Advice on using B+W ND Filters

[ianbarber]

I have just aquired a B+W 10 stop and 6 stop filter at a good price but would appreciate some advice on them.

White Balance.
According to what I have read, the B+W will give a slight warmish colour cast but I havent confirmed this as yet.

Would I be able to take a picture of a grey card without the Filter attached and then use the white balance dropper in Lightroom to set the white balance and then Sync with all the images taken with the filter attached providing they are all shot under the same light conditions. ?

Milky / Fog looking water.
I quite like the look of black and white seascape type images where the water almost looks like fog.

Scenario.
Having taken a meter reading without the filter attached, composed the shot, put the lens onto Manual Focus and attached the filter.

How do you know how far to slow down the shutter speed to achieve the above look?

Any advice on using these filters appreciated.

 

[Donki]

With the filter on and viewfinder covered the camera should meter the scene its self to gie you an exsposure depending on what metering you have the camera set to.

You can do it manually by taking a meter reading with the fiter off then adjudting the shutter speed the required number of stops, there is a table in the tutorial section I will go have a look.

The milky water your after will depend on the water to be honest wheather the sea is calm or stormy i.e the height of the waves, if its calm yoursea mill end up looning like a mirror whoing great reflections.

I dont understand what you mean by having to wind on the shutter speed?

There is a good chart there

http://www.bksecret.com/photo/tips/BKS_ND_Chart.pdf

 

[ianbarber]

I dont understand what you mean by having to wind on the shutter speed?

What I meant was... How do you know how far to slow the shutter down or do you just slow it down by the number of stops the filter is i.e 6 , 10 etc

 

[Donki]

Yup just change shutterspeed by the number of stops the filter requires, the chart above will show the conversion.

 

[Donki]

Oh there is a slight cast nothing major, because its over the whole image its easily fixed, I use the dropper in LR3 and pick a point that looks neutral.

 

[Pork]

For the 10 stop you can use the calculator on your mobile phone and multiply the shutter speed by 1024

Ie 1/40 sec + 10 stops = 25 secs

1/40 = 0.025 x 1024 = 25 secs

 

[Pork]

The B&W ND110 does have a slight magenta cast to it that can easily be corrected in PS. I actually prefer to do it in camera though.

This is what I do:

Set camera to manual, lens to auto focus.
Compose image without ND110 and take a test shot.
Switch lens to manual and add the ND110
Dial in the additional 10 stops of shutter speed
Take pic
Set custom white balance using the image just taken.
Take another pic
Job done.

 

[ianbarber]

Do you do this every time the light conditions change

 

[Simmotino]

I knew I should have posted that glass sooner!

 

[ianbarber]

I knew I should have posted that glass sooner!

I was in 2 minds whether to wait for the glass but these filters dropped on my lap at what appeared to be a good price as the owner just could not get to grips with using them.

 

[Simmotino]

I was in 2 minds whether to wait for the glass but these filters dropped on my lap at what appeared to be a good price as the owner just could not get to grips with using them.

No worries fella. I'd swap the glass for a dedicated 10 stopper as well!

 

[Pork]

Do you do this every time the light conditions change

No just the one per photo session if working with the 10 stop. Just don’t forget to change the WB back when you have finished. But as said you may prefer to change in PS, its just I hate doing the PP work and aim to get as much right in camera as possible.

 

[nikonuser]

thanks for the info. Paul