Poor Man's ND Filter

While I was running errands. Passed by a welding supply store. Came away with a couple of these.



One is a #10. One is #13. With my existing ND filters and polarizer I can upwards of 20+ stops if needed.
I think I can shade the camera with a golf umbrella in bright sunlight to avoid glare normally deflected by a lens hood.
Ideally I think I need to shoot in overcast skies or put the camera in the shade.

Now to find a secure way to attach the filter to the lens hood.
At the moment, zip ties and my wife's heavy duty hair rubber bands is the best I've come up with to attach the glass to the lens hood.

Such optimism for someone from the soggy N.W. should be applauded.
"Sunny days are far and few between".
Duct tape may work pretty good and it even comes in camo.

KWJams said:

Such optimism for someone from the soggy N.W. should be applauded.
"Sunny days are far and few between".
Duct tape may work pretty good and it even comes in camo.

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The weather has been pretty good for the last few days.
However, if you don't like the weather in the Willamette Valley give it five minutes it'll change.

Well aint that clever, Im a welder by trade and can grab these whenever from a shade 9 through 14, i may take a stab at using my circular glass cutter and let ya know how easy or difficult it is to get through, i suspect a slow speed under some cool water would be easy, least i can try it out a few times on the glass i toss out when i clean my helmet. Kudos to you did not even cross my mind when i was looking at a polarizer for my lens. Was just looking at my lens hood and its round, but my sister in law has an odd shaped one, kind of like a tulip if i can think abstract and for a lack of better descriptor, and it can mount backwards to the lens,for storage i suspect, im thinking a couple zip ties or hell a couple rubber bands may just do the trick..

The Skunk Werks is still developing a way to attach the glass to a lens hood.
If my crack R&D develops a solution I'll post pictures. I'm going to chase waterfalls some time this week.
One of the falls is in direct sunlight. I'll need all the ND filters I can get my hands on.

To say I'm disappointed for today's shoot would be an understatement. It was sunny and warm for most of the day. When the time came for trying to shoot the annular eclipse, it was cloudy all over. Talk about bad luck! I had a welder's lens in a shade #10-H to use for a filter, and this is the best I could do. I used the D40 for these shots.

fotojack said:

To say I'm disappointed for today's shoot would be an understatement. It was sunny and warm for most of the day. When the time came for trying to shoot the annular eclipse, it was cloudy all over. Talk about bad luck! I had a welder's lens in a shade #10-H to use for a filter, and this is the best I could do. I used the D40 for these shots.

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I assuming you are aware of Murphy's Laws of Photography? There is a section regarding eclipses and clouds.

The Skunk Werks came up this setup to attach the welding glass to the camera.

@fotojack You should ask the clerk at a welders supply for a the glass with a Gold hue to it, or Yellow. The green is just the most standard shade, would serve you better for moon shots i think. They go as low as a shade 5 for use Plasma cutting.

Ah! Good to know, Oomph. I'll ask my next door neighbour if he has something like that. He's a welder by trade. Thanks, bud.

Any particular number on the gold or yellow shaded one?

The piece I used was about 2" wide by 4" long. I probably should get a wider shade glass, as in Zeke's attachment. Good idea by Skunk Werks, too.

All the glass follows the same shade increase 5 to 14 in my field specific manufacturing if i recall correctly. I weld with a shade 11 and use a 5 for simple torch or plasma cutting, 14 is just to dark to see anything but the center of the arc/puddle, if i tried welding with a 5 i would get big white balls burned into my corneas for 20 min ( trust in that, after welding for 22 years, dont try it ) the arc burns 10 times brighter then the sun.

2 x 4-1/4 in. Gold Poly Replacement Lens | Princess Auto For a reference.