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| Locky's E.P. @ Digitalrev Image from Locky's English Playground |
But there's more!
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| Welding Glass installed on the mask Image from Wikipedia |
A quick revision about Welding Glass Photography (WGP) here. Welding glass is a piece of glass installed on the welding mask to block harmful light from entering into the eyes during welding, and because welding glass is so dark, it can serve as a very very very cheap ND filter.
On a very bright sunny sun-burning day like the day of my first WGP attempt, the photo can enjoy a very long exposure time (30 seconds to 2 minutes or more). The drawbacks are that it is green in colour (see below) and you will need to wait quite awhile for your photo.
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| Original green JPEG photo taken with welding glass Image from Locky's English Playground |
Nonetheless, if you are a fan of black-and-white photos, then simply switch your camera to monochrome during photo-taking or convert your photos to black-and-white on your computer, and you might get a photo which looks like the one I took below.
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| Monochrome with ring effect Image from Locky's English Playground |
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| Adding cloth to prevent light from leaking in Image from Electric Arc |
If successful, it should look something like this,
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| Canon 7D, Canon EF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM at 105mm, ISO-100, 60sec at f/20, JPEG Image from Locky's E.P. @ Digitalrev |
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| Taken using 7-stop ND Filter Image from Locky's English Playground |
Using a 7-stop ND filter on that day, anything longer than 3 seconds will be overexposed, but with the welding glass, I can try 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes or even longer. It is like fishing with my dad when I was a little boy, after pressing the remote shutter in BULB mode on my Canon 7D, I sat down, looked around enjoying the sea breeze, waiting yet thinking about the composition of the next photo; I can close that shutter at any time I consider appropriate, like giving that sudden jerk on the line when you know the fish is about to be hooked, if I failed to catch that fish after 60 seconds, I could try again at the same location, or I could move my camera a bit, zoom my lens, or switch to another location entirely, like I have all the time in the world!!! With the ND filter, it is just too simple and direct. There is no challenge for me.
If you are a person with patience, give welding glass photography a go! You might just enjoy as much as I do!
Quick guide to WGP:
- Shooting in JPEG is fine for me, but shooting in RAW should give better control of the colour in post-processing
- Manual focus (MF) to infinity for scenery.
- For focusing on a closer area, use Auto-focus (AF) without the welding glass first, when locked, switch the lens and the dial to MF, place the welding glass in front of the lens.
- A cloth covering the connect of the glass and the lens will definitely remove ring effect.
- Use long exposure, trial and errors.
- Try black-and-white for cool photos.
- Custom White Balance if you want less post-processing.
For more photos, do visit Locky's E.P. @ Digitalrev at http://www.digitalrev.com/lockyep.
Moving onto my photography teachers/English students, they are Alan Tam, my most hard-working and knowledgeable worthy friend who takes excellent all-rounded photos with tonnes of photography equipments he gets to put his hands on,
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| Alan Tam @ Digitalrev |
and Maxim Leung, the queen of iPhone photography who truly understands the meaning of "the best camera is the one that is with you" (by Chase Jarvis). So far, I have never seen anyone else as devoted and as skilful in using the iPhone 4 in photography than Maxim, if Steve Jobs got to know her, I would bet my entire savings on his admitting it.
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| Maxim Leung @ Digitalrev |
Alan Tam @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/alantam
Maxim Leung @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/maximle
Don't forget to "Like" this entry!!!
Vocabulary:
welding glass -- (n)[C] the dark piece of glass that is installed on the mask protect the eye during welding
one-of-a-kind -- (adj) very unusual and special
drawback -- (n)[C] a disadvantage or the negative part of a situation
retouch -- (vb) [T] to make small changes to a picture, photograph, etc., especially in order to improve it
monochrome -- (adj) using only black, white and grey, or using only one colour
eliminate -- (vb) [T] to remove or take away
crop -- (vb) [T] to cut off some or all of the edges from a photograph, leaving only the most important part
maximise -- (vb)[T] to make something as great in amount, size or importance as possible
Resources:
Message: Locky's English Playground @ Digitalrev @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2012/05/message-lockys-english-playground.html
Photography: ND Filters & Photography @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2012/02/photography-nd-filters-photography.html
Locky's E.P. @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/lockyep
Alan Tam @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/alantam
Maxim Leung @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/maximle
Photography & Websites: Chase Javis With Lego Camera & Fujifilm X100 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/12/photography-websites-chase-javis-with.html
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/be-one-of-a-kind?q=one+of+a+kind#be-one-of-a-kind__1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/drawback?q=drawback
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/retouch?q=retouch
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/monochrome_1?q=monochrome+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/eliminate?q=eliminate+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/crop_6
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/maximize?q=maximise#maximize__3
