Canon 60D

[Shur Harewood]

Hi Chris what is your white balance setting or kelvin?

[John Young]

Chris.
It is not uncommon for variable ND filters to result in a loss of sharpness and a general hazy look to the image, especially those ND filters on the inexpensive end of the pricing spectrum. (I know mine does). I am guessing you can probably see vignetting on the edges when your ND filter is cranked down all the way too.

So I think the filter is the culprit here, but that leads me to the question, why do you want to shoot wide open, f2 on a bright sunny day? If you shoot at f8 for example and use the ND filter a little more modestly, the problem won’t be so pronounced. If you really want super shallow depth of field on a bright sunny day (you are talking knocking down the light some 16 stops!!) you might have to think about controlling your light somehow. An overhead silk can help with this.

John

http://www.johnathanyoung.com

[Chris Mahoney]

Hi Shur,

I believe I was using the outside sunlight setting on the 60D.

[Chris Mahoney]

First off, thanks very much for taking the time to post such a lengthy message, its much appreciated.

I had bought the ND Filter from a company here in the UK called 7dayshop.com who are usually great with all their photography products, they only cost me £30 each though so Im inclined to believe you may be right in that its a bit crap.

I suppose on the shots that I had issues with I could have stopped up a little but there was still room to stop down with the ND even when I was shooting wide open at F2. I seem to also be getting some reflection when using the ND and i’m trying to work out how to combat that, maybe the glare front he sun, I can’t use my lens hood on the 135L whilst using the ND so maybe I need to try and find a way to approach it slightly differently but still get the results Im looking for. Shallow depth of field is still really important so thats a high priority but the most important thing is for it to look sharp and clean.

Maybe spend some proper money on good NDs? Did I just get a duff one?

Many thanks again

Chris

[Chris Mahoney]

First off, thanks very much for taking the time to post such a lengthy message, its much appreciated.

I had bought the ND Filter from a company here in the UK called 7dayshop.com who are usually great with all their photography products, they only cost me £30 each though so Im inclined to believe you may be right in that its a bit crap.

I suppose on the shots that I had issues with I could have stopped up a little but there was still room to stop down with the ND even when I was shooting wide open at F2. I seem to also be getting some reflection when using the ND and i’m trying to work out how to combat that, maybe the glare front he sun, I can’t use my lens hood on the 135L whilst using the ND so maybe I need to try and find a way to approach it slightly differently but still get the results Im looking for. Shallow depth of field is still really important so thats a high priority but the most important thing is for it to look sharp.

Again, below is a video which shows what i mean by hazy. Also the reflection issue, It looks as though its a reflection of what I’m looking at but on the other side of the filter. I shot almost straight on to a light bulb and if I pulled the focus slightly I could see another light bulb on the other side of the frame like a reflection!! Its really strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQ14e3L4nw

Many thanks again

Chris

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[Rick Diamond]

Hi Chris. At the end of the video, you mention using Technicolor Cinestyle. This picture style always has to be graded. If you don’t want to grade try using Neutral for interiors and Faithful for exteriors. Sharpness 0 or 1, Contrast -4, Saturation -3. If needed you can still grade in post and add sharpness if necessary. I find that, on my 5D Mark III, Cinestyle is too noisy and requires too much grading. It does, however, substantially increase the dynamic range.

Rick

[Chris Mahoney]

Rick, thanks for your help here. It’s not actually my video its one I found online that showed a VariND being used that showed a representation of the problem. The image is always hazy when pointing, not directly, but at an angle into sunlight, and at an angle I get an image reflection that renders some of my shot useless which is really annoying as doing the stuff I do you can’t do a redo!

Any ideas?

Many thanks again for your help

Chris

[Rick Diamond]

Can you post a sample of your video?

[Casey Petersen]

Have you tried a lens hood?

[Casey Petersen]

The lens hood will block the glare from the sun.

I also have a set of cheap ebay ND filters, and I also have the 60D with 50mm 1.8 lens, and for me they are worthless. The darkest one is the 8, and the others don’t seem to make much of a difference. Also with the darkest one, I get a color cast, so everything turns out with a magenta tint to it (that is virtually impossible to color correct, even in Color).

I have also had the opportunity to play with a $300 variable ND filter, which looks spectacular…so obviously you get what you pay for. I am looking for something that isn’t quite as expensive, but is pretty good as well. A friend uses this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/742535-REG/Light_Craft_321_77mm_Fader_ND_Mark.html, and at $123 he says he has no problems with it. It fits a 77mm size lens ring, but I heard you can get adapters to fit on smaller lenses…and supposedly that doesn’t hurt the quality, but I’m not sure about going down from 77 to 52 (like the 50mm 1.8 lens).

Casey