ND Filter Slides On The Cheap!
So I saw a couple of really cool looking pictures on Instagram that were of water landscapes with long exposure times to get that mirror water effect, but during the day! I thought to myself, damn! (pun-intended)… These guys must have some really good & dark ND filters on their cameras! For those of you reading who do not know what an ND filter is, its a dark piece of glass that is typically installed on the outer end of the camera lens to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera sensor which allows the photographer to open the shutter speed for longer. Obviously, the camera must remain very still otherwise you’ll get blurry images (as I did on a couple of mine below).
So just before the Christmas period, I purchased some cheap as filters and mounts as a kit to fit most typical lens sizes. I unpacked them, and sure enough – rectangular glass slides of different shades and shade patterns (for horizon shots) plus a whole lot of mounting accessories. None of the slides indicate their ND Stop rating (eg ND2, ND4, etc) which is a little annoying. I will have to work these out and label them accordingly at some point, but for now, I’m guess and using the good old trial & error method to determine what works and what doesn’t.
None-the-less, the entire kit sat on my shelf throughout the entire holiday period, and even when I returned to work, I still hadn’t used them – so bad I know right!?
Well, I decided I will pack them into my back pack this last week and hope that I would get a chance to use them – only to find that almost every night this week has resulted in me working from as early as 7:30am right through to midnight so I am beat and the coffee is only helping just a little…
I did manage to use them on Friday evening just gone as the colours in the sky were absolutely amazing as I hit hometown, so decided to make a little stop along the way to the new lake behind Cardinia Club in Pakenham.I fitted the slider mount, and inserted a couple of slides, set my manual controls, took a couple of pics, and decided I needed the shutter open longer, so inserted another slide.
Managed to get three shots that I am very happy with and will be playing with this kit much more very soon!
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