2 Quid DIY Neutral Density Filter Experiment

[Hamish Gill]

Ive read about ND faders recently on DPR, the price of them nearly made my eyes pop out of my head.
We then had a bit of a discussion about 10 stop ND filters here on RPF http://www.realphotographersforum.com/general-discussion/2875-10-stop-nd-filter-5.html.
Eventually my brain kicked into order and i remembered I had read about making a fader out of 2 polarisers and found this tutorial here Simple Variable Neutral Density Filter
I followed it with a pair of second hand 49mm CPL's that i picked up for £1 each from my local 'London Camera Exchange'

After following the instructions I ended up with what seemed to be an effective ND Fader

I put some melt glue around the edge of the first filter to stop it from rotating and fitter it to my x100

This morning I got to work, set up the x100 on top of a pair of mugs (excuse crap iPhone piccy)

And with my trusty Nikon AR-3 cable release (found in a box of stuff a few weeks ago still sealed in its original box) I took a photo
The camera was set to bulb f2 iso200 ... I let it take a 28sec exposure

It seems my home made filter makes things somewhat blue

so, in lightroom i went to camera calibration and under "blue Primary" i dropped the saturation to 0

I then adjusted the white balance to see what sort of colour i could pull out of the image

not a great deal ...
At this stage it seemed appropriate to switch to black and white and tweak a bit
this was the result

My conclusion is basically that doing things this cheap way will only give images vaguely suitable for mono conversion!
That said, I have read that using a Linear polariser and and circular polariser (instead of cpl+cpl) can reap better results ...
but for £2 this is quite a nice effect, and certainly not achievable without this level of ND on the lens.
Overall, im quite pleased and intend to experiment with this quite a lot!
The nice thing about using it with the x100 is that i can still use the VF to frame once the ND and focus are set!

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Great stuff there Hamish, good experiment.
That's opened a few options.

 

[Kev Pugh]

I think you will always get a colour cast when using multiple budget filters, but if you are willing to spend a little time tweaking then they are worth experimenting with IMO. I couldn't justify big bucks for something that stays in the bag most of the time, If I were using daily then its a different matter, and with experimentation comes innovation and surprises....Remember Man Ray and his accidental discovery of 'solarisation'? He then went on to perfect the technique....

Good Experiment Hamish

 

[Hamish Gill]

I'm quite happy with this as an odd occasional use filter... and to be honest, most things i would use it for wouldnt suffer from being black and white!

I shall tinker more though I think ... and i might make a bigger one for my 24-70 etc should i feel the need for one, and maybe even try and get some higher quality glass to do it!
For now though i am happy to have satisfied my intrigue ... Now to find a way to put it to use...

I actually quite like the test photo, its not an effect i have seen before, although i suspect this sort of thing has been done before, its quite pleasing to have achieved a look to an image I haven't previously witnessed!

Some street shots next i think

edit ... looking back at it again, i quite like the cast in the third image, i imagine under certain circumstances that being quite a nicce effect

 

[Hamish Gill]

I've asked about it here DIY Neutral Density Fader?: Accessories Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review in the hope that in the mass of people on dpr someone might have a nugget of info for me!