Cokin neutral density filters ... not so neutral?

There is a saying that every photographer lives by. No matter what they major in, whether it be sports, landscape, wildlife or even paparazzi ... they all say "if I can get one good photo out of this shoot, I'm happy". After all, it only takes one great photo to make people say wow.

Today's shoot was pretty much based on one subject, and I worked mainly on one angle. Not something I normally do, I normally like to explore my options when I arrive on site ... but today I went there with one photo in mind and I wasn't going to go home without it.

This photo is actually not as photoshopped as it may seem. It is a 5 photo HDR (all photos approx 30secs in shutter speed). After merging the 5 photos, it was simply minor colour and levels adjustments to different parts of the photo.

One thing I should say though, that blue/purplish tinge in the sky and water are straight out of the camera. When I do landscape photos, I almost always use a Cokin graduated ND8 filter. Whenever I use this filter along with a long exposure, this colour cast always crops up. Some photographers hate this cast, but I quite like it, especially during the twilight hours.

p.s. This shipwreck is at Homebush Bay, Sydney. Yep, bet you didn't know that did you?