If only we can live the world that we see through magenta-colored glasses.  I recently ordered online a set of ND and ND Grad filters, they arrived yesterday and today after work I was able to go and play with them, to stretch their silica legs as it were, well as it turns out more like polyethylene legs.

I saw the package sandwiched between the screen door and the main door, and I thought to myself, yay!  But I knew I wouldn’t be able to go and use them right away but I thought I could open them and touch and feel them now and then use them later when I had a chance.  So I tore the package open and began to unwrap them.  Right away I knew something was up, the weight was off, then finally I got them out of the individual cases, and I knew then that they were not really what I had expected, for one they were plastic not glass and that the neutral part was well not so neutral, all the Grad filters had a bit of a magenta cast to them and the solid ND filters had a slightly blue cast, but were by far more neutral the grads.

So I stewed for the rest of the day while I saw to some family business, but I kept thinking I had read somewhere in the literature online that they were glass.  So later that night when I was home and could double-check everything, it turned out that where I had read that they were glass in a review, and the review had actually only referred to the filters as glass not that they were actually glass.  Well chalk it up as a learning experience, then I read some of the paperwork that came with the filters, stating that I should go and give a review of the items and if I was unable to give a full 5 stars then I should email them and they would try to make sure I was completely happy with the purchase or they would give me a refund.  100% guaranteed it said, well I thought about it and the more I did the more I thought it was actually more my responsibility to make sure I was getting what I really wanted through more diligent research.  I know how much good filters cost, I know you need to read all the information in the proper context and I know that you should go through second and third-party resellers to purchase quality gear, what the hell was I thinking.  Well you get what you pay for and in the end I did.  However, on the lighter side I have decided to keep them, I’m still going to give a proper review, and use them to test shots with a and general stunt gear before the real talent gets in front of the camera.

Sure it brought down the exposure enough not to blow out the highlights in the water, but the filter also added a bit of cooler temp to the water.  Not real happy about that, I know I can go in and change it in Photoshop.

I utilized two ND Grad filters trying to stop down the sky enough to get a more even exposure, however the area around the sun was still blown out.  In some other shots I used the exposure compensation feature on my camera, but then of course the foreground was way too under exposed.