The effect of what a strong neutral density filter like welding glass can achieve. Note the streaky clouds and blurred water
[box type=”info” size=”large”]Neutral density filters are a great way to completely transform a scene. Using welding glass you can achieve the same effect for under $10[/box]
Creating your own neutral density filter using welding glass
Ever since getting in to daytime long exposure photography I’ve read about people experimenting with making their own dark neutral density filters similar to that of the B+W 110 or Hoya ND400. These filters are great for day time long exposure as the filter is incredibly dark due to blocking out 10 stops of light. Rather than cough up $100 or so for one of these filters, there’s been quite a bit of experimentation with using welding glass to provide a similar effect of blocking out light so you can shoot day time long exposures for under $10. As someone who owns the B+W 110 filter I’d never had much need to experiment with using welding glass as an ND filter but recently I decided to pick up a 4¼ x 3¼ 10 shade piece of welding glass to see for myself how making your own neutral density filter really compares to the proper thing. Would there be a colour cast? How would I mount the thing to the camera lens? Would there be a reflection from mounting it to the camera lens? These were the many questions I had and I’ll use this post to highlight the good and bad aspects of going the DIY route for strong neutral density filters.
4¼ x 3¼ 10 shade piece of welding glass. Did I mention how reflective the welding glass is?
Recently a friend purchased his first DSLR camera and we’ve been getting out doing some shooting around Melbourne and Tasmania (where he’s based). Helping someone starting out with photography has been rewarding as I’ve been able to show him the things that I wish I knew when I was starting out with photography which has forced me to go back and read up on things. The little things like explaining the various camera filters and learning about features on your camera that you didn’t know were there. One of these features is the Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) feature. As cameras have advanced, the AEB feature comes standard with most cameras now days. This guide is more so written for Canon cameras but the logic can easily be applied to other brands.
Split toning has become quite popular thanks to Adobe Lightroom making it easy for photographers to experiment and add duo-tone sepia and film effects to their photographs. But split toning isn’t anything new and actually dates back to the late 1800’s. The technique was used by photographers including Ansel Adams to add a colour to either the highlights or shadows to a black and white photograph (as they were at the time). Ansel would occasionally add a very subtle purple to the shadows of his stunning photographs.
Since the days of Ansel Adams using split toning the technique has evolved and we now use it slightly different to in the past. That’s not to say it can’t still be used like it traditionally was but as photography has evolved as have the way techniques are used. Photographers are now using split toning on the shadows and highlights of their images to recreate film effects like cross processing or adding a duo-tone like effect to their image. It’s a feature of Lightroom that I love to tinker with when editing my photographs and I’d been meaning to write a blog post about it for sometime now after making a YouTube tutorial on split toning last year.
What is split toning and how does it work?
Basically split toning involves adding a colour to either the shadows or highlights part of an image. One favourite of mine is adding a yellow to the highlights to give the image a warm feel. While other times I like to add a blue to the shadows to give the image a cold feel. If you’re going for a warm or cold look to your image this can sometimes be achieved by adjusting the temperature of the image. Personally, I prefer the control which split toning provides but you can also adjust the temperature for a similar effect
For photographers using Lightroom the split toning feature can be accessed by opening the Develop tab and located fifth menu down from the right. Once open you will be presented with two different options: Highlights and Shadows. Start by selecting the little box that appears next to Highlights and select the blue box (see below). Now do the same for the Shadows but this time select the yellow looking box.
Selecting a colour to split tone the highlights
From this point I start to gradually change the hues of both the Highlights and Shadows, adjust the saturation of both and slightly play with the balance until at a level I’m happy with. There’s no perfect formula that will work all the time for images so I find the best thing to do is to play until you get the results you desire. If this isn’t making much sense then give my video split toning tutorial I uploaded to YouTube last year a look which explains the process better.
Let’s start to look at some images and the split toning settings that were used to give you an idea of how I’ve used split toning in the past –
St Kilda Pier with natural coloursSt Kilda Pier with split toning applied
Split toning settings for the above St Kilda Pier photograph
A wet miserable day with natural coloursA wet miserable day with split toning applied
Split toning for the above photograph ‘A wet miserable day’
Car park entrance with natural coloursCar park entrance with split toning applied
Split toning settings for the above car park entrance photograph
Self portrait with natural coloursSelf portrait with split toning applied
Split toning settings for the above self portrait
Adding Split Toning to Black and White Photographs
Another reason I love split toning is the subtle tones you can add to a black and white image. My favourite is adding either a very subtle blue into the highlights to almost give a duo tone feel to the image. For this image I processed as normal and then dropped the saturation completely to make the image black and white then opened the split toning and added a slight blue to the highlights. It’s a neat little trick and something I’ve got into a habit of adding when going for a black and white feel to my images but adding something a little different on top.
Girl smoking in natural coloursGirl smoking with split toning and decreased saturation applied
Split toning settings for the above photograph of a girl smoking
Split Toning Lightroom Presets
Or if you’re feeling slightly lazy and would rather all of this to happen at the click of the button then my Lightroom presets might suit you best. The presets (not to be confused with an Australian band…) are heavily split toning based and at this stage offer a duotone/cold effect and a coffee/warm effect for your images. Below gives you an idea of what the two presets offer.
Feel free to click either image to download the preset.
I hope this tutorial on split toning has been useful for you. If it has I’d appreciate you share the love by using one of the share buttons to the side menu on the right.
Feel free to drop an email if you have any questions. Always happy to help 🙂
A little while ago I was asked by Digital Photography Magazine to write up a small article on how photographers can improve their photography with some photography composition tips. It was a little challenging sitting down coming up with the tips as most of these composition tips are things you begin to naturally incorporate into your photography workflow without realising.
In the end I provided Digital Photography Magazine with 6 different styles of composition that I try to rely on upon arriving at a scene and feeling slightly unsure what I’ll be photographing. Keeping an eye out for reflections, leading lines, colour in the sky, simple compositions or even compositions that would benefit from being placed in the middle of a frame, gives me some variety in how I might photograph the scene on the day. They’re not rocket science but are a common theme across all my photographs which have got me to where I am today.
Be sure to catch the tips in the next edition of Digital Photography Magazine.
Recently one of my Photoshop tutorials I posted on YouTube was featured on PetaPixel. It’s a neat little tutorial that shows you how to manually find the black and white points of an image and then define them within curves. The effect can be quite interesting and I’ve found can reduce the colour cast effect that is brought on from using and stacking neutral density filters like the Cokin setup. Admittedly it’s not something I use all the time but I find it useful for when I’m lacking motivation and curious to see what effect it will have on an image.
In case you’re feeling lazy and just curious how the effect looks on an image, scroll down to the bottom of the post where I’ve included two before and after gif clips.
Apologies that my blog theme isn’t the prettiest thing when it comes to posting tutorials but bare with me.
