Many of you have now purchased a DSLR so you can take better pictures. If you are into landscape photography, there is one filter you probably must have: a Graduated Neutral Density Filter, or Grad Filter for short. It will stop all those washed out skies.
Like its name implies, the top half of the filter is darker than the bottom half and therefore affects the amount of light coming through the top half at different stops. You can buy grad filters that block 2, 3, or 4 stops of light from the top half of your scene — and allow you to retain detail in the sky while exposing for the foreground.
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