Fun with filters

I love shopping on Ebay and I have to hold back from "surfing" so that I do not get more things that I know what to do with! I had been toying with the idea of replacing my Olympus 500E SLR because it would always "blow out" whites no matter what settings I used. This was the reason I had taken to using my son's Nikon D70s and subsequently fell in love with it!
But I decided on one more concerted effort to learn how to use my own camera effectively and satisfactorily.
For the last two weeks I have been using full manual controls rather than selecting Aperture Priority or Speed Priority and the difference in what I have captured has been nothing short of miraculous. I am also using full manual focus too and the sharpness of the images is definitely better (when I get it right!) and I do not have the frustration of the focus shifting when I have only a small window of vision - like with the Little Black Cormorant through the branches of the tree in a previous blog. When there is a chance of your subject changing its position it is important to be able to focus fairly quickly, when the focus switches back and forth trying to lock onto the subject that is all the time it would take to miss the golden opportunity.Another thing I thought I would try was to put on an ND filter. This was a legitimate reason to hunt through my favourite web site!

I found a seller offering ND2,4 and 8 and at a price any cash strapped buyer could afford! They arrived two days ago and it was only this morning when the sun was absolutely dazzling that I had the opportunity to take a few test shots. Byron, one of my dogs, thought this was a great opportunity to explore the front garden - an unfenced area that he normally never goes on. So with my furry friend I ventured out and twisted and turned the dials to take shots with various settings.

I was using the ND4 (for no particular reason) on the 14-45mm lens and here are a couple of the shots that when I put them on the computer made me feel I had done the right thing in purchasing them.

This first one I am sharing with you is of a Tibouchina, a rather beautiful tree that is just coming out in flower in my garden. the camera setting was f/5.0 and 1/80 (hand held). The colours are richer than without the filter and I seem to have found a good depth of field so that the leaves and buds, although a bit softer than the blossom, look sharp against the blur of the grass in the background.

This is the shot that really made me happy. In all other pictures taken (without a filter) the white of the petal would be so over exposed that there would be no patterning visible at all. The settings for this shot were F/5.6 and the speed 1/100 and for both shots the ISO was 200.

Once the clouds started dulling the ambient light the ND4 filter required shutter speeds that would have necessitated a tripod. But for the full sun it was excitingly efficient.

Now the sky is white with clouds and it is still very bright so I should go out and play with the ND2 now!

When would you use ND8 I wonder?

AJ