Garie Beach, NSW

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Some shots I took yesterday afternoon at Garie Beach in NSW. Testing out a DIY Neutral Density Filter I made for long exposure photography during the day. Details about the filter can be found in this post.

Higher res shots can be found on my flickr page

Thanks for looking.

Jason

[dutch2 (Ingrid)]

Stunning sunset and you didn't have to go far for it.
Great job, well done.

[LewisM]

Love the first image.

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Cheers guys, these shots have been really rewarding for me just based on the fact that I made the filter. I can't wait to go out there again to try some sunrise shots with the filter.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Dig the 1st & 3rd compo's Jason, Nice. Interesting technique considering welding glass, wouldn't have thought they'd be optically good, but the ND filter sheet appears pretty good ! Nice going

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Thanks Bob, lots of people I have shown the images to like the 1st one the most, its funny because that was shot at 16mm while the others were all shot at 8mm. Yeah the welding glass is interesting, it may work with a lighter shade than the one I bought. I found that using the welding glass I had, I had to push the images too much to get them to an exposure level I was happy with and this introduced too much noise. Plus I really couldn't colour balance them as well as I had seen others do.

So with the gel ND filter sheet I found that the perfect balance was 3 layers of it. No white balance needed. Want to experiment with it some more now and get some sunrise shots.

[Octane (Humayun)]

One of my favourite spots! There's some very interesting formations (basalt?) out there.

Nicely done.

H

[astronobob (Bob)]

Originally Posted by AstroJason

Thanks Bob, lots of people I have shown the images to like the 1st one the most, its funny because that was shot at 16mm while the others were all shot at 8mm. Yeah the welding glass is interesting, it may work with a lighter shade than the one I bought. I found that using the welding glass I had, I had to push the images too much to get them to an exposure level I was happy with and this introduced too much noise. Plus I really couldn't colour balance them as well as I had seen others do.

So with the gel ND filter sheet I found that the perfect balance was 3 layers of it. No white balance needed. Want to experiment with it some more now and get some sunrise shots.

Cool Jason, I just ordered a couple 'gel ND filter sheets' 2-3 week for delivery.
Be interesting how they go on a cloudy day, , will cut a few squares and slot into the Grad filter holder, not sure if much light might enter from the sides, but can deal with that after if an issue !
Would also like to try on a dark stormy day, some wicked cloud structure over the coastal beach with that water movement effect ect, that could work ? might be worth trying as a scope, full apeture moon filter too, , possabilities are endless
Cheers for the post Jason, I'm looking forward to this

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Thanks H, yeah it is a real nice spot. I can't wait to go back. I really like the rock formations too.

Great Bob, I'm glad this has inspired others to give this a try. A dark stormy day would work, although I think you could get away with maybe just 2 layers of the ND filter sheets. I have made 3 filters so far, a 4 layer version, the 3 (which I think I'll use most of the time) and a 2 layer version as well. I think the 2 layer version would be spot on for very overcast days.

Very interesting idea about using it to make a moon filter! All this time thinking about its uses for photography, it never crossed my mind to make myself a moon filter out of the stuff! Thanks for the idea there mate! For the first time in a long time, I'm now looking forward to the next full moon to try it out.

Let me know how you go making your filter, very interested to see your results.

Cheers,

Jason

[gregbradley]

Great shots. They are quite magical.

Greg.

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Cheers Greg, getting shots like this is quite addictive