Urth77mm Hard Graduated ND8 Lens Filter (Plus+)

Provides you with a option to hold your sky for landscape photography.Good Quality item. Darkens the sky down towards a moody grayish. Its an effective option to practice with filters.

I mostly take portrait photos but thought this lens might be useful for those landscape shots where i need to control the sky.What is it like as an ND filter?Its not bad! The filter feels well made and screws easily on to my lens. It fits well and moves with the right amount of smoothness. Satisfyingly so, and makes it feel well engineered before you even use it. As you can see from the photos, as only half the lens has the ND filter, you can rotate the lens once screwed on to adjust where the filter sits. This is useful if you are shooting portrait mode on your camera or want to get creative with your composition.The lens quality is fine. Its not going to blow you away but I didnt see any noticeable artefacts or colour cast. Possibly a miniscule green tint but not enough to notice. The filter added a sense of drama to the sky but I did find the ND section extended a bit further than I expected when composing. I have attached 3 photos with and without the filter for you to see the effect.It is a brand from the filter maker you may have already seen on Amazon - Gobe. It takes its sustainability credentials seriously - every Urth product funds tree planting projects in communities affected by deforestation. I own a Gobe filter and this does feel better engineered and all round more premium than that filter. It also comes with a metal storage case as shown in the pictures.At £60 at the time of my order i feel like its a little on the expensive side but that really depends on your budget and necessity for what is a somewhat niche creative tool (albeit a fun one). I am going to keep mine. If you are looking for a split ND its definitely one option worth considering.

First thoughts:ProsHigh quality metal construction.Easy to rotate.Cuts through a good amount of light to bring out depth in clouds.Stackable as the outer screw thread is the same as the lens thread.Hard graduated lens gives a sharp contrast between below and above your horizon.ConsThere’s a bit of vignetting in the top corners of the image but I can alter this in post.Outstanding build quality and filter construction from an ethical manufacturer who plants 5 trees when you purchase and another 5 if you enter the code from your purchase on their website.The filter is constructed with same size threads front and back so you can still use your lens cap or stack your filters. The filter profile is also thin enough that it doesn’t cover the tracks of my lens hood so I can connect or reverse my lens hood while the filter is on.The hard graduated filter creates a sharp start/stop point with little fade between the clear half and the ND8 half so you can line it up with your horizon pretty easily. It has a rotating bezel so you can also rotate it with minimal force when shooting vertically.Details and things to note (See pictures):Hard graduated ND8 filter (I selected a 67mm screw thread to use on a 16mm wide angle lens).Kills some of the unwanted light from bright skies, sunlight and reflections from water (if flipped) while allowing normal light balancing and exposure from the clear half.The filter does seem to create or enhance vignetting slightly but this can either be removed in post (I shoot NEF/RAW) or it can actually enhance the feel of the photo if it’s slight and reduces the brightness of the sky rather than darkening important elements in the picture.Final thoughts:I use this pretty much on a daily basis as it works equally well during the golden hours before sunrise and sunset and is invaluable when I’m out and about in bright sunlight or overcast days.I can pull in balanced light for clear sharp foregrounds in low light without washing out the picture with white clouds or a bright sky.If you’re just getting into using filters then I’d highly recommend one of these to create interesting shots when you’re battling against bright horizons.

This is a beautifully made filter again from Urth. All of theirs are. The effect for landscape photography is perfect, even with digital processing of RAW files; you get a much more controlled balance of tones to work with. I also though found it great fun to use on the beach, coming down to just below the waters edge for wide-angle portraits of the kids.

Grad NDs are great for wider shots where you’ve got sky you want to darken at the top of the frame.The quality of the filter is great, it’s colour accurate, well built, and has a nice soft edge to the ND which means you don’t see the hard edge of the ND. I find ND 8 quite a high strength, so it’s a noticeable more stylised effect, but can be about right when the sky is very bright.This is a screw-on grad filter which means you can rotate it but you can’t adjust the height of the filter, so it relies on the specific shot you’re doing having sky in the correct place for the ND to be darkening it without darkening the rest of the shot. I’m still giving it 5 stars because this is true of any screw on grad ND, not specific to this one, but it’s something to be aware of! For the price it’s worth having in your kit, as it’s very well made! But just be aware you won’t be using it every day, and it’s really just for wide shots/landscapes in my opinion!

Through the viewfinder you won't see a great deal of difference even though this represents 3 stops of light at its top end. Described as a hard graduated filter, it is, nevertheless, reasonably subtle and very effective where you need to bring down highlights of very bright areas in the shot.