First effort with welding glass

[AlexR!]

Having heard of people trying welding glass as a cheap alternative to big stopper filters, I bought one (at £1.32 from Amazon it seemed silly not to) and had a play this afternoon. Here is my most successful 60 sec exposure of Hampton Court palace from across the Thames:


Hampton Court welding glass by AlexR!, on Flickr

Obviously I wasn't expecting optical glass quality, and it had a huge green cast, but the biggest problem as you can see was light leakage. I had slotted the glass into my cokin holder, but clearly I need to hold it tighter against the lens. A recent magazine article suggested to use a rubber band and an inverted lens hood which I'll try next time.
So for this image I'm going to say that this was the arty look I was aiming for, but it does seem worth continuing to experiment with.

[Stan]

Re: First effort with welding glass

but for the light leakage looks good

stan

[Parsen66]

Re: First effort with welding glass

but for the light leakage looks good

stan

Yup, what Stan says. I recently bought a Hoya 10 stop filter from the same retailer as you, cost about £50 I think. No like leaks and no colour cast either. My Beeleigh Lock images I took today were taken with the Hoya filter. My 16 stopper was a step too far

[Cyberman]

Re: First effort with welding glass

I quite like it, the imperfections and other optical elements add to it for me.

[AlexR!]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Thanks Stan and Alan. I will continue to play. If it turns out that I start doing a lot of long exposures then it will definitely be worth investing in a proper filter.

[AlexR!]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Andy, yes, I think I can get away with the imperfections in the odd shot, but I would like to get it working a bit better.

[the black fox]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Just a suggestion if you intend to use it on one particular lens ,buy a spare lens hood from e.bay and glue the welding glass to it ,hot glue gun rather than superglue .then just fit as and when needed.if that idea floats your boat let me know I have several spare lens hoods here in various sizes

[AndyA]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Good effort Alex.

[tesarver]

Re: First effort with welding glass

I quite like it, the imperfections and other optical elements add to it for me.

I quite agree with Andy, as it gives a older vintage effect as if you were doing some old wet plate developing.

Tom

[AlexR!]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Just a suggestion if you intend to use it on one particular lens ,buy a spare lens hood from e.bay and glue the welding glass to it ,hot glue gun rather than superglue .then just fit as and when needed.if that idea floats your boat let me know I have several spare lens hoods here in various sizes

Jeff, thanks for the suggestion. The two lenses I am most likely to use (the 24-105 and 10-22) both have the same diameter so that may be a good option; I will have a play.
Andy, Tom, thanks for stopping by and commenting, much appreciated.

[Tony Hawkins]

Re: First effort with welding glass

As has been said the imperfections add something to the image, I quite like it Alex.

[digiman]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Works for me too. I like the flare, and the ring framing the building, great effort I'd say,

Garry

[AlexR!]

Re: First effort with welding glass

Tony, Garry, thanks for your comments. I'm beginning to think that 'deliberate' imperfections in my images is generally the way to go.