The Hidden Glasgow Forums

... and that's what I thought I was commenting on, too.

To be clear : the removal of detail in the bridge photo due solely to the filter is hugely detrimental. In the case of the window photo, use of the filter is hugely enhancing, revealing as it does detail that would otherwise be absent.

Or, to use the phrase that I may insist is put on my gravestone : context is all.

hmmm I'm not sure I agree, but I am going through a using filter phase, so may be biased towards the long exposure flat water shot because of that. Proud of just achieving the effect and all.

I just found my original tests from 2 years ago when I first bought the 10 stop filter. This is what I initially wanted do do with it... but after taking the pic I didn't really like the effect it gave then so never used it at all after that. However, I like it more now, but still undecided which I prefer. (i edited the first again because i quite liked it - for comparison I should have applied exactly the same edits to the second instead of a half arsed attempt at copying it... I'm learning!)

You get a blue colour cast with the 10 stop filter (Lee big stopper) which needs tweaking after to remove it - okay to do if you shoot to raw. Apparently all of the black ND filters produce some sort of colour cast.

Anyway the actual point of both the water shots, is that using a 10 stop filter means you can do a long exposure during the sunny hours; which means you can do things like make water flat. Whether you want to is of course a matter of taste....

Josef you make a good point about thinking about what you want to show in an image before plonking on a favourite filter.

I'm also learning that colour is really hard to get right! And I rarely do.

Josef wrote:...

Or, to use the phrase that I may insist is put on my gravestone : context is all.

For the past several years, at the beginning of each working day, I have stuck a post-it note on the side of my monitor that says "Always consider the context".

I'll put you down as executor, then.

I'm so intrigued I've just gone and bought one of these.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hoya-72mm-Cir ... 1182769425

Will try and put it to good use on my week off next month.

Mark N wrote:I'm so intrigued I've just gone and bought one of these.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hoya-72mm-Cir ... 1182769425

Will try and put it to good use on my week off next month.

Cool, I think you'll enjoy it! Be sure and share the results

Vinegar Tom wrote:I was inspired to screw on my polariser by this thread and had a wee bash this afternoon. Not that great in overcast weather, and some nasty vignetting with the wide angle. I'll need to try again on a blue-sky day!

Coming back to the vignetting, some things I've read recently.

[*]Choosing thinner filters reduces the effect - some are thinner than others.
[*]You can fix it a bit in photoshop.
[*]You could hold a square / rectangular filter flat onto your lens (not practical mostly).
[*]Wider apertures make it worse apparently, so reduce the aperture (bigger F number) and the vignetting wont be as bad, or will disappear. (I'm reading as I go here now, but that sounds like a good tip, worth testing!)
[*]Full frame wont be as affected as much as cropped frame sensors

Not about vignetting but while its in my mind, a tip I read the other day is for digital photography stick to ND filters and stay away from coloured filters. Camera raw / lightroom / photoshop do colour better than sticking coloured plastic in front of your lens. Coloured filters come into their own for the dark art of film photography. This only works shooting RAW.

Oh, another good tip when using your polariser. Screw on, but not too tight. Then when twisting the polariser for effect, turn it ... erm...back the way, so you don't accidentally over tighten your filter onto your lens. I've had a few unpleasant moments of panic!

Sharon wrote:[*]Wider apertures make it worse apparently, so reduce the aperture (bigger F number) and the vignetting wont be as bad, or will disappear. (I'm reading as I go here now, but that sounds like a good tip, worth testing!)

That rings a bell somewhere , but the smaller the aperture the worse the filthy dirt spots on my sensor show up.

Sharon wrote:[*]Full frame wont be as affected as much as cropped frame sensors

I will be more affected for the foreseeable future then!

I have found that Lightroom can correct vignetting fairly well.