Take Long Exposure Photos in Daylight Using the Welder’s Glass
Taking long exposure photos in daylight can create beautiful motion-captured images in a scene, but the required filters can be prohibitively expensive for ordinary photographers. However, asthis video shows , all you really need is a cheap piece of welding glass.
Usually, when you want to take a long exposure photo in daylight, you need to use a Neutral Density (ND) filter to drastically reduce the amount of light entering the lens. This allows you to expose the film or camera sensor for longer periods of time (say 30 seconds) to create a glossy motion blur effect. Professional ND filters can be expensive, but as photographer Mathieu Stern points out, all you really need is a piece of welder glass that you can buy from a hardware store for a few dollars (or on Amazon for about ten dollars ). As the name suggests, these pieces of glass are commonly used in welding helmets.
Installing the glass panel can be a little tricky, however. Mathieu just uses a rubber band to secure it in front of the lens, but even if it falls and breaks, it’s only a few bucks.