All Schneider Graduated Color Filter perform beautifully, providing exactly the desired degree of color effect without calling undue attention to the transition of the filter itself. In fact, soft-edge Schneider Graduated filters have such a smooth transition from color to clear, that the point of transition is not readily visible even when using short focal-length lenses. It's also the filter of choice when shooting irregular horizons or city skylines.

Graduated Color filters feature crystal clear, water-white optical glass, and are protected aganist edge-chipping and delamination by Schneider's unique Edge Seal, which also significantly reduces edge reflections and flare.

Color-Grad� Graduated ND Filters

Often it is necessary or desirable to balance light intensity in one part of a scene with another, in situations where you don't have total light control, as in bright exteriors.  Exposing for the foreground will produce a washed-out, over-exposed sky.  Exposing for the sky will leave the foreground dark, under-exposed. 

Color-Grad ND filters are part clear, part neutral density, with a smoothly graded transition between.  This allows the transition to be blended into the scene, often imperceptibly.  A ND .6-to-clear, with a two-stop differential, will most often compensate the average bright sky-to-foreground situation.

These filters are also available in combination colors, as where the entire filter is, for example a Wratten 85, while one half also combines a graded-transition neutral density, as in the 85-to-85N6.  This allows the one filter to replace the need for two.

Color-Grad filters generally come in three transition types.  The most commonly used is the "soft" gradation.  It has a wide enough transition area on the filter to blend smoothly into most scenes, even with a wide angle lens (which tends to narrow the transition within the image).  A  long focal length, however,  might only image in the center of the transition.  In this case, or where the blend must take place in a narrow, straight area, use a "hard" gradation.  This is ideal for featureless marine horizons.  For situations where an extremely gradual blend is required, an "attenuator" is used.  It changes density almost throughout its length.

The key to getting best results with a Color-Grad filter is to help the effect blend in as naturally as possible.  Keep it close to the lens, to maximize transition softness.  Avoid having objects in the image that extend across the transition in a way that would highlight the existence of the filter.  Don't move the camera unless the transition can be maintained in proper alignment with the image throughout the move.  Make all positioning judgments through a reflex viewfinder at the actual shooting aperture, as the apparent width of the gradation is affected by a change in aperture.

Color-Grad filters are best used in a square, or rectangular format, in a rotating, slidable position in a matte box.  This will allow proper location of the transition within the image.  They can be used in tandem, for example, with one affecting the upper half, the second affecting the lower half of the image.  The center area can also be allowed to overlap, creating a stripe of the combination of effects in the middle, most effectively with gradated filers in colors (see section on "Color-Grad Gradated Color Filters).