PhotographyAttic – Page 6 – Photography Gear Guides, Techniques and Tips

What is a Neutral Density filter?

The Neutral Density (ND) filter is one of the more useful filters you could include in your collection. Digital image processing can do many things but it can’t reduce the light reaching the film or CCD. That’s the job of the camera’s exposure system and an ND filter throws in a helping hand.

The name explains its purpose. It’s neutral (in colour) and it has a density (level of opaqueness).

Neutral Density filters come in a range of densities. The basic ND2 has a 2x exposure factor (or one f/stop) and an ND4 has 4x (two f/stops). There’s also an ND8 (8x or three f/stops) and a less common ND64 (64x or six stops). You can go even further with specialist ND filters such as the Big Stopper from Lee Filters. This one has ten stops light reduction. So a shutter speed of 1/30sec would need to be increased to 30 seconds!

The filter goes over the lens and reduces the light reaching the film by the exposure factor of the filter.

If, for example, you had an exposure of 1/125sec at f/11 and you added an ND8, the shutter speed would reduce to 1/15sec or the aperture would need to be opened to f/4.

The reason to use an ND filter suddenly become obvious. If you want to force a slow shutter speed, for motion blur, or you want the lens at the widest aperture, for shallow depth-of-field, the ND filter can help.

It can also be used in combination with a flash to effectively reduce the guide number for close range photography.

The ND2 is hardly worth bothering with so we’d suggest you’re first ND filter be a ND4.

And another interesting type is the variable ND, like the one illustrated above. These are variable in strength, but, as reviewers have found, tend to cause criss-cross patterned illumination at stronger settings.

What are Wratten filters?

Wratten is a brand name from Kodak used for their series of coloured gelatin correction and conversion filters.

There’s a wide range – each one identified by its Wratten number.

The filters are very thin so are optically very good, but can be easily damaged

Wratten filters can be held or taped in front of the lens (or flash). Alternatively you can buy a gelatine filter holder for most filter systems for a neater way to attach the filter to the lens. Example include the Hoyarex Gelatine Filter holder and the Cokin P-Series Gelatine Filter Holder

They are also used in the darkroom for colour printing using an enlarger with a filter drawer. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are available in increments of 5CC. Owners of the Bowens Illumitran and other similar professional slide copiers can use the filters to correct colour casts when copying from one film to another.

Photographers can tape a wratten filter over their flash and have a cancelling one on the lens so anything illuminated by flash will be the correct colour while the background will be the colour introduced by the filter over the lens.

10 essential photography filters

The top ten filters you should own will obviously vary from person to person and is dependent on the subjects you photograph. Our choice is most definitely the following:

Circular Polariser (glare reduction and colour saturation)
Great for landscapes, still lifes and architectural photography
Grey Grad 4x (balance sky brightness)
Great for landscapes
Skylight (protects lens)
All purpose photography
Neutral Density x4 (reduces overall exposure)
All purpose photography
81A (warms up skin tones)
Perfect for portraits but also useful for landscapes
Close up +4 (for the macro shots)
Ideal for nature also good for still lifes
Grey Grad 2x (a weaker variation on 2)
Great for landscapes
Neutral Density x8 (a stronger variation on 4)
All purpose photography but idea for blurry waterfalls
Softar style diffuser (best softener for when you cant be bothered doing it in Photoshop)
Perfect for wedding and portraits
Star 8 (Adds star burst)
Great for jewellery, also interesting for landscapes

Good selection? Let us know your favourite filters and what you use them for

Load of camera filters for sale

Photography and Mindfulness

I’m currently reading about Mindfulness. In a nutshell mindfulness is referred to as the heart of Buddhist meditation. There’s a good introduction here Mindfulness and one paragraph stood out this morning as I prepared to wash the breakfast pots:

When I wash the dishes each evening, I tend to be “in my head” as I’m doing it, thinking about what I have to do, what I’ve done earlier in the day, worrying about future events, or regretful thoughts about the past. Again, my young daughter comes along. “Listen to those bubbles Mummy. They’re fun!” She reminds me often to be more mindful. Washing up is becoming a routine (practice of) mindful activity for me. I notice the temperature of the water and how it feels on my skin, the texture of the bubbles on my skin, and yes, I can hear the bubbles as they softly pop continually. The sounds of the water as I take out and put dishes into the water. The smoothness of the plates, and the texture of the sponge. Just noticing what I might not normally notice.

As enthusiast photographers we tend to notice more than most. We’re always looking out for photographic opportunities so we see things in the landscape, architecture, people, objects, that others miss. It’s a bit like mindfulness from a visual perspective. Today I noticed the bubbles in the freshly filled bowl and grabbed the camera (an Olympus OM-D fitted with 60mm macro lens) It wasn’t long before I’d taken a series of close up abstract shots of the bubbles…and interestingly they reflect the world in a chaotic way.

and now the scene is recorded I can observe the details and enjoy the shapes. Can you spot what looks like a suited figure?

Circular or Round filters?

Many new filter buyers are unsure whether to buy a round filter or one of the many square options.

A round filter screws directly onto the front of your lens. A Square filter slides into a filter holder that has an adaptor ring matching the filter thread size of your lens.

There are a few advantages and disadvantages to consider.

Cost
The main advantage with a filter system, using a filter holder is that you only need one filter for a number of lenses. You just need to change the adaptor ring so the filter and holder will fit on to a different lens. Once you’ve bought the adaptor and ring system filters tend to be less expensive.
+ System Filters

Space
This not only means it’s a lower cost when you have a selection of lenses, but you also save space. Imagine wanting five different filters and you have four lenses with different filter thread sizes. You’d need 20 filters in total! Well this is not exactly true as you can buy step up or step down rings to change the size of the lens’ filter thread.
+ System Filters

Quality
Screw in filters are often better quality. They’re usually made of glass and of the highest optical quality. Being glass they don’t scratch easily either, so are easier to clean without damage.
+ Round Filters

Size
Screw in filters tend to take up less room as there’s no holder required. They are less protruding on a lens too so there’s less chance of vignetting (caused by the filter obstructing the corners of the frame).
+ Round Filters

Design
The filter holder type of filter design usually means there’s a gap between the lens and the filter. This not only potentially reduces quality as light has more complicated path to follow, but also means the lens could be exposed to the elements more.
+ Round Filters

Range
Although there are plenty of screw-in filter options you won’t get a wider range than a system filter, especially in the more creative options.
+ System Filters

Practicallity of use
If you intend using graduated filters you can’t beat the slot in system as you have the option to move the gradient up or down in the holder, whereas a screw in filter has the gradient fixed across the middle.
+ System Filters

Fiddly
Screw in filters stand you more chance of cross threading the filter on the lens thread. They are harder to remove if you over tighten too. While system filters need a two step process, so are slower at first while you have to attach the holder then slip the filter in. If, however you can put up with the extra bulk at the front of your lens and leave a filter holder attached the slip in type become far less fiddly.
+ System Filters

Resale
If you decide to sell your filters square ones tend to fetch a better price on sites like ebay.
+ System Filters

There are many filters are for sale here:
Cokin A series,
Cokin P series,
Hoyarex System,
Cromatek System,
Round filters

Skylight filter – any good?

The Skylight filter has been around for decades and is one of the most popular filters. It has a slight pink tint which is used to reduce blue haze in colour photography.

When taking colour photographs in bright sunlight, especially by the sea or in the mountains, ultra-violet rays and the brightness of the sky throw out the picture’s overall colour balance.

Removing any excess bluish tone, improves the overall clarity of the photograph. They also keeps skin tones free of colour reflections from nearby objects such as tree shade. With older film cameras this was very important as it helped restore the film’s natural colour balance. It’s less of an issue with digital as colour casts can be eliminated quite easily in post processing using an image editing program.

The Skylight filter does not affect exposure, so some photographers screw one on the front of each of their lenses as protection for the front element.

There are some photographers who counter this action, suggesting that the filter will degrade quality. And it’s true if you put on a cheapy plastic option, but adding a high quality Japanese multi-coated filter will give minimal degradation to the image. Any change will certainly not be noticeable to the naked eye. And the advantage of having a skylight filter (or UV) is you maintain a clean lens which would cost much more to replace than a scratched filter.

If you use a skylight filter you can keep it attached all the time, but be careful if you add other filters as the extended depth could cause vignetting on wide angle lenses. Some manufacturers such as Hoya make slim versions to prevent this.

Skylight filters are available in two strengths 1A and 1B, the latter being a slightly stronger pink colour.

Skylight filters are available in round type that screw into the lens in ever size imaginable.
Round screw in filters available here

They are also made by Cokin for the square filter system in A and P sizes, and Hoyarex and the likes used to make them for their systems.
Hoyarex 011 Filter
Cokin A230

Pro 4 Hood Guide

The Pro 4 Hood was a unique design that allowed four effects filters to be loaded up and quickly flipped over the lens before taking a shot.

Each of the four flaps has a clip frame to hold a Cokin A series or other 67mm square filter.

Benefit as well as speed is once the filters are in place you don’t have to handle them so they don’t get marked as easy.

The hood was popular with medium format wedding and portrait photographers, but can also be used on 35mm and digital cameras.

You can buy one here: Pro4 Hood along with various size adaptors.

Here’s a video of how the Pro 4 Hood works.

6 reasons why you should use a lens hood

1 The main reason to use a lens hood is it reduces flare when shooting with the sun in front of the camera. Sun rays catch the lens and bounce around the inner elements causing streaks, loss of contrast and blobs on the photo. The hood provides a barrier and as a result your photos will display more contrast.

2 Another less obvious use is to shields the lens’ front element from rain and snow.

3 There’s less chance of damaging the lens as the hood will protect the front of lens from knocks. Rubber ones are the best for this as they absorb the bump.

4 A lens hood is ideal for shooting through glass as it means you can put the lens right up to the glass and blocks out reflections from behind.

5 The hood can also provide a suitable rest / support when shooting through glass without scratching the front of the lens

6 And for the egos among us…adding a hood increases length of the lens to make it look a bit more impressive…but as we like to say – it’s not the size that counts!

View all kinds of Lens hoods for sale

How to Photograph the Moon

The best camera to use to photograph the moon is a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. With this type of camera you usually have the most manual control, allowing you to fine tune focus and exposure to ensure a sharp and bright photo.

The moon photographed with an SLR and telephoto lens

An SLR usually has an interchangeable lens so you can attach a long lens (telephoto) to magnify the moon to make it much bigger in the photo. A standard zoom of 18-55mm that is normally provided with an SLR is not really long enough. You can use a lens like this but you will have to crop the picture dramatically to make it any decent size on your photo. The more you crop the less detail you will have in the moon.

The best thing to do if you want serious pictures is to buy or borrow a longer lens. A 300mm or above is good – Ideally a 1000mm or longer. You can do this using a 500mm with a 2x converter. The teleconverter sits between the camera and lens and doubles (or trebles with a 3x) the lens’ focal length / magnification. With modern digital SLRs the sensor is smaller than film and gives an effective magnification of 1.5x/1.6x too, so the 1000mm becomes 1500mm /1600mm. This is perfect for frame filling photos.

You will also need a tripod or other support for the camera to avoid camera shake if you are using a long lens, and a cable release / remote control to trigger the shutter. If you don’t have a remote release set the camera to the self timer mode and use that. The reason to use a delay or release mechanism is to prevent any hand contact with the camera that could cause vibration and the possibility of camera shake. This will be more apparent when using extreme magnification lenses.

Position you camera on the tripod or mount and set the lens to its longest setting.

Switch the camera to manual focus and adjust focus around the infinity setting so the moon appears sharp. If your camera has live view, switch to that and use the magnifier to help you focus.

You cannot use the camera’s auto exposure mode (P) because it will be fooled by the black surround of the moon which is really bright. A shot taken on auto will result in a bright blob of a moon with no detail. You need to switch to manual (M) or use exposure compensation.

Although it’s night time you don’t need long exposures the moon is as bright as daylight. Set the ISO to 100, and the aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 1/500sec and take a test shot.Â Have a look on the LCD preview screen and see how the photo looks. If it’s too bright either increase the shutter speed to 1/1000sec and/or the aperture to f/16. If it’s too dark, reduce the shutter speed to 1/250sec and/or the aperture to f/8. Then take another photo. Repeat this until you have a perfect exposure.

See article on the Blood Moon

High Speed Photography

Want to take photos of balloons bursting, party poppers popping or water drops in mid drop? It’s all possible with a technique referred to as high speed flash.

Balloon with small amount of flour added and triggered with Nero Trigger

Your camera may have an action stopping shutter speed of 1/8000sec, but often there’s not enough light to allow this sort of speed so the preferred option is flash. The camera can be set to the flash shutter speed of 1/125sec and the flash provides the action stopping speed by illuminating the subject at its flash duration which can be anything up from 1/500sec. Many go into the 1/20000sec area. The subject is illuminated in this quick burst which ensures it’s frozen in motion.

But there’s a bigger problem. How do you ensure that the moment you fire the shutter is the perfect moment. You can with either luck or incredibly good timing. Or better still take the guess work out and use a device that triggers the shutter at the precise moment required.

Such devices, known as triggers use sound, light or laser beam splitting to detect the trigger moment. They attach to the camera’s remote release socket using a dedicated cable. Some cameras have a simple 2.5mm jack others are more complex electronic connectors. The remote trigger will usually have cables to suit most popular camera fittings from Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony, Minolta, Panasonic, etc.

If you want to photograph a balloon bursting you’d probably switch to the sound detector. The trigger has a microphone that senses the noise of the balloon pop and fires the camera instantaneously*.

Photographing a drop of water from a tap would require the laser beam splitter mode and would fire the trigger when the beam was split.*

You would use the light sensor to record a streak of Lightning. The trigger would fire when it detected a change in ambient light levels.*

* the exact moment the shutter fires can be adjusted in milliseconds so the trigger can fire slightly after the detection of change. This means you can allow for various delays that may occur.

The devices available range from very simple triggers to highly advanced.

Products available include:
Nero Trigger
Sabre Switch Triggersmart Motion Capture System
AEO Photo produce the Lightning Strike
The Time Machine
PhotoTrigger