Lizards and Filters

The house nightmare continues as the house in the last blog fell through last night and all for $2k on a $400k house, Very silly business sense by the selling agent, Some people do not seem to understand the housing market at the moment, I am not overly concerned as although it was a beautiful house there is a tonne on the market and last night we saw a couple of house reduced by $100k on what they were purchased 4 years ago-ouch, So we have a busy weekend planned looking at houses,
Yesterday i was sittting on the couch surfing the net on my laptop with the backdoor open, Something caught my eye and it was a very small green lizard (anole) running along the top of the balcony railing, It hoped onto the bird feeder pole and run up, I grabbed the D7000 and Sigma 150 macro and managed a few shots, The light was pretty harsh but it was nice to hear a shutter going off

I finally unwrapped the ND filters (2+3 stop) from Singh Ray and took a snap to show the difference along with the Lee 10 stop big stopper

The 10 stop one comes in handy for welding as well-lol, The Singh Ray filters come in very nice individual leatherette cases, They sent a free cleaning cloth and fluid which i have to say is the best i have ever used, Spray and wipe and the fluid instantly dries and although i got my fingers all over them they were clean in one swip-excellent stuff
Now i am going to put the kettle on and watch the free Singh Ray DVD-Highly recommended company

Dave

10 Stop ND follow on

I was pleased that Dave wrote about the Lee Filters 10 stop ND filter here and here. 

A few of years ago, I watched a fascinating illustrated talk by Guy Edwardes, who shared a few of his images where he had used a 10 stopper, so I fancied a go at that.

Now I have been a Lee Filter system user for a good few years now, but at the time, the Lee option on the 10 stopper wasn't available.  The only options were Singh-Ray and B & W, although I am sure there might have been another one.

Both of these were only available as a screw in option.  Now I thought it was a bit of a faff, because as Dave says you really cannot see through it once it is on the lens, so you have to do your composition without it on.  Now with a drop in filter this is obviously quite easy, and relatively quick.

With a screw in, it is more problematical, particularly if you also want to add a drop in system on top as well.

Now where as Dave was seeing a strong blue cast, with the B & W, it wasn't blue but more brownish as you can see below.

Nothing special really.  You can get quite nice cloud effects provided there is some movement.  Usually works better if the clouds are coming directly towards you.  Colour cast not too bad here.  This was taken at sunset on the 1Dmk3 a couple of years back at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland.  Straight RAW conversion in Capture One in faithful pict style, so as it comes essentially.

Straight out of the camera, no 10 stop filter on this, RAW converted neutrally again.

This one with the 10 stopper, so you can see the brown cast.

While the screw in is probably more of a pain that drop in, you don't get the problem Dave experienced with light bleed at the edges.  So like all things life is a compromise.

So I hope this gives you a bit more information to complement to Dave's excellent post

Martin