The "In the style of: bspurgeon" challenge forced me to think about the use neutral density filters. Since I had neither the money nor the time to wait for one to arrive, I was able to fashion a set of "ND" filters relatively inexpensively from welding lenses and used binder clips and a piece of polyethylene foam to attach to the camera. Here's a photo of the pieces
I taped the edges of glass lenses for safety and identification, and to keep them from chipping. By stacking several filters, I could allow more or less light through, hence it is a bit more flexible than a single $40-80 ND filter. I was shooting using one or two filters to get Shade 4 to Shade 12 in the late afternoon/early evening (not sure what this equates to for real ND filters).
I used a simple 3" hole saw to cut the hole in the foam, then trimmed it to be about 0.25" smaller than the welding lenses in both dimensions. But The material is easy to cut, so you could make one of these for each of you different camera lenses, then use the same welding lenses across your equipment, as needed.
the 5.25" x 4.5" welding lens are available in Shade 4 to Shade 14 for about $4.50 each from
Phillips Safety Products. They arrived in 2 days from ordering. They have a green tint, but should be able to correct for that in pp.
The closed cell polyethylene foam is stiff enough to hold its shape, but is more flexible than styrofoam per se and cuts smoothly without all the mess when cut. I had an extra piece laying around, but you can also order something ~3/4" thick from places like Foam Express or ConBuilt based on a quick internet search.
Hope some of you find this helpful.
-mefnj |
