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.

Playing with new filters. This is a ND8.

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.

The sky was given a magenta cast.

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.