Is this normal?

[Grey77]

Hello

I recently purchased a 10 Stop ND filter from Wex Photography. Its a Tiffen circular filter and cost me £30.

I recently tested it on some running water (see images) and was disappointed with the colour achieved when using the filter.

I know cheap filters have a bad name but felt at £30 I should be getting some decent results. Notice how the grass in the filtered version is more brown and yellow than green.

Is this normal?

Image taken without ND filter (f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 200)

Image taken with 10 Stop ND filter (f8, 20sec, ISO 100)

 

[TCR4x4]

Its normal for a cheap filter, yes.


You can adjust the white balance to help a little, but it won't be perfect.

 

[woof woof]

Its normal for a cheap filter, yes.


You can adjust the white balance to help a little, but it won't be perfect.

If you shoot RAW and change the WB post capture chances are that 99% of the time it'll be ok.

I have some cheap filters from China and they give a colour cast but with RAW it's not been a massive problem.

 

[Grey77]

Ok thanks for the replies.

I had the camera set to auto WB and auto ISO for those test shots. I guess then I would be better picking the appropriate settings myself based on the conditions.

 

[Grey77]

Just an update on this. I took further test shots and the colour deflection was even worse. Greens turning brown mainly, particularly where they were further away from the camera.

Even shooting in raw there was no way I could correct this in any of the software I have.

I phoned Wex Photographic and they are happy to refund me even though I have had it longer than 7 days.

I noticed on their website that someone else has submitted a review of the product giving it one star and complaining about the very same problem.

 

[woof woof]

I think this shows both the bad and good of internet shopping.

The bad is that there's some rubbish out there and the good is that the customer reviews often help.

Hope you get something you're happy with.

 

[Grey77]

Another update.

After reading the Haida thread I decided to purchase one of their 10 Stoppers. It arrived today and cost the same as the Tiffen (£28.99).

I took a rough test shot (through my window) and here is how it compares.

No filter-

10 Stop Haida, 30sec exposure-

10 Stop Tiffen, 30sec exposure-

As you can see the Haida is a mile better than the the Tiffen.

 

[Benjamico]

That's a massive difference and I'm colour blind!

 

[4wd]

With the OP image one click in photoshop auto colour balance worked quite well with no further tweak -

 

[jakeblu]

10 Stop Haida, 30sec exposure-

10 Stop Tiffen, 30sec exposure-

I would be interested to see the exif data on those two shots, there looks to be more going on there then a colour cast caused by the filter. If that was a true reflection of the results then it makes the filter pretty much unusable.

Steve

 

[Grey77]

Tiffen Picture:
ColourSpace - sRGB
Program - Manual
ISO - 100
Speed - 30sec
Aperture - f8
Metering -Pattern
Focal length - 18mm
35mm Equiv - 36mm
White Balance - Cloudy

Haida Picture:
ColourSpace - sRGB
Program - Manual
ISO - 100
Speed - 30sec
Aperture - f8
Metering -Pattern
Focal length - 14mm
35mm Equiv - 28mm
White Balance - Cloudy

 

[Grey77]

With the OP image one click in photoshop auto colour balance worked quite well with no further tweak -

That's worked out quite well, when I tried to correct it in both Elements and Panasonic's Silkypix I couldn't get it spot on so I returned the filter to Wex. I don't know why the other picture is so much worse. There is no way it could be corrected.

 

[kestral]

When I used a No.8 welding glass (very dark and green) I set the white balance before I took any photos and that was fine.Are you setting your white balance correctly?

 

[HoppyUK]

That's worked out quite well, when I tried to correct it in both Elements and Panasonic's Silkypix I couldn't get it spot on so I returned the filter to Wex. I don't know why the other picture is so much worse. There is no way it could be corrected.

The Tiffen shots look very like infrared pollution, characterised by dark brown shadows rather than black, and green grass that cannot be correctly balanced with the rest of the shot. The problem varies, according to how much IR there is in the scene.

I've only seen this with resin ND filters before, not glass. Do you know what the Tiffen was made of?

 

[OldCarlos]

Graeme, what time of the day were they taken at?
(Just wondering if there were any sodium street lights on in the Tiffen shot)

 

[Grey77]

When I used a No.8 welding glass (very dark and green) I set the white balance before I took any photos and that was fine.Are you setting your white balance correctly?

It was a cloudy day in the garden picture I set WB to the cloudy preset.
In the overflow picture it was sunny and the WB was on automatic.

The Tiffen shots look very like infrared pollution, characterised by dark brown shadows rather than black, and green grass that cannot be correctly balanced with the rest of the shot. The problem varies, according to how much IR there is in the scene.

I've only seen this with resin ND filters before, not glass. Do you know what the Tiffen was made of?

I am nearly certain it was glass but I don't have it now to check,other tiffen ND filters I have seen on the net are glass.

I noticed that the further away the subjects were the more colour change there was. If you look at the blue bin in the image foreground it is still blue with the tiffen, the green gazebo becomes brown in the midground and in the background the green conifers are a rusty colour

Graeme, what time of the day were they taken at?
(Just wondering if there were any sodium street lights on in the Tiffen shot)

These pictures were all taken around 11am. Sunny for the waterflow and cloudy for the garden shot. There were no electric lights on anywhere near the scene.

 

[kestral]

You say you set the WB to cloudy preset because it was cloudy.That would probably be OK normally but you have put a filter on the lens so I probably won't be OK.

You should try doing a manual WB. (This info is based on Nikon but Canon ect can do the same)

You need a white card/A4 paper.

Put the filter on your camera, point the camera at the white card with the
ambient light reflecting off the white surface.

Set the correct exposure,

Press the WB button hold it in and turn the thumb dial on the back of the camera until d-1 is shown on the top screen.

Let go off the WB button and press it in again straight away the Pre and d-1
will flash on the top plate for about 5 seconds,

Point the camera at the white card whilst the d-1 is flashing and take a photo.

On the top plate it should flash GOOD.

That means you have set the WB .

Take a photo and it should have no colour casts after you have done that.

 

[Grey77]

Thanks for the information Kestral, I have never done this before. Will have a look at my instruction manual for future reference.

The white balance does look ok though as the side door of the garage is white even with the Tiffen filter.