We have already discussed that a neutral density filter can be used to decrease the exposure, depth of field and increase contrast. when you cannot manipulate shutter speed and aperture. But what do you do when a part of your frame looks over exposed and the other part looks absolutely fine? Well, for such situations you should always be equipped with a Graduated Neutral Density filter.

These photographic filters also known as split filters are lightly opaque in one part and clear in the rest. This filter shows variable transmission towards light. These filters are generally half neutral density filters and half glass and are generally used to darken the sky. If you see the image on your left, you can see that a hand is holding a filter in the frame. Even if using advanced image editing programmes, such as Adobe Premiere Elements 7, it can be difficult to achieve the same multiple frame effect. In the part of the frame where there is no filter, the sky seems washed out and a lot of details of the clouds seem to be missing. However, the sea and the sand seem properly exposed and exude a very beautiful and calm look. Now if you see through the filter in the frame, you can see that the sky seems properly exposed, the details of the clouds can be seen and the beauty of the sea is retained. This is because half of the filter behaves like a ND filter that decreases the intensity of life and it slowly transitions into clear glass which helps to retain the scene as it is. A graduated ND filter behaves just like an ND filter and allows all the colours to transmit through it equally.