Cheapskate Alert! ND Filter Idea. Opinions Wanted!

In the current absence of the 10-stop and 5-stop Hitech filters that I want to get, I was looking at Rosco Cinegel ND lighting filters. You can guess what's coming next!

I'm curious to know how well/badly it might work if one of their 3-stop lighting filters was cut up and stacked a few times to make a strong ND filter. Has anyone else tried this?

I appreciate that they're not designed for photographing through - well not in that way anyway - but I'm still curious about this.

Mike

If its cheap its worth a try. I just wonder how good they are at passing light with out causing ghosting or something odd.

I think you'll do better by stacking 2 CP filters, and turning them against each other. You can get variable amount of light reduction almost up to no transmission.

I quite often stack three of my Hitech filters and the results are acceptable. The Cinegel sheets are only a few dollars on eBay, so it wouldn't cost much to give it a try. And they post to the UK too.

Good suggestion with the polarizers though. A lot cheaper than a Singh-Ray Vari-ND if it works in the same way!

Mike

gasrocks wrote in post #6431381
I think you'll do better by stacking 2 CP filters, and turning them against each other. You can get variable amount of light reduction almost up to no transmission.

See this site...

http://digital-photography-school.com …e-neutral-density-filter/

Interesting link there RP, thanks. I might give that a go when one of my friends visits with his gear, so I can pinch his polarizer to use!

Regarding my original idea, I was already going to get some Cinegel colour filters for colour correction, so whilst I was at it I got one of their 3-stop ND filter sheets to experiment with. I'll cut it into some filter-sized shapes and try stacking a few in my filter holder to see what happens.

I'll post my findings back here when I get round to trying it out.

Mike

RPCrowe wrote in post #6432084
See this site...

http://digital-photography-school.com …e-neutral-density-filter/

I don't buy that "colour cast caused by light filtering through leaves" thing for a moment. I'd expect there to be some colour aberrations with doubled up polarisers. Shooting RAW should enable this to be fixed, especially if you have a grey or white reference shot.

I thought that seemed a bit odd too, but couldn't have guessed what the cause was!

Mike

xarqi wrote in post #6461559
I don't buy that "colour cast caused by light filtering through leaves" thing for a moment.

I think you're right in this case but I've noticed that when I'm surrounded by heavy foliage my pictures always get a green cast over them.

Mike-DT6 wrote in post #6431321
In the current absence of the 10-stop and 5-stop Hitech filters that I want to get, I was looking at Rosco Cinegel ND lighting filters. You can guess what's coming next!

I'm curious to know how well/badly it might work if one of their 3-stop lighting filters was cut up and stacked a few times to make a strong ND filter. Has anyone else tried this?

I appreciate that they're not designed for photographing through - well not in that way anyway - but I'm still curious about this.

Mike

try it and see

I have now!

I spent far longer than I should have last night, constructing a '3-ply' 9-stop ND filter!

I cut the sections to 84mm x 110 mm so that I could get exactly three across the width of my filter sheet. Fortunately, once taped together around their edges the resulting masterpiece fits perfectly into the slightly wider thin rear slot on my Cokin P holder and sits on the small protruding tab at the bottom.

I have done a few quick test shots, calculating the exposure to account for the 9 stops and the test image exposures looked about right. No obvious colour cast either. I can't comment on image quality yet because I was relying on the camera's preview screen, although they aren't obviously terrible!

I'll post some examples if I get anything worth posting!

Mike

Mike-DT6 wrote in post #6471519
I have now!

I spent far longer than I should have last night, constructing a '3-ply' 9-stop ND filter!

I cut the sections to 84mm x 110 mm so that I could get exactly three across the width of my filter sheet. Fortunately, once taped together around their edges the resulting masterpiece fits perfectly into the slightly wider thin rear slot on my Cokin P holder and sits on the small protruding tab at the bottom.

I have done a few quick test shots, calculating the exposure to account for the 9 stops and the test image exposures looked about right. No obvious colour cast either. I can't comment on image quality yet because I was relying on the camera's preview screen, although they aren't obviously terrible!

I'll post some examples if I get anything worth posting!

Mike

cool - well done