Singh Ray Vari ND and Mor-Slo filter for water -

Singh Ray Vari ND and Mor-Slo filter for water

22/03/2012

Suffice it to say, these two filters are neutral density filters, which give you outstanding control to dampen down the incoming light. The Mor Slo knocks light down by 5 full stops, and when coupled with the Vari ND, you get an additional 8 stops of darkness. The Vari ND allows you to look through the view finder, compose your image, then to dial down from dark to black. Hugely useful. Otherwise, you would have to guess at your focus point, do a 30 second timed exposure and find the result was out of focus.

So, here are some blur-making shots, with one freeze-frame effect to show the difference.

All the best,

Chris Kiez

Comments

John Bolton

11/04/2012 21:00

Very cool pictures. I plan to invest in some Sing Ray ND filters. My inexpensive E-Bay ones don't give consistant results. Good ND filters seem like a gotta have for this particular type of photography.

Chris Kiez link

12/04/2012 00:30

Hey John, and thanks for the comment. I have used the less-expensive filters, and the inexpensive ND filters cast a magenta tone. The Singh Rays can do that too, but not generally. I have quite a collection of SR filters. By and large, the quality is top notch and the results are very impressive. If I am an hour into a drive to a photo shoot, and realize I forgot my SR filters, I'll turn around and go back to get them. They all have specific roles to play. In these shots, I was using both the Mor Slo, the Vari ND and a Warming Polarizer. The results are beautiful without post-production, or Photo Shop as many think of it, and by starting with an excellent image, my post-production does even better.

SR filters are pricey but they are great quality, and they produce. I haven't used others, like Lee. I have used some Tiffen sunset filters, but the effects with those pink and tobacco-colored sunsets was just too unrealistic.

I like to use a combination of split ND Singh Ray filters, with a Singh Ray Blu n Gold or other color filter that embellishes the light that's there as opposed to adding unrealistic hues.

Look around, read blogs like this one (if you can stay awake) and bite the bullet and buy a professional grade filter and see the difference.

Keep shooting,

Best,

Chris