One of the cooler effects you can achieve with a strong N.D., or Neutral Density filter is the ability to reduce the light reaching the sensor so much, that you can actually do a time exposure of a few seconds even in bright daylight.
This creates a rather unworldly look to images shot in bright sunshine. With careful use of a sturdy tripod, anything in the frame that is moving around reproduces as a blur or streak, depending on it's movement during the exposure time. Set that against a fixed background, and things get very interesting visually!
A standard 0.9, or 3 stop N.D. Filter won't give you this affect, however. You really need a Variable N.D. filter, composed of 2 polarizers that can be rotated against each other. This allows for variable light reduction from around 2.75 to 8 stops, depending on the angle of rotation. Another option is a 3.0 N.D. filter, that provides around 10 stops of fixed light reduction.
In this example, I used a 3.0 N.D. Filter on my camera fitted with a 24mm lens exposing for 8 seconds at f 11.0
A Manfrotto tripod was used to hold the camera steady for the duration of the exposure.
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Nice shot!
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