[DavidTrap (David)]

I like the image H - a slow enough shutter speed to show some movement of the wave splashing against the rock, but fast enough to maintain chop in the water.

I can see what Leon is meaning when he says "plastic" though. We were discussing this at the photography workshop I was at recently. An ND grad filter to yield correct exposures for the sky and foreground tends to reduce the contrast in the image - which can give the plastic look.

I know you hate HDR H, but this is which is essentially what you are achieving by using an ND grad, albeit via another route. We are stuck with the dynamic range of our camera sensors being less that the dynamic range of our eyes.

I bought a set of Cokin Filters and found they weren't clear enough for my liking - I always thought the images were smokey, so I sold them. My tactic is now to shoot two exposures and blend them in photoshop with a graduated layer mask. In the attached images, I combined the first two images to make the third.

DT