Welding Mask Glass

Been toying with the idea of getting a Lee Big Stopper or a B&W 110 filter. Before spending the money, I thought I'd have a play about on the cheap. I've seen Welding Mask Glass used, over on talkphotography. I've posted one pic in the fortnightly competition. Here are some others. The sky was rather flat which was a pity.

Allw ere shot in the evening with good light.The first one is 30 secs at f11, and was underexposed. It was recovered in Lightroom. The other 2 are at 4 mins f14. All had strong green casts which were removed in Lightroom.



Long Exposure St. Mary's Lighthouse by Blythman1960, on Flickr



Pipe, Blyth beach by Blythman1960, on Flickr



Groyne 2, Blyth Beach by Blythman1960, on Flickr

Be grateful for any C&C

That's a great set, and I like that kind of ingenuity with the welding glass. I think No.3 is my favourite, love the simplicity.

Bltyhman, the image quality on number 1 look inferior to the other two - a little less sharp?
However I think 2 and 3 are remarkable efforts and results. I say this because I have also experimented with welders glass and did not get anywhere near your achievements. Mine had a horrible green cast to them.
For future ref can this cast be removed in elements (I don't have Lightroom)?

How did you fix the glass to your lens without light leakage?
I stuck mine to an old lens hood with Blutack.
Think the glass was about 2 quid - bit less than a Big Stopper

They have an almost imagined feel to them.

How do you stop your tripod sinking? I nearly lost a £1000 video camera a while back as the wash undermined the legs.

The last one is my favourite due to having so few elements but all in the right places.

On the issue of the green cast, is that with or without a manual white balance done with the glass in place ?

The last one is my favourite too, though I find the red of the sign a bit distracting; however, that might just be me. I like the second one too, but I am wondering how it looked before the square crop?

On the first one the colours don't look quite right, and it's not very sharp as Karl said.

Look forward to seeing more with the homemade filter!

Thanks for the feedback. My wife doesn't like the red either, while I think it helps make the shot. The second one, prior to the square crop had an uninteresting foreground and a wonkey horizon.
The first shot was my first attempt a few days ago, and the glass was attached to my 16-45 with elastic bands around the body. Not happy that the glass was secure and also think there may have been some zoom creep due to the elastic. The shot was almost 4 stops underexposed according to Lightroom which also made it noisey. One elastic band snapped so I couldn't take anymore.

The last 2, and the one in the Barriers comp, were taken on the 18-55 WR kit lens yesterday. The glass was attached to a cokin filter holder with black insulation tape. My first couple of attempts had light leakage (purple) from the viewfinder. I got over that by putting a hat over the camera. Very happy with the actual physical method of taking the photograph now. If I get step up rings for 67 and 77, together with a 77 filter holder, I should be able to use on my 16-45 and 10-20 too.

I've just ordered a new pair of wellies online too. I was a bit concerned on one shot when I left my camera and tripod to face an incoming 3" wave while I backed off to keep my trainers dry (should have taken my socks and shoes off).

I shoot RAW. To set a baseline for getting rid of the green cast, I photographed a white piece of paper with the glass on. I then used the WB dropper in Lightroom. This changed temp to 4800k and the tint to +150 (which is the full adjustment on tint). I've replicated those settings for the images taken. Don't know if this is available in Elements

I think I'd stick to the welding glass as you can get a colour cast with a B&W110 anyway. Plus you can always convert to a mono - 2 and 3 are the type of shots that suit mono.

I think your 'regular' take on the first scene is a cracker. The third is my pick of these shots.

If you were to take an image of a photographer's grey card whilst using the elder's glass, you would have an accurate colour reference which you could then use to adjust all of the images in a batch.

Love the creativity of a welding glass.

I have a welders mask, I'm going to give this a go!!! I@m kinda slapping myself for not thinking of this before















...

Thanks for the advice Peter. I always shoot in RAW so I guess I could correct this in the RAW editor.

I got some welders glass as well, meant to do that long ago...then never bothered...

Very interesting set of pictures.

I've just been searching for some of this welding glass and found you can get it in various densities. Do you know what density your glass is?

I also noticed that flip up goggles are available, with round lenses. Most of these seem to be polycarbonate rather than glass. Has anyone tried these?

For me, #2 is the best. Reminds me of the spine of some long-dead sea creature.

#3 could be great, but I find the reflection of the "red thing on a pole" to be quite distracting. To me this looks much better if you remove the bottom 1/3rd of the image.

EM

I just bought a couple of rolls of car window tint film, and naturally I'll have offcuts. Considering fitting some to an old UV filter (got a small pile of them somewhere) as an ultra ND filter. I suspect the results will be horrible but I'll give it a try, it won't cost me anything after all!.