ND filter kits

[formula400]

id like to get something like this to play around with, are they any good??? or should i look at something else???

 

[Original Poster]

Lee are the best, alternatively if funds don't stretch that fun consider Hitech.

 

[Craft]

Cokin filters are known for having string colour cast problems.

Lee are acknowledged as high quality but are expensive.

Hitech are pretty good and inexpensive, look at www.teamworkphoto.com
I got my filters from there and lens adapter rings / filter holder from premier ink.

 

[formula400]

mark am i being silly but on that site, single filters are £70, a bit beyond my budget for the moment.

 

[formula400]

right bear with me here. thought i should explain.

reason for wanting to get some ND filters was to have a play with some long exposures, i post this

Tower Block by lewis wilson, on Flickr

and 1 reply was to try a long exposure at night, so then i though about having a play with some long exposures during the day, i pretty much only shot street and and graffiti and at times ive been in some fields and i think i could of had a few shots with some wicked clouds in them.

i no this is a "how long is a bit of string" but would ND numbers should i start with, or best to start with.

cheers guys

 

[damianmkv]

What sort of effect are you looking for ? Long exposures as in a few seconds or a few minutes ?

What lens(es) are you using ?

 

[Johnd2000]

I'm mot sure how an ND filter would help a shot like the one posted. If the intention was to bring the sky down an ND Grad would do it.

If you're looking to try ND filters and grads without spending any serious money, Digital Rev do a cheap and (definitely) nasty starter set for about £15, IIRC. I wouldn't recommend them for anything other than test/training purposes, but at least it saves spending Lee money and finding out you don't like/need what they actually do.

 

[Craft]

mark am i being silly but on that site, single filters are £70, a bit beyond my budget for the moment.

That sounds like Lee filter prices to me and yes they are that much.
Hitechs are here: http://www.teamworkphoto.com/hitech....html?osCsid=18d5b032ca8e37c4fa23f27881b78825

£34 for a set of 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 (1, 2 and 3 stop respectively), which is a bit more reasonable.

I'm not 100% sure why someone suggested a long exposure on that shot, typically you use long exposures in day time to blur movement - water is a common subject - like this :http://www.alexwisephotography.net/blog/2010/02/16/guide-to-daytime-long-exposures/

If you want to do that sort of thing you need a 10 stop filter, that can be more expensive.

As John says sometimes you want to stop down the sky and leave the foreground as it is, so you'd use an ND filter, gives this sort of effect:

 

[William_S]

The Cokin Kit you first listed is a starter kit and I have found with Cokin they scratch very easily, even when stored in the boxes. They also produce a very nasty magenta cast if you double them up.