Welding glass as a 10stop ND Filter...Problem

[Darren1978]

Morning all,

So, having read that a piece of shade 10 welding glass is a cheap alternative to a 10 stop ND filter, I went to my local welding supplies place and got a piece for the princely sum of £1. Also, it was the perfect size to fit my Cokin filter folder (100mm x 83mm), excellent!

Decided to try out my cheap filter yesterday with a quick try out in the garden, only thes results didn't quite live up to expectations 

Having read that welding glass gives a green colour cast, I was expecting to see that type of appearance on the lcd. However, I was getting lens flare all over the image....I was not expecting this 

Any ideas what could be causing this? Could it be the fact that because I had it in a filter holder and not tight up against the front of the lens, light was getting in? I also didn't have one of the eyepiece 'blind/screen' type things, could that be the problem?

I definitely was not shooting direct into the sun, so I know its not because of that.

I go away on holiday on Thursday evening and want to be able to take this 'filter' with me but obviously don't want to be taking duff shots with it. I guess I could bite the bullet and order up a proper 10stop ND filter and get it in time for my holiday, but would rather save the pennies!

Cheers
Darren

[anglefire]

It will not be optical glass I would suspect for a start.

And I guess your stopped down as well to slow the shutter down - any marks on the filter will cause flare.

Don't be a tight arse and buy the proper job! 

[Darren1978]

I blame the credit crunch for having to take these drastic measures

Its definitely not optical glass, and I have discovered that 'light leak' is the problem I was experiencing.  Having done some research, I have now purched a Cokin adapter ring and have superglued the piece of welding glass to the riing so that I get a completely tight fit when I attach it to the lens.  

The welding glass does give a green colour cast, but by setting a custom WB and/or shooting RAW, this is quite easy to overcome (although I've never set a custon WB before so that could be interesting!) in pp.

I've seen some impressive photos posted by people who have used welding glass as an alternative to proper ND filters, and if I can take photos of a similar standard then it will be £12 well spent    

I'll post some pics up when I have a chance to make use of this new contraption!

[Spiritflier]

Hi Darren,

I take quite a few shots using my 10-stop (it goes with me on every photo trip)... I'll be interested to see how you get on with the welding glass. 

[Darren1978]

Hi Darren,

I take quite a few shots using my 10-stop (it goes with me on every photo trip)... I'll be interested to see how you get on with the welding glass. 

I've noticed that a lot of your photos involve the use of a 10 stop filter    And very good they are too!

I got the custom WB setting sorted this afternoon so I now know how to do that, so hopefully there will be some shots to follow in the near future  Popping down to Pagham tomorrow to visit the girlfriends parents so I'll take it with me and see if I get an opportunity to give it a trial run before our holiday to Turkey on Thursday

[hevans]

I tend to use my 100 stop entirely too frequently...bloody lens cap!   

[Spiritflier]

Popping down to Pagham tomorrow...

Now there's a blast from my childhood... I used to spend every summer at Church Farm when I was a kid! Many happy memories of that place and it's somewhere I've never got around to revisiting.

I used to love going down to the lagoon or sitting on Bognor beach with my grandparents and a bag of fish and chips! 

[Darren1978]

Popping down to Pagham tomorrow...

Now there's a blast from my childhood... I used to spend every summer at Church Farm when I was a kid! Many happy memories of that place and it's somewhere I've never got around to revisiting.

I used to love going down to the lagoon or sitting on Bognor beach with my grandparents and a bag of fish and chips! 

Despite living close to Pagham, I have only ever visited a few times before, and that was when I as a child too    Went today and apparently a lot has changed....not that I would have noticed as I don't really remember my visits there as they were so infrequent.  Anyway, as requested, here is my first ever shot with my new device....



Not the most interesting of subjects (please refer to the photo description to find out why!), but I think it shows that a piece of £1 welding glass can perform a similar job to a proper, and more expensive 10-stop ND filter 

[minky_monkey]

I too have one of these £1 marvels!  lol.

I had exactly the same problems as the OP, haven`t got around to superglueing a ring on yet.  I`ll give that a go!

[Hinfrance]

Alas I have a Zephod Beeblebrox welding mask - clear until the arc lights. Might have to try something like this. Of course I need some way of fixing it to the lens, like filter holders and the like, so it'll cost me a lot more than £1 

[Oldboy]

Alas I have a Zephod Beeblebrox welding mask - clear until the arc lights. Might have to try something like this. Of course I need some way of fixing it to the lens, like filter holders and the like, so it'll cost me a lot more than £1 

No, just use some six inch nails - job done!!!!   

[Simon]

I use the Hi-tech 10stop filter and it causes a magenta colour cast. I have managed to get a bit of a bodge white balance setup in custom white balance on my Nikon. You need to do almost the opposite and go red with possibly a warmer setting.

Getting it into the closest slot will give better results....

Have a fiddle and see how you get on.

[rksmith51]

I had to have a go at this, I used Blue tac to mount it to the front of my kit lens to try it out and it sticks very well. Again not the best location or image but I just wanted a subject to try it out on.


I corrected the colour in two steps, taking a custom WB reading in the camera then fine tune to my liking in PS.
My filter cost £3.50 but that's a lot cheaper than £90 for the proper job, I mean, how ofter would I use it ?

Bob

[jinky]

Nice one Bob - as you say not an every day piece of kit to use. Took mine out on a job with me tofday but ended up only doing internal shoot. Going to give it a go next week when I am on the coast. Did you do the custom WB with the filter in place? I had a lot of trouble getting the green cast off mine last time I used it. Forgot what I did before that as it was never so problematic.

[rksmith51]

Hi Jinky, yes I took a reading before I set out, I placed my gray cloth outside and followed the procedure for taking a custom reading, the image still showed a slight green cast so the final raw image was adjusted a little in PS to my liking.
I was very surprised how well the blue tac held it in place, I will tape a little string to it though and tie that to the strap just in case it slips, the blue tac give a nice light tight seal too.

Bob