Hi Bill,

Having seen Alan's results with the Hitech 100 kit I went ahead and bought them myself. I bought the soft grads, though. I haven't used grads before, but so far I am very happy with my purchase, though not used much as yet.

I've used 2 grads stacked and have seen no cast at all.

I have also bought the Hitech 100 Pro 10 stop ND filter. This works well, but has a considerable blue cast which can be removed in PP with care.

I'm quite a novice with ND filters, but I do feel this set up will do me proud for some considerable time.

Very nice shots.

The White Admiral is a lovely butterfly and we are very lucky that they are quite common round here.

Very nice!

Nicely done, Alan.

pm sent

Hardraw Force when you are in Hawes. And you can also visit the Green Dragon while you are there!

Just like here!

Good advert! Super shots.

Nice shot. Cats shouldn't wear collars, though.

Well, in that case, I would think that it is practice. It's an art, and not as easy as it first seems. Because the dof is so narrow, it's so easy to be out of focus, either by not getting it perfect, by movement of the subject, by your movement and hand shake.

Have a look at my Gallery, as all the macros have been manually focussed. also have a look at my Butterflies thread for some very recent ones.

It's also a matter of persuading yourself that it can be done, and can be done better. I look back at my first attempts and cringe now!!