New Filters Tests - Glass Enhancer, Straw, Blue, Sepia from Lee

I bought few new Lee filters during last weekend at Photokina in Cologne:
Glass Enhancer - unusual filter enhances any red or orange features within an image, leaving other colours unaffected.
Landscape Set which consists of
Straw Graduated - a greater yellow warm-up for landscapes. Accentuates foregrounds when inverted.
Real Blue Graduated - gives a deeper effect to skies.
Sepia Graduated - gives a brown tinted monochrome look.

It was time to run few fast tests at Wienerberg, in the park close to my house.
I setup the tripod chose simple composition with some water, bushes and sky. Setting sun was almost right behind me. Found correct exposure for the foreground took the shot with manual focus set 1.5m and settings: 16mm, 0.5 sec, F16, ISO100... and no filters at all:

16mm, 0.5 sec, F16, ISO100, no filters

Sky is clearly way to bright, I metered before the difference and it was about 3 stops brighter than foreground so I mounted 2 stops ND grad and placed my new Glass Enhancer. The scene does not contain too many reds but still wanted to see the result. Glass Enhancer takes 1 stop of light so I increased exposure to 1 second:

16mm, 1 sec, F16, ISO100, 2 stops ND Grad and Glass Enhancer

Difference is clear, colours are much vivid. You can see the moon on blue sky. Both pictures are straight from the camera without any post processing, and of course second is the winner. Tomorrow I will make more tests with clear reds.

Now let's mount Sepia grad together with enhancer.... First shot without anything to measure and set exposure. Light conditions were changing quite fast as sun was very low on the horizon. Again I setup the exposure for foreground and mounted holder with filters (Sepia grad and Enhancer) and adjusted gradation line along distant trees. What do you say? I think it is obvious which picture is the winner:

16mm, 2 sec, F16, ISO100 No Filters

16mm, 2 sec, F16, ISO100 Sepia Grad and Glass Enhancer

With the same frame and settings I tested Blue and Straw grads. But in those cases effects are not so strong. I have to play more with them under different light conditions.

16mm, 2 sec, F16, ISO100 Blue Grad and Glass Enhancer

16mm, 2 sec, F16, ISO100 Straw Grad and Glass Enhancer

I turned west where sky was already below horizon. My favourite filter from today's test was Sepia grad. I tried the scene without neutral grad but tonal range was still to great. See picture on left. So this time I mounted 2 stops ND grad together with Sepia grad and wow! What a dusk scene out of lifeless and colourless frame. I think you will agree with me. No post processing whatsoever. Only two filters.

16mm, 8 sec, F16, ISO100 No filters

16mm, 8 sec, F16, ISO100 Sepia Grad and 2 stops ND Grad

It was becoming too dark, time to pack.
I thought I would do one more shot with moon reflecting in the pond. Dark blue sky with shining moon. Sepia filter transformed the scene into fairy tail. Even distant green trees got this brownie saturation like if they were illuminated by some soft setting sun. Again, no corrections, white balance on auto from the camera. What do you think?

16mm, 30 sec, F11, ISO200
Sepia Grad filter. Wienerberg park, Vienna.

I like to get things right in the camera and use as little post processing as possible.
Filters is the way to go :)

Cheers
Jerzy