Welding glass big stoppers

Welding glass big stoppers

Not written a blog here on ePz in ages, the truth is i am far too busy with photography now, not just taking images, but writing for my website, making photography youtube videos, and watching photography youtube videos, and i am not talking about the mechanical northrups, or the annoying froknowsphotos person, i cannot stand the large youtube channels, that nikon guy is tolerable but even so, i cannot watch most of his videos simply because i find them to be far too dumbed down, and seemingly aimed at clueless photographers.

There are dozens of amazing photography content makers on youtube who all have such small followings, but they are there if you look hard enough. One youtuber i have recently discovered is Trevor from PenButNoPencilPhotography, now he isn't someone who stands there and goes through every minute detail because we might not understand, in fact he barely talks about camera settings, and sometimes the photography is very thin on the ground, but for me it is still far more entertaining than watching some shill trying to flog you their book or their tshirts or whatnot.

You are actually more likely to learn new tricks by watching smaller youtubers, and I would like to share something with you that i picked up on yesterday while watching one of trev's videos.

He was by some shoreline taking 5 minute long exposures in a fairly recent video, and instead of a big expensive BigStopper filter from Lee?Hoya/Whoever, he was using a piece of welding glass designed to be put in welding masks which cost..... wait for it......

£1.32!

One Pounds and Thirty Two pence!

And guess what? The images didnt look too shabby either!

So here is my thinking, I cannot justify spending a few 100 squid on a big stopper, i do not do much in the way of landscapes or extremely long exposures, certainly not on the coast, around norfolk which is pretty pointless because we have no rocky outcrops and very little in the way of dramatic sea's unless you go to Happisborough, so my lack of desire to do long exposures by the sea coupled with the fact that i do not do much landscapes anyway, makes buying a big stopper a bit silly, specially considering the cost.

But for a piece of glass that costs less than £2 is a no brainer!

Ok, so you will not quite get the refined quality you will get with a dedicated ND filter, of course not, its a cheap bit of glass after all, and the colour cast would be so intense (so maybe B&W....)! But personally for me, it makes sense to try one of these and experiment, and i do not need to be beside the sea to do it.

Imagine heading to town on a saturday with all the stalls set up and folk milling around, constantly on the move, and then setting up the camera on tripod and taking a 5 or 7 minute long exposures, you probably wont capture a single soul in that image! And this can be done anywhere, my hometown, or even london, big cities, seemingly devoid of people!

I have not used this glass just yet, i only ordered it last night after watching the aforementioned video, but i cannot wait for it to arrive so i can experiment to my hearts content with it.

For those in the same boat as me, who take few landscapes and cannot justify spending so much on a bigstopper, this could be worth a look, who knows, you may get the bug and decide to upgrade in the future, but for £1.32, how can this be a bad thing?