![]() Chances are pretty good that you’ll barely be able to see a thing. Now, just spin that top filter around until the image in your viewfinder is as dim as possible. Let me repeat this: Turn Your Autofocus Off Simply grab focus, and then turn your Autofocus off If you’re an Autofocus kind of person, well, autofocus should do just fine also. Though it will be a bit darker than what you’re typically used to, you should still be able to see well enough to grab focus. To focus, simply look through your camera’s eyepiece and then spin the top filter around (i.e.: “el cheapo”) until the image gets as bright as possible. This is just like that experiment you did in your High School Physics Class, right? You remember… Two pieces of polarizing material? Set them off 90 degrees from each other and they go pitch black? Remember? Remember? Bueller?Īnyways, with your brand spanking new variable nuetral density filter, you’ll now be able to take relatively long exposures during the daylight hours (I get about 7-stops of range with my set-up) AND you’ll be able to actually focus your camera on whatever it is that is worthy of a long exposure. ![]() Next, find a really cheap “Linear Polarizing Filter” at some camera store (you should be able to find dozens of these at any shop that sells used gear), and place this second filter (i.e.: “el cheapo”) on top of the first.Īmazing! You’ve just created a nuetral density filter which can vary the amount of light that it lets through, and you can vary that amount of light by spinning one polarizing filter on top of another. My solution? Simple… Take two polarizing filters - one, a really nice, really expensive filter that also happens to be a “Circular Polarizing Filter” (a very technical term that again means “really expensive”) and stick that on your camera. One big problem though… A dark filter over your lens means that you really can’t see what it is that your camera is aimed at, or even if you have your image in focus or not. At the same time, it might be that a relatively slow shutter speed is what you think will make that shot work out best - let’s say around 1 or 2 seconds of exposure… The solution? A very dark neutral density filter cutting down on the amount of light going into your camera. ![]() The reasons for doing this? Well, perhaps you want to shoot a landscape image during daylight hours, and for aestetic reasons you feel that a shallow depth of field is important - something that an aperture of f4 or so would provide. What a nuetral density filter (or “ND filter”) allows you as a photographer to do - that couldn’t be done otherwise - is to shoot in rather brightly lit situations, and yet keep a relatively slow shutter speed and/or wide open aperture. The reason that I keep two polarizing filters in my camera bag - an expensive one and an “el cheapo” - is that when they are combined together (i.e.: stacked one on top of the other) they become the most incredible tool in my kit: a variable neutral density filter.įirst off, a brief explanation… A neutral density filter is simply a dark piece of glass that’s placed in front of a camera’s lens, primarily to reduce the amount of light going into a camera. But honestly, there’s no reason at all to leave a dark piece of glass on your camera 24 hours-a-day, especially if you’re some wannabe’ photographer who’s trying to take family pictures in a dimly lit restaurant (not that I’ve EVER seen anything like that happen before). ![]() Yes, they do have a time and a place - they’re an absolute lifesaver when photographing shiny objects or taking pictures of big puffy clouds. On an individual basis, I think that polarizing filters are probably the most overused (and most inappropriately) used pieces of camera gear imaginable. Specifically, I keep a really nice, really expensive German-manufactured filter in my bag - along with a really cheap, really lightweight polarizing filter that I bought second-hand for about five dollars. Without a doubt, the two most useful items in camera bag are… No, it’s not a set of Pocket Wizards (pretty dang’ handy though), and it’s not the two-pack of Pop Tarts that I keep in the bag just in case I get hungry. Tucked away in my camera bag - just slightly behind the small headlamp that I always keep in there - are two of the most useful items in my photographic arsenal. The following post was submitted by Matthew G. ![]()
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