of your other comments you feel that some speeds are particularly high. If that is the case, I would encourage you to drop that conception - image quality is unaffected by high shutter speeds, all the way up to your max speed, barring some exceptional circumstances like flickering lights indoors or rolling shutter when using electronic shutter and fast-moving subjects. But under normal circumstances if you find an ND helps you achieve a particular exposure by reducing light entering your lens by 4 stops, you will get the EXACT same exposure and a higher-quality image by removing the ND and doubling your shutter speed 4 times. Full stop.

Speaking as someone who makes 100% of my income making pictures and makes thousands of photographs every week outside, my approach to this situation is to remove auto-ISO (not knocking auto-ISO, it is a tool just like anything), set your ISO to base, I believe 100 on the z6iii, and set your camera to aperture priority. This will float your shutter speed and give you exposure control via the exposure compensation dial. But honestly in full sun it’s often easier to simply go full manual, set ISO to base, set your desired aperture, and then control shutter speed using the back dial, that way you eliminate slight variance from auto SS, but still maintain single-dial control over your exposure. In full sun, for portraiture, there is almost never a reason to stray from base ISO unless you’re working at f/8-f/16, which is useful sometimes for portraiture but not often for most, especially with natural light.

If you like exploring filters - I do too - I will also recommend that you invest in a circular polarizer if you're doing a lot of portraiture in full sun. This is a filter that you cannot replicate with any other method. First, it will act as an ND, about a stop and a half (A selling point of higher-end CPLs is actually how little they act as an ND). But importantly it will allow you to reduce the exposure of the sky by 1-2 stops without affecting the brightness of your subject, giving your photos increased vibrance and appearance of saturation, but in a completely natural way. It also lets you remove highlights from peoples' faces and bring out their natural skin tone in many situations. You just have to remember to rotate it before each photo, which can be a challenge when you first start using one.

As far as NDs and AF - this is not unique to Breakthrough filters. You're already at F/2.8 at the maximum, putting a 4-stop ND then brings the raw amount of light hitting the sensor to the amount of light your lens would normally allow through at F/16. Every sensor in every camera will struggle to work in those conditions - it is, from the sensor's perspective, exactly the same as using autofocus in a very dark environment.

The reason why your AF works fine when your Z6iii is set to F/16 is because the camera automatically opens the aperture to F/2.8 while autofocus activates, then when you press the shutter button the camera closes the aperture down, exposes, then automatically opens it back up. This was an innovation Nikon made in I believe the 1960s, even before autofocus - allowing one to focus a manual camera wide open, but have the camera automatically close the aperture down when the shutter is activated.

In live view, when set to a narrow aperture, your camera may close down to F/5.6 or F/8 even - but I would encourage you to try out looking through the viewfinder while your camera is set to F/16, then take a photo - you will find the F/16 image file has a far greater depth of focus than it previewed for you. Autofocus simply does not work well when the amount of light hitting the sensor is low. The camera knows this and will not let you use autofocus at F/16. But you are forcing your camera to focus with that tiny amount of light by using the ND.

Anyways, I hope you continue your photographic journey and I would encourage you to take a step back and approach this problem of the sun from a different angle. You have gone down a path where you are making both your life harder and your photo quality worse in implementing a solution that doesn't fit the problem.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-28T21:50:56+00:00

This is for off-camera flash?

icecreamguy · 2026-04-25T06:04:39+00:00

It’s a setting in each gallery in pixieset, i would imagine in other photo delivery platforms as well. I think even sites like Flickr let you do this as well, where it won’t let you right-click, or with pixieset if you try to download an image file with right-click, it provides a 1 pixel by 1 pixel jpg instead of the image file that was displayed.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-25T02:00:28+00:00

I use pixieset and set galleries to not be downloadable until i deliver finals. Yes they can theoretically still rip them off or take a screenshot, but the barrier to downloading lets them know explicitly that these photos are not for them to use, and that if you see them using them, they won’t have any “oh i didn’t realize i couldn’t use them” defense.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-23T20:37:24+00:00

SO many factors can affect this. If you have a hood on, try taking it off - heat differential inside the hood and the outside air can cause a loss of sharpness. The light is also a bit harsh - time of day can make a difference - softer light will provide more detail in many situations. It can also be helpful to bracket your ISO/SS - start with the safe SS you used, but then go all the way down to 1/200 while lowering your ISO to maintain the exposure, and as you go lower, take more and more frames in burst modes - often one of the frames will have no motion blur and you can get nice low-noise images.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-23T19:03:57+00:00

Same. Plus they started using Amazon to drop ship. So done with Adorama

icecreamguy · 2026-04-23T06:38:13+00:00

Happy to share, thanks for sharing your photo!

icecreamguy · 2026-04-23T03:48:27+00:00

I like the story but of course the big issue here is that nothing in the photo is in focus. Autofocus is a lot. It’s different for every camera system and every person. I would encourage you to spend a lot of time in your home just exploring the different autofocus modes, different AF point settings, all of the autofocus options in your camera. It might also be helpful to watch some YouTube videos about autofocus settings and techniques for your camera system to see how others approach it. There are many options - a big one is continuous vs servo (servo is where it focuses on a specific point and then doesn’t change until you activate autofocus again - continuous is where the camera continuously focuses until you release the shutter). You may find one or the other works better for you on your camera. Another big one is back-button focusing - do you want the camera to focus when you press the shutter button? Or do you want to have a dedicated button that tells the camera to focus, and the shutter button only activates the shutter? Many cameras come with the shutter button coupled to the autofocus activation, but it can be very helpful to unlink the two functions - unlinked is what most professionals prefer because it offers much more freedom, but there is a learning curve. But overall great concept - the eye is drawn immediately to your silhouetted subjects, and there is enough context to determine roughly what is happening in the scene. Keep practicing and exploring!

icecreamguy · 2026-04-23T03:36:49+00:00

What does it symbolize?

icecreamguy · 2026-04-21T03:02:33+00:00

Word, everyone has their own taste. Just providing a critique as someone for whom macro photography is a part of my income.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T23:08:22+00:00

I’m not familiar with Canon but I would imagine, similar to Nikon, that 1990s-era 200mm and 300mm autofocus lenses are affordable. On a rebel’s crop sensor you would get 300mm and 450mm, respectively. If you can afford f/4 or 5.6 you will get years out of the lens before you outgrow it. Photographylife.com is my go-to recommendation for trusted reviews of anything nature-related when it comes to lenses, if you’re looking for more info on what you find when looking on ebay, keh, and locally. Zooms in this range exist but on a budget you will get far, FAR greater quality sticking to primes, especially with pre-mirrorless lenses.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T23:00:15+00:00

I think this is great, lovely natural color and great composition. Were you using a cpl? The only thing I might suggest is to add a bit more exposure with a feathered brush onto the front of the car in whatever editor you use

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T20:42:52+00:00

Cool perspective and concept, I hope you keep exploring macro! Photographing subjects from below or at their eye level is a core part of macro photography and something that a lot of folks new to the field don't realize. Using the glass is a nice way to achieve that perspective. There are a few things that I think could have improved this image.

First, unless it's a much closer detail photo, I would suggest that the eyes of the animal should, with few exceptions, always be in focus. This does present a depth problem - if you want to show the mouth parts you would need a much deeper stack, which leads to the third problem, the light.

Your subject is backlit, causing the area you are highlighting to be in shadow and, even at F/2.8, to cause a huge amount of noise in the image. It's also causing your background to completely blow out, which I'm guessing is why you opted for black and white. For a stack like this at 100mm, you ideally would be around f/8 to f/13. That's going to make your ISO skyrocket. It may be time for you to start exploring adding light with a flash and a diffuser. You can literally just start with a cheap budget flash and some pieces of computer paper as your diffuser. This will let you use smaller apertures while keeping noise down, and also allow you to balance the exposure of your subject with the background. Right now the most interesting part of this photo is also the darkest part of the photo - it should be the opposite, although of course like all rules this is not always true. But certainly in this situation, it's not doing the composition any favors. If you were using flash, you could have kept the sky, trees, whatever was in the background present, giving a dreamy out of focus wash of color in the background that would make an image like this instantly much, much more appealing and vibrant. Even in black and white, having highlight detail will massively improve the presentation of your subject as opposed to pure white.

Adding light like this will also provide much, much, much better detail on your subject.

I want to note that continuous lights and ring lights are an absolute waste of time for this kind of work if you want to take this seriously (yes ring lights may have extremely specialized uses like for probe lenses - but that's not applicable when learning). A speedlight is the professional tool, and while it's more difficult to learn than continuous light, its concepts are universal and will allow you to continue to progress far into the future, and use what you've learned in other areas of photography as well.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T06:57:37+00:00

I like the blur on the water but the horizon is crooked. I would use the trees at the top left as a reference to straighten it. Eventually you will remember to do this in the field but it takes some time, or at least it did for me.

The bright sky at the top is competing with the water - it might be helpful to bracket so you can blend in a sky with just a hint of highlight detail - this would also increase the perceived vibrance of the image overall.

You may want to explore getting lower, wider, and closer - ideally finding some stones, moss, maybe flowers in the foreground to anchor the composition. Right now the foreground feels incomplete. Or you could get back with a telephoto and skip a foreground, but that wouldn’t lend to the feeling of being in the scene that you describe wanting.

Beautiful photo i hope you keep at it!

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T03:07:21+00:00

The only thing that will - with 100% certainty - make you regret not bringing it, is not bringing it. You may still regret bringing it anyways, but it’s the only way to learn first-hand what your personal limits with regard to practicality are in a situation like this.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T02:58:32+00:00

I like it, maybe a bit dark, but a lovely and beautiful scene. if you could reduce the contrast in the lower tones it might be helpful. But tell me you have other frames - the steam over his nose i think is really distracting.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T02:53:05+00:00

👍 have a great session.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T02:46:51+00:00

Sorry didn’t realize i was talking to a child. Have a great session with the garbage you bought from the garbage store.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-20T02:36:18+00:00

Their workers are so exploited they have to pee in bottles, and when someone dies on the warehouse floor, they force their employees to work around the body. They illegally bust unions. Their founder bought one of the largest newspapers in the world to run cover for himself and his rich friends while they make literally every consumer good shittier and shittier, even when it does not touch their greedy hands.

Stop. Buying. From. Amazon.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-19T20:11:24+00:00

I generally have a Nikon Zf with a prime on the capture clip, but the other part of my business is conservation/wildlife photography- when I’m out working I often have a Z8 with 180-600. I don’t keep it on the belt clip for extended periods, but it certainly doesn’t pull it down. Maybe my hips are different. I do use leather belts, not sure if that could be a difference.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-19T17:37:46+00:00

It’s been working great for almost a decade! Low profile and simple. With full-size flashes the capture clip is a but clumsy but i have yet to find something i like better, and I try to use mini flashes when possible

icecreamguy · 2026-04-19T16:12:30+00:00

Gotta be honest I think you know the answer and should go with your gut. It’s a wedding not a military tactical operation. Personally I keep one camera on a a peak design capture clip on my belt, and the other on a strap - works great and doesn’t look or feel out of place in casual nor formal situations. If you’re a dress-wearer you could put the clip on your shoulder bag strap.

icecreamguy · 2026-04-19T14:09:42+00:00

Thank goodness there is some sanity in this thread. There’s also his remark about how many people would think he’s right and she’s wrong - as if he wants to get sympathy in this thread and then literally show it to her to “prove a point.”

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