This year I'm working with Tiffen Company, who makes filters for camera lenses. While I don't use filters often in my general landscape work, I do use them at night. After connecting with Tiffen Comapny and having a look at their website, I decided to give some of their newer filters a try. Over the next year or so I'll be posting some of my work with side by side examples showing real life usage and how their filters have an impact on my photography. All this being said, I want to be crystal clear about something. I'd never promote a product or company if I didn't use their products. Here is why I have decided to work with Tiffen Company this year.
Back in 2017 while teaching a night photographyworkshop in Moab I noticed a photographer screwing a filter onto his lens. Curiosity got the best of me and I has to ask him what the filter was for. He kind of laughed like this wasn't the first time someone questioned him about this and he very kindly asked if I wanted to see the results. He took a picture and then showed me the back of his camera and I was blown away. I hadn't seen anything like it before. His stars were nice and bright with a soft subtle glow around them. Like magic, only the important stars stood out. As you can see in the above image of the Big Dipper over the Great Sand Dunes only the brightest stars really impacted. After seeing his image on his LCD I knew I had to have one. I finished the workshop, went home and started looking at these "Double Fog Filters". I soon found there were many different intensities of the filter and I decided to reach out to Tiffen directly because at the time I couldn't find the fog filter in stock anywhere. The person I contacted at Tiffen was able to find 1 4x6 double fog 4 filter and I took it... We agreed that if I liked the product I would simply share a few posts online with it. Because my shooting style has changed a bit since 2017 I'd like to give you a little idea of my first impressions and how I used the filter. You may find this interesting.
After getting the filter in late 2017 I took it out and used it as fast as I could. I was shooting single images at the time and mostly 30 second exposures at night. I set up my camera and placed the filter in front of the lens and shot. The exposure finished and I looked at the image and it was super bright and glowy. I toned down the exposure some and shot again and then it was too dark but I could still see the glow from the filter. At that time I decided I'd keep my exposures the same, and only use the filter for a portion of the exposure. For example, If I was shooting a 30 second exposure I may only cover the lens with the filter for 15 seconds and then remove it. This seemed to work fairly well and I I was happy with the results. In 2018 is when I finally gave in and started stacking my night images to reduce noise rather than rely on a program to remove noise from single images.
Once I started stacking images, I knew I could simplify my process for using the Fog Filter and get the results I wanted with a much easier process. At first, I was just shooting 25-36 images to stack and I'd keep the filter over all of them. When stacked the noise was gone but the intense glow of the filter was still there. I decided to only put the filter up in front of a few images. If I were taking a sequence of images to stack for noise reduction I'd run my initial stack of 36 images and then place the filter over the lens for the next 10 or so images.
When I got home I now had some with & without the filter. I could combine them to get the right intensity.
This image shows just that. I took a sequence of 157 images the other night with 130 without the filter and 27 with the filter. These are un editied images so you can see the differences. I added the candle image to show you a side by side of what the Double Fog Filter does. The images of the stars are to show you what it looks like without the filter, with the filter and with all the images including the filtered ones... Because we all have our own likes and dislikes, this process makes it super simple once you're back home to decide on the level of glow you'd like to add to your images.
Once I realized I could adjust the intensity level just by adding more or less filtered images to the stack, this lens soon had it's own spot in my bag for night photography. Aside from the nice effect it has on the stars, the filter is built like a tank. It's solid, easy to clean and I haven't scratched it yet. It comes with a nice filter pouch too.
Because this is a filter I use often, and has lasted me such a long time, I decided to partner up with Tiffen and see what other filters they have out now that my help to add to my work. I look forward to sharing those with you in the near future.
If you'd like more info about this filter or any of their many other filters you can simply click here - https://tiffen.com/products/4-x-5-65-double-fog-filter
This filter comes in 8 different intensities so I'm sure if you like this effect there would be one for your liking.
Disclaimer - I am not being paid by Tiffen to share any of this with you. If you buy a filter based on this blog, awesome. I'm just happy to try out some new filters and see what they do.
My goal is to always give back to the photography community with any knowledge I may have. Just like the guy in Moab who told me about this filter.
If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask!
Happy Shooting,
Darren
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