New ND long exposure problem

First use of new ND filters gave me the attached SOOC result.

Is this IR contamination?

Does this happen all the time? Or only on this exposure? What brand are you using?

That looks like the result of using a very poor quality ND filter (or stacked filters; Hitech has had a reputation for magenta shifts when stacking their NDs in the past). What are you using?

not sure where you shot that, but my 3 year old daughter says it's the most beautiful place she has ever seen.

Did you take any without the filter?

NManuel01 wrote in post #16837247
Did you take any without the filter?

Yes, the colours were normal.

losangelino wrote in post #16836695
Does this happen all the time? Or only on this exposure? What brand are you using?

Snydremark wrote in post #16836709
That looks like the result of using a very poor quality ND filter (or stacked filters; Hitech has had a reputation for magenta shifts when stacking their NDs in the past). What are you using?

The filters are Formatt 3 and 6 stop filters.

From memory, this particular shot was stacked, but I had the same problem with the 6 stop filter alone - I'll have to go back and check my shots to see if I had the problem with the 3 stop filter alone.

I took other shots on different days, with the same colour cast (non stacked - this was the only stacked image I took).

I have read about some colour cast with NDs and long exposures, but I didn't expect anything quite so dramatic.

pdrober2 wrote in post #16836825
not sure where you shot that, but my 3 year old daughter says it's the most beautiful place she has ever seen.

Well, that's nice. It's in the lower Solukhumbu region of Nepal - about 10 days walk down valley from Everest. There were much more impressive waterfalls about, but not so easy to get to the base to get a photograph!

The real colours are not nearly so pretty.

Formatt is also known as Formatt Hitech, so take note of the comment by Snydermark and those found at http://www.oopoomoo.co​m …-hitech-filters-any-good/. Seems to be common with these Formatt Hitech filters the last few years.

So much for being "neutral".

That looks quite similar to the results I got from a cheap ND filter. Unfortunately a colour cast this bad is very difficult to fix in software by changing the white balance. I reckon it's the main reason for why you see so many long-exposures converted to B&W.

Good grief; if it's doing that with a single filter I'm shocked. As mentioned above, Formatt is the shortened name for Formatt Hitech. But, yeah, it looks like it's just an extreme magenta color shift caused by those filters. Which is the reason that Cokin and Lee are used more often even though they're on the more expensive end of the scale.

hollis_f wrote in post #16837674
That looks quite similar to the results I got from a cheap ND filter. Unfortunately a colour cast this bad is very difficult to fix in software by changing the white balance. I reckon it's the main reason for why you see so many long-exposures converted to B&W.

That's what I did with this shot, and others

Snydremark wrote in post #16838008
Good grief; if it's doing that with a single filter I'm shocked. As mentioned above, Formatt is the shortened name for Formatt Hitech. But, yeah, it looks like it's just an extreme magenta color shift caused by those filters. Which is the reason that Cokin and Lee are used more often even though they're on the more expensive end of the scale.

The single filter colour cast was less extreme than this shot, but still more than I could handle in post - I couldn't get natural colours out of them.

Hmmm, looks like I need to spend more if I want to continue on the ND path.

They're not nearly as flexible as the panel filters, but if you are just planning to use straight NDs (vs grads), you could look into some of the screw-on NDs from folks like Marumi. They make decent quality filters that won't cost you an arm and a leg, that shouldn't give you the same troubles.

Snydremark wrote in post #16839423
They're not nearly as flexible as the panel filters, but if you are just planning to use straight NDs (vs grads), you could look into some of the screw-on NDs from folks like Marumi. They make decent quality filters that won't cost you an arm and a leg, that shouldn't give you the same troubles.

Actually, these are screw in filters. I don't plan to use graduated NDs at all, so I decided to buy screw ins as being more easily and safely transported (read: for a trekking holiday) than a panel system. I bought 82mm, and have some step up rings for use on my smaller diameter lenses.

When I was looking for filters, there were few options for 82mm 6 stop filters, hence why I ended up with the Formatt ones. They were by no means cheap, though. Well, I supose 'cheap' is a relative term - there were definitely more expensive options available.