neutral density filters will love them
they're marvelous things they enable us
to take some really cool shots now you
don't know a neutral density filter is
then I suggest you go and watch this
video that's linked on screen right now
neutral density filters they're like
sunglasses for your camera to take away
light so that you can use a slower
shutter speed with one would you want to
do that is so that you can create
slow shutter speed so you can play around
with effects of movement but neutral
density filters they all create color
casts on your images a lot of people
have asked me well what custom white
balance should i use what should i do on
my camera to get rid of the color cast
now what that will be depends entirely
upon your neutral density filter because
they were going to have different ones
I use a LEE big stopper that's what I've
got in my hand here it's very very dark
it's about ten stop ND filter
tends to make things Blue so what we're
doing is we come out to my little local
parks pretty little environment as you
can see you know it's going to do a
little experiment to show you how to
find out for yourself what you need to
set there's also two ways you can go
about this
you can either set a custom white
balance and and it's a good idea to do
that because then you're pretty close to
being correct but then i would recommend
you then color correct properly using a
program such as lightroom so you're
working on the raw file for any shooting
jpegs you gotta do it in the camera i
strongly recommend you make your own
jpegs so what is the shot i'm thinking
of will show you more in a moment
basically look we've got these flower
beds and we're kind of running off up
and down here and I thought it'd make a
nice shot to see if i can get a bit of
movement from these little tiny grasses
that are just sitting there is hardly
any breeze today at all
with luck those tiny movements if i use
a slow enough shutter speed the
recorders blur the rest of the park and
the flower beds will be nice and sharp
we're going for a subtle look here show you in a
minute all by the way sorry viewers i
don't have a camera operator here today
so I'm gonna wobble around again and
find the button I will
good we're rolling okay so here's the
DSLR already set up you don't need to
see me setting that up obviously but use
a tripod with a big stopper
now these little bits of movement that
we're getting in these grasses is what I
want to record let's just see if i can
show you my shot in video land there we
go so that you know you can see these
grasses here that just kind of wobbling
around a little bit i don't wobble too
much they're probably watching too much
what I really want now but that movement
is what I want to capture with the big
stopper just stop that get the camera
back into normal camera mode so the
white balance thing what's going on here
let's just set an ordinary sunny white
balance and take our shot now i happen
to know because I've already done my
research is perfect planning prevents
piss-poor performance in theory if i use
60th f11 i got about the right exposure
there we go now i'm using a sunny white
balance and that's the color it's about
right because it's sunny but if I pop in
my big stopper and take the same shot
and don't change the white balance what
we're going to have to take some of the
yellows out because the big stopper is a
bit blue let's change the exposure 10
stops light coming out now go watch the
how to use an ND filter you can either
calculate this on your fingers like I do
gonna give me about a 15-second long
exposure or you can use the little card
that comes with the only filter or
depending on other brand of camera you
use just use the calculation method that
they give you
so let's take our big stop shot the same
white balance this isn't the best time
of day to be doing this shot because the
sun's a bit high there's people walking
around but you know it's an experiment
it's all stuff that you can do in any
park just go find somewhere and you can
teach yourself how to get your white
balance working so here we go now you
can see blue in the shot is also better
lens flare sneaking in weather sun
setting the front of the filter so I'm
gonna put my hand there in shade it when
we do the next shot
so how do we get rid of this blue color
cast well a custom white balance preset
you can dial it in and increase the
number of degrees Kelvin that will push
in more yellow and that will counteract
the blue that this filter has just added
to the shot where you have to do is go
into your white balance just scroll
through to Calvin here we go white
balance calvin we'd already got it set
honor 10,000 degree Kelvin a daylight
setting would be around 5,000 so just
winding around to set it to round about
10,000 kelvin that's a really good
starting point so let's just take the
shot again and go for it
we're now using the custom print custom
preset the 10,000 degrees Kelvin we've
taken it we're going to pop back we're
gonna have a look at the sunny white
balance preset you should see we're now
pulling a little bit of that blue cast
out with the 10,000 degree kelvin is our
shot our little grasses have gone
bonkers they're all over the place like
a cloud now here's our sunny white
balance is this any white balance with
the lease topper so it's gone blue
colored and then here's the big stop up
with the 10,000 degree Kelvin custom
setting and it's gone back to look far
more like the sunny preset so that's
what we're doing but remember folks
depends entirely on what your big
stopper what your ND filter is they're
all different then we're going to have
different amounts and you're going to
need to just get out go find a park set
up a little experiment like this and
play with it 10,000 degrees K is
probably a good place to go but again
depends entirely upon your particular
neutral density filter but my preferred
method would probably be to set a custom
white balance 10,000 Calvin's a good
starting point
what I would tend to do is I would just
use one of these great card I'll pop it
into the shot like this I'll take a test
shot doesn't matter if it's blurry and
also you should be shading the lens
should not to get rid of see what you
got to do is put your hand there and it
will take off that lens flare are we
going to put a shadow across the the big
stopper i think is it done it is it
cooked now there again so now what I've
got is my gray card i can take a white
balance
friends off that in Lightroom I then
take my shot that I actually want this
is make sure and putting a good shadow
on here i think i am that should be good
there let's just take my shot
I think it's far too much movement in
those grasses it's got a little bit more
windy and then what i would do is take
the first shot with a great card i was
buying that white balance on to it but a
good starting point is a good place to
begin
so there's my shot there's the great
card we just copy the two across they go
guys think that's giving you a little
exercise to go play with just play
around with it
get yourself a favor with it see you
later
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