one of the main reasons why it took me so long to get started
with long exposure photography was the cost
you see, when I say long exposure I don't mean just a few seconds
but 30 seconds
one minute
several minutes
even during the day
and to achieve that, we need very dark glass
we are talking about 10-stop ND filters, 15-stop ND filters
and those do not come cheap
so, for a long time, I put it off
because I wasn't sure if that was something I wanted to do
if it was just a gimmick
that was until I found a cheaper alternative
not perfect, but good enough
that I got a taste of what long exposure photography was and what I could do with it
something that changed my photography forever
and it might change yours as well
an alternative that many years later, I find myself using again
because as you might know, I broke or lost all of my ND filters in the last couple of months
I'm still in the market for new ND filters, I'm still doing my research
but for the time being, I am using what I'm gonna be talking about in this video
the good old welding glass
it looks like a regular ND filter, but it's not
we'll be talking about using welding glass for long exposure photography
which welding glass to buy and where
and the pros and the cons compared to using regular ND filters
but first, I want to thank all of my Patreons for their support
with a special thanks to Steve Bennett today
a British photographer who is not only a big supporter of my work
but also has some amazing images himself
please check out his website and social media
accounts following the links in the description down below
and please consider joining us over on patreon
where we hold live streams and where I share some behind the scenes material
I'm not sure where I first heard about the idea of using welding glass for long exposure photography
it was not my idea of course
but I'm almost pretty sure that it was here on YouTube
and I'm almost pretty sure that it was in this video
so credit where credit is due
by now you know that I love long exposure photography
and the dreamy, moody images that it produces
I was hoping to make a few long exposures on this trip to San Francisco
that's where I am right now
being so close to the water... that is something that I enjoy doing
but as you might know, I broke my last surviving
ND filter a few days ago on a beach just south of here
that was my 15 stop ND filter
I had another two: a 6 and a 10, but I lost them on another beach
this time in France, a couple of months ago
so now, I am down to zero filters
I was very disappointed when I saw that broken filter on the beach because I thought I would have
to ditch my plants for any kind of long exposure photography that I wanted to do here in the city
but then I remembered, I remembered what I did a few years ago
how I got started with long exposure photography
I headed to a hardware store and got myself a piece of welding glass
in this case this is a shade 10
the bigger the number, the darker the glass
the same with regular ND filters
they are not equivalent
I found a table online, somewhere, many years ago that I had saved in my computer
that table is not accurate because not all the
welding glass that says shade 10 is going to be exactly the same
I've tested this one, the shade 10 and it gives me something between 12-13 stops
which is pretty good and pretty close to my beloved 15 stop ND filter
I'm not gonna get too deep into the topic of long exposure photography in this video
but I have an ebook that you can download for free from my website
you can find the link in description down below
I also have a couple videos from many years ago
but I think it's time to to make new ones with slightly higher production value
but anyway, to the point
I love long exposure photography because it gives you access to a world that is hidden to us
it's something that we can't see with our own eyes
even if it's just a few seconds
a photo of our waterfall for 5-10 seconds that smooths out the water
that's something that we can't see
it's not what we see when we are there
but the real magic happens when we move on to 30 seconds,
1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, several hours
most of my long exposures are anywhere between 1-5 minutes
I find that more than enough
but some of them are longer, much longer
the longest long exposure I've ever taken was this photo
and I have a video about this one, by the way, that you can watch up there
it's a very old one, so just keep that in mind
but it was a 4-hour long exposure of the full moon rising behind Mt St Helens in Washington State
for me to be able to expose a photograph for that long, I need very dark ND filters
I had a set of three: 6, 10 and 15-stop ND filters
they came with a holder that I have somewhere around here
there you go
the holder makes it very easy to operate the camera
to make sure that the composition is right
that you're focusing on the right place
and then just mount the filter without having to touch anything else
but again, these are not cheap
each one of those ND filters cost me $125
the holder might be another $50-$60 on top of that
and you need some adapters as well
it is an expensive technique
and that's why it took me so long, why I put it off for so long
maybe that's the reason why you haven't tried it just yet
this is where welding glass can be very helpful
because I bought this piece of glass for $12
so that's 10 times cheaper than an ND filter
so this can be a very easy and affordable way for
a photographer to try out long exposure photography
and see if that's something they like, something that they want to do in the future
or for those photographers who want to have that option of doing long exposure photography
but it is not a big part of their photography
they don't want to commit to very expensive pieces of glass that they are rarely gonna use
those are the situations and those are the scenarios where
I think welding glass can help quite a lot
this is of course because of the price
that is the one big huge advantage of using this glass,
welding glass, instead of regular ND filters
when we talk about price, you'll hear that some people say that
yeah, ND filters are expensive but it's something that is gonna last you for a long time
so it's worth it
and I kind of agree
yes, they lasted me 6 years, so it was worth it
I made a lot of images with those ND filters and that's why I'm gonna buy more
but!
they are very fragile pieces of glass
they will break if you drop them
they will scratch if you don't protect them in your backpack
so yeah, they will last a long time if you take proper care of them
but accidents happen
if the cost of your gear, the money that you paid for your camera, your lens, your filters
is gonna hold you back because you are afraid of damaging it
because you are afraid of losing it
then all of that becomes even more expensive because you are not using it
many times, we are better off buying the cheaper alternatives
lower quality filters, lenses that are not as good as the expensive ones
cameras that don't have all the fancy features
but stuff that we are not afraid of taking out in the rain, in the snow
or to sketchy places and use them
you're gonna get much better results from a just okay camera and lens
that you actually take with you, that you actually use
than from the best camera you can afford, but you're gonna leave sitting on the shelf
using welding glass instead of expensive ND filters might just do that for you
this is the welding glass
it is a pretty big piece of glass, it looks like an ND filter but it is not
it has a lot of downsides, and that's what we are going to be talking about now
the cons of using welding glass versus using regular ND filters
the first one is color cast
now, it's very important to make clear that most ND filters that you can buy out there
will have a color cast as well
you're gonna have to spend a lot of money to get a pretty close to neutral ND filter
but the color cast with welding glass is just off the charts
as you should expect, because they are not designed for this
they are not designed for photography
they are not designed to be perfectly neutral to all the colors
this is not a huge problem for someone like me
because I shoot in black and white
so the color cast is not going to have any effect if you shoot black and white film
or if you convert your raw files to black and white in post
that being said, one thing I really like about digital photography
is having the raw file with all the color information, just in case I want to use it
it's very rarely that I touch the colors in a photo
but sometimes, I do change the luminance, the brightness of a specific color
to make something stand out in the frame
or to actually hide it a little bit more
another con is that, of course,
image quality takes a little bit of a tool with welding glass compared to ND filters
but perhaps not as much as you might think
let's take a look at these 3 long exposures I made in San Francisco
and please keep in mind that these were made with a 42 megapixel camera
and it was very windy
so they are never going to be as sharp as a regular shot
but as you can see, they are very clear and very sharp
especially, considering that I made them with a $12 piece of glass in front of the lens
again, not a huge problem for me and my style of photography
but something we should be aware of
but, the biggest disadvantage of using welding glass, in my opinion
the deal breaker for me and the reason why I don't use it
why this is just a temporary fix for this trip
is that there is no good way to actually attach the filter
to the front of the lens and to keep it there
the good thing about spending money on something that was designed with photography in mind
something that was designed to be used with your cameras and lenses
is the stuff... all this stuff that comes with them
like this ring adapter that screws on the lens
this holder that attaches to that ring adapter
and that allows you to slide, easily slide the filters in there
and that's it, you don't have to do anything else
but, how do you attach a filter that has no standard size, that has no holes,
or no way to actually keep it there, stable and without falling?
well, welding glass requires a DIY approach
back in the day, when I used the Bronica, when I was shooting film with the Bronica
I used to use very long rubber bands to keep the filter in place in front of the lens
but that was a little bit clunky
sometimes the filter... the glass would snap off,
or the rubber band would break or something like that
it was less than ideal because it can ruin an exposure that you might not be able to take again
because the conditions have changed, or because the subject has moved or for whatever reason
at some point, I even tried to glue the welding glass to a step up ring
so it was almost like a DIY screw-on, huge ND filter
and it worked for a while, it eventually fell apart
I don't know if the glue wasn't the right one for glass
but at that point, it didn't really matter because
I was already in love with long exposure photography
and I had already decided to make the investment on a better system
until now, of course, when I lost my ND filters and I'm back to welding glass
I needed to figure out a way to keep the glass there, still and stable
while I'm taking a long exposure with my digital camera
my first idea was to use rubber bands all the way from the welding glass to the back of the camera
but I ran into a problem, I'm using a zoom lens
now, this lens has a lock switch here
that is very useful because it keeps the lens from extending when you are transporting it
it slowly creeps in
this was not the case when I first bought it
it was very stiff, but now, if you don't lock it in place...
as you can see...
so very useful, but this only locks the lens at 28mm
you cannot lock the lens at... 50mm, say, or any other focal length
you might already be seeing the problem
if I want to take a long exposure at, say, 50mm
I have to extend the lens a little bit
but as soon as I place the glass in front of the lens
and wrap the whole thing with the rubber bands
those are gonna create pressure on the lens
and it's gonna make it collapse
so using it that way would only allow me to take long exposures at 28mm
which, again, is less than ideal
so after a little bit of thinking, I came up with a solution that
even though it's still less than ideal
it's better because it lets me do long exposures at any given focal length with my zoom lens
to achieve that, I am using the elements that came with my Lee system
the ring adapter and the holder
it is very simple: instead of attaching
the welding glass with rubber bands directly to the camera
I'm attaching them to the holder
so that way, I can use the welding glass in a very similar way
almost identical to the way that I was using my ND filters
it's still very clunky, not as smooth, because the rubber bands get in the way all the time
but good enough
I made a few long exposures here in San Francisco during the last couple of days using welding glass
even though the weather was just terrible for long exposure photography
yesterday was cloudy but extremely windy
and today was no wind at all, but it's just sunny and clear
harsh light
ugh, yucky
but still, the experience and the results were
very close to the ones that I was getting with my regular ND filters
at a fraction of the cost
this is where we cycle back to the beginning where
I was talking about the big advantage of this approach
and is the low cost of entry for those of you who have been wanting to try long exposure photography
but couldn't justify the high price of the ND filters
welding glass can be a very good,
very cheap alternative for you to just get a taste of what long exposure can offer you
also, for those of you who want to have the option of doing long exposure photography
but not necessarily make it a big part of your photography
welding glass can be a very good way to achieve that as well
and lastly, this can be very useful for those of us who just lost or broke our filters
and while we don't buy new ones, we need a fast cheap way to keep doing long exposures
you can buy welding glass at almost any hardware store for very cheap
so it can be a quick and easy fix if you are far from home
you don't have access to the places where you usually shop
but you still want to do some long photography while on the road
anyway, that's all I wanted to share today
if you have any questions about long exposure
photography or long exposure photography with welding glass
please leave a comment down below, I'll do my best to get back to you
thank you so much for watching, and see you in the next one!