Just as other lenses, axicons are available in uncoated forms, but are often delivered with anti-reflection coatings for certain spectral regions. They can be made from various optical materials; mostly, one uses common optical glasses such as fused silica.

Using our advertising package, you can display your logo, further below your product description, and these will been seen by many photonics professionals.

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!How do ND filters work?They simply reduce the amount of light that gets through to the camera sensor. That is all they do.How do I get the filter onto my lens?There are two types. Ones that screw into the filter thread on the front of your lens, and ones that slide into a holder which screws into the filter thread. That is what I use, and I will tell you why shortly.Can I get them for my phone?Yes, of course you can. I have never tried them myself, that is why I have an actual camera, to do stuff like this.How much light do they stop?Well, there are two main ways of describing ND filters and the amount of light that they block.Numbers of stops. The way that I understand them.A 6-stop ND filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by, well 6 stops.And a 10-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 10 stops.And a 15-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 15 stops.OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Sunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

I am the creator of the Photography Explained podcast. I am a photographer, podcaster and blogger. I am professionally qualified in both photography and construction. I have over 30 years of photography expereience and specialise in architectural photography and construction photography.

EKSMA Optics offers axicon lenses with quick ex-stock delivery. The range of standard cone apex angles varies from 140° to 179°. Custom axicons can be manufactured in EKSMA Optics CNC polishing facility starting from a single-piece prototype to batch production.

My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.

I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google. Definitely no Google in this episode.

For some applications, one requires a ring-shaped pattern as obtained in a sufficiently large distance after an axicon illuminated with parallel light.

Cheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Axicons may be considered as specialty lenses (conical lenses); after all, their outer shape and the typical way of mounting is similar as for lenses. Alternatively, axicons are called conical prisms.

Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.

Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.

People don't always realise that compressed air can cause severe injury or worse, even when there is no direct contact with the skin or body. Careless use of ...

Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Focal Length/FOV Lens Calculator. This calculator is a first order calculator and is very useful for most machine vision applications*. Enter number of pixels, ...

If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Axiconmeaning

Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Welcome to the Photography Explained Podcast, created by me, Rick.Photography things explained in plain English in less than 27 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details.That’s all. Well, apart from you sending me your question to answer!

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Over 15 years Parts4Laser provides full service and repair for most cosmetic laser equipment according to manufacturer specifications. We rebuild the laser head ...

One often specifies the apex angle of an axicon; this is 180° minus twice the above-mentioned axicon angle. Axicons with a wide range of apex angles are available as stock optics, e.g. with 90° but also with much larger angles such as 160°. In the form of custom optics, a wider range of parameters is possible.

So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

UIS objective lens · Provides world-class resolution and contrast for all observation methods. · Uses infinity optics in order to unify the design concepts for ...

AxiconAmazon

I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Digital camera sensors are important, sensitive, expensive bits of kit that need looking after. There are things that we can do to protect them from bad stuff, but if bad stuff gets to them, there...Continue Reading

Well, there are two main ways of describing ND filters and the amount of light that they block.Numbers of stops. The way that I understand them.A 6-stop ND filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by, well 6 stops.And a 10-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 10 stops.And a 15-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 15 stops.OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

An axicon lens is a special lens with one plano (flat) surface and one conical surface. Also known as a rotationally symmetric prism, an axicon lens creates a focal line along the optical axis using interference, and can convert a laser beam into a ring shaped beam of light. Axicons are typically defined by their apex angles.

You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Axiconlens

Sep 13, 2024 — The Fresnel lens, developed in 1822 by Augustine Fresnel, was the most magnificent lighthouse lens ever made. It was used in many of the world's ...

ND stands for neutral density. A neutral density filter reduces the amount of light that passes through the lens to the camera sensor. This gives the photographer more control over the camera settings that he or she can use, whilst still getting a correct exposure in a variety of lighting conditions. ND filters can be used in very bright conditions to help get the correct exposure or to reduce the depth of field. ND filters allow photographers to use longer shutter speeds in conventional lighting situations for creative reasons, such as to blur water, clouds or anything moving in the photo.ND filters are basically sunglasses for cameras. And a very cool tool that I love to use!You can listen to the episode hereOr keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!How do ND filters work?They simply reduce the amount of light that gets through to the camera sensor. That is all they do.How do I get the filter onto my lens?There are two types. Ones that screw into the filter thread on the front of your lens, and ones that slide into a holder which screws into the filter thread. That is what I use, and I will tell you why shortly.Can I get them for my phone?Yes, of course you can. I have never tried them myself, that is why I have an actual camera, to do stuff like this.How much light do they stop?Well, there are two main ways of describing ND filters and the amount of light that they block.Numbers of stops. The way that I understand them.A 6-stop ND filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by, well 6 stops.And a 10-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 10 stops.And a 15-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 15 stops.OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Yes, of course you can. I have never tried them myself, that is why I have an actual camera, to do stuff like this.How much light do they stop?Well, there are two main ways of describing ND filters and the amount of light that they block.Numbers of stops. The way that I understand them.A 6-stop ND filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by, well 6 stops.And a 10-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 10 stops.And a 15-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 15 stops.OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

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I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

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I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

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Rayleigh Length. The distance from a Beam Waist where the Mode radius is increased by a factor square root of 2.

Flock paper definition: a wallpaper treated with flock to emphasize a design or effect.. See examples of FLOCK PAPER used in a sentence.

I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.

See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

An axicon (also called axicon lens) is an optical device similar to a lens, where however one has a conical rather than curved surface. Generally, one side is conical, with the tip looking outwards, and the other surface is flat (plano-convex axicon). In most cases, the transverse cross-section is a circle, as for an ordinary lens. The inclination angle of the surface (called the axicon angle) does not change with increasing distance from the optical axis, while it would continuously change for an ordinary lens. Refraction thus leads to a constant ray deflection angle within a range of input ray positions.

Workshop of Photonics has circular gratings, also known as flat axicons, are space-variant retarder plates that can transform Gaussian beams into Bessel–Gauss beams.

By submitting the information, you give your consent to the potential publication of your inputs on our website according to our rules. (If you later retract your consent, we will delete those inputs.) As your inputs are first reviewed by the author, they may be published with some delay.

If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

ND filters are basically sunglasses for cameras. And a very cool tool that I love to use!You can listen to the episode hereOr keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!How do ND filters work?They simply reduce the amount of light that gets through to the camera sensor. That is all they do.How do I get the filter onto my lens?There are two types. Ones that screw into the filter thread on the front of your lens, and ones that slide into a holder which screws into the filter thread. That is what I use, and I will tell you why shortly.Can I get them for my phone?Yes, of course you can. I have never tried them myself, that is why I have an actual camera, to do stuff like this.How much light do they stop?Well, there are two main ways of describing ND filters and the amount of light that they block.Numbers of stops. The way that I understand them.A 6-stop ND filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by, well 6 stops.And a 10-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 10 stops.And a 15-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 15 stops.OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

There are two types. Ones that screw into the filter thread on the front of your lens, and ones that slide into a holder which screws into the filter thread. That is what I use, and I will tell you why shortly.

A precision-polished axicon can also be used for generating an approximation of a Bessel beam – a kind of non-diffracting beam – from an ordinary input laser beam, typically a Gaussian beam. This works for the above-mentioned overlap region. In that region, one obtains an annular intensity profile, as shown in Figure 2, which is based on numerical beam propagation. Figure 3 shows that for over a range of distances, the beam intensity pattern stays quite similar, just as if there were no diffraction. Later on, however, the optical energy spreads out more and more.

If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.

Axicons are also used in various other applications, for example in the context of laser material processing, atom traps and optical tweezers, optical coherence tomography, for medical instruments in eye surgery, or as parts of certain beam expanders and telescopes.

I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

They simply reduce the amount of light that gets through to the camera sensor. That is all they do.How do I get the filter onto my lens?There are two types. Ones that screw into the filter thread on the front of your lens, and ones that slide into a holder which screws into the filter thread. That is what I use, and I will tell you why shortly.Can I get them for my phone?Yes, of course you can. I have never tried them myself, that is why I have an actual camera, to do stuff like this.How much light do they stop?Well, there are two main ways of describing ND filters and the amount of light that they block.Numbers of stops. The way that I understand them.A 6-stop ND filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the sensor by, well 6 stops.And a 10-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 10 stops.And a 15-stop filter reduces the amount of light that gets through to the camera lens by 15 stops.OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Axicontablets

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Strobe Helio Strob compact 125 · Speed range 60.. 7'500 RPM · intelligent one-button control · convenient touch panel control · high, constant ...

Shanghai Optics offers high-precision axicon lenses for medical, scientific and industrial applications. From eye surgery to optical tweezers to laser drilling, from optical coherence tomography to particle physics, these prisms play a very important role in a wide range of optical systems. We produce a variety of axicon lenses from optical materials such as fused silica, sapphire, ZnSe, and plastics. Our lenses can be made with almost any ring diameter, and both refractive and diffractive axicon lenses are available. We can also design optical assemblies such as a combination of axicons with beam expanders, lenses, or additional axicons to produce your desired beam profile.

But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Axicontablet uses

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.

Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

There are also fiber axicon lenses, where near a fiber end the fiber diameter is rapidly reduced down essentially to zero. Such fiber axicon lenses can be used for coupling light into very small waveguides of photonic integrated circuits, for example.

Dec 25, 2023 — How to Measure Laser Beam Quality? · It is a significant parameter for determining the quality of a laser beam. · M2 = πw0θ/λ · θ = λ/πw0 · M2 = ...

OK – that makes sense – but what does this actually mean?If you are taking a photo with a shutter speed of 1/125th second without an ND filter, this is what the shutter speed is with an ND filter6 stop – ½ second10 stop – 8 seconds15 stops – 4 minutesYep. I know. Amazing.They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

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You must know before buying Magnifying Glass · How to chose a Magnifying glass · The most effective method to Use a Magnifier · How frequently? · A few Flaws to ...

You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.

Axiconapp

This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

CANUNDA-AXICON by Cailabs is a reflective axicon that generates a high-quality Bessel beam. Its design offers far superior beam properties compared to classical refractive design: no oscillation, closer to the theoretical profile.

Figure 1 shows a ray tracing simulation for an axicon with parallel incident light. For monochromatic light, for example, one of course obtains interference effects, creating a ring structure, in the region where the different contributions of reflected light overlap.

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

They are also known by how much the light is reducedND2, or 2x,– this reduces the amount of light by a half, or one stop.ND4 – this reduces the amount of light to a quarter, or two stopsND8 – this reduces the amount of light to 1/8th, or 3 stops.I was happy with a 2 stop ND filter giving me 2 stops. ND4 does not help me as a term.Do they stop a fixed amount of light?Yes. Unless you get a variable ND filter that is.You can get variable ND filters that give you all sorts of ranges, 1.5/ 2 – 8/10 stops. So you can please yourself, which is nice.Which ND filter should I buy?Well, that is up to you. If I were new to this I would try a single, variable ND filter just to give it a go. Sure the quality won’t be great but it will give you a flavour of what they can do for you, and if this is something that you might get into you can then buy the best filter that you can.My ND filter costs a lot of money, circa £200, but that was many, many years ago, and I still use the same filter and holder now.OK – how do I work out the exposure?Get an app. Nice and simple. There are loads of them. I mean, you could work it out yourself, but why would you when there are free apps out there that can do this for you?And if you get a variable ND filter then the app is even more useful – you can decide what shutter speed you want and then let the app give the correct exposure.And do I need to do anything different when taking a photo with an ND filter?Yes, well maybe. Depending on the strength of the filter. If you have, say a 10 stop ND filter you might not be able to see what you are taking a photo of, so you have to compose, focus, get the exposure right and then add the filter and take the photo, adjusting the exposure of course.If you get one with a holder this helps, as with a screw in one you erm have to screw it onto the lens. And that sounds like a bit of a pain to me. This is why I use the holder with my 10 stop ND filter.Is there anything else that I need to know?You can get a colour cast when you take photos using an ND filter. With the one that I have, I sometimes get a blue colour cast, but I can fix this in Lightroom with no problem.Just one to be aware of.The talky bitSunglasses for camera lenses – I love that.I use a 10 stop ND filter, which has a holder which screws onto the lens. I attach the holder to the lens, get the composition and all that good stuff, and when I am ready slide the filter into the holder and take the photo, having sorted the camera settings out for the revised exposure that is.And 10 stops give me crazy long shutter speeds. Let me give you another example.If I am taking a photo, and the correct exposure is 1/60th second at F8. If I use my 10 stop ND filter the correct exposure with this massive reduction in the amount of light getting through to the camera sensor is this.15 seconds at F8.Yes, a 15-second long exposure. Let’s think about that….. I can take a photo with a 15-second exposure when, without the filter, I would be using a shutter speed of 1/60th second.I can take a photo with a 15-second shutter speed in daylight conditions.So what?Well here are things that I have taken photos of with my ND filter.Any water anywhere.I love flattening the sea with a long exposure. Before I had an ND filter I could only do this in low light, but now I can do this any time of the day which is a wonderful thing.I am talking about the sea here, I love to take seascapes with a super flat sea, it is one of my things. And I am so glad that I have written this episode as it has got me excited again about playing around with my ND filter.Rivers, waterfalls, the sea, lakes – anything with water can be transformed with an ND filter.I would like to go back to a previous episode, episode 132, Do I Need New Photography Gear? My Common Sense Check That Says Probably Not.See, an ND filter helps me do things that I cannot do without one, so falls into my legitimate gear category.And what about my commercial photography work?Not to be overused, you wouldn’t use an ND filter on every shoot now, that would be weird. Or would it? Hmmm, that has got me thinking. Sorry one for another time.I used it to get a photo from a shoot where the moving sky was blurred, giving a dreamy, surreal effect. This is not for real estate photography, no, those clients would quite rightly look at me and say, really? Not that I have ever done this. No.But for architectural photography, this is something that I do sometimes when there is an opportunity to give my clients something different. And I am going to have a play with this on an upcoming trip. I can’t wait now to get out there and do something different.What else can you use an ND filter for?Well, anything that moves you can blur. Think of a busy street, with lots of people moving around. Cars, buses, all sorts going on. Take a photo with your camera on a tripod and a long exposure and all the people and things that move become blurry, but the stuff that is fixed, the buildings, road, you know. They will all be sharp.Yes, you will need a tripod for long exposures, as you want still stuff sharp and the moving stuff blurry. If everything is blurry in a photo you just have a blurry photo, which is no use to anyone.Do you need one?Hopefully, you do. So get thinking about this and if this is for you get an ND filter and get out there and give it a go.And if you do let me know how you get on. Send me your photos – I would love to see them.One last thing. 10 stops might be a bit extreme I have to say, so if you are getting started in this you might want something a bit less than 10 stops. I love my 10 stop filter and am happy to just have the one but like I say you might want to go a bit less, in the 3-5 stop range to get you started.What do I do?I use a 10 stop ND filter with my camera on a tripod to blur water and clouds. And I love it. ND filters give me creative opportunities that I would not have had without them. And I use my ND filter to create striking, stylish, and a little bit different, photos.Which all has to be good right? We need to be able to do something a bit different.Next episodePhotography Explained Podcast Episode 135 – Polarizing Filters – What Are They? What Do They Do? Do I Need One?Yes, the other filter that I use with my photography. There are no more – that is it! 2 filters.If you have a photography question you would like me to answer, in plain English, in less than 10 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start. You can also find out more about me and my podcast, and also ways to help me.So send me your question, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.This episode was powered by, wait for it, a cheese sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, I am back to my old faithful snackage, washed down with an ice-cold Diet Pepsi, sitting here in my overly warm, homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.Take care, stay safeCheers from me Rick”Right – that was the podcast episode.Want to know more?Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.Let me send you stuffI send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. And anything else on my mind. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.And finally a little bit about meFinally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.Thank youThanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).Cheers from me Rick

Camera flashes can damage precious works of art. The harsh, excessive light they omit way, way exceeds the carefully controlled lighting levels in museums and art galleries. And the most valuable...Continue Reading