.9 ND Lee Filter – Why it’s useful for slow motion water photography

A .9 ND (neutral density) filter darkens the overal scene by 3 stops. This allows the photographer to shoot with a much slower shutter speed that would other wise have been possible.

Take the image below for example. This photograph was taken at quarter to five in the afternoon, which is still quite sunny here in North Queensland Australia. Even with extreme camera settings of F/22 aperture and ISO of 100, I was unable to achieve anything that resembled slow motion water, until I added a .9 ND Lee filter to the setup.

Yes, some could argue that if I’d waited another couple of hours, I would most likely have gotten the same photograph without the use of filters. However, as most photographers understand, sometimes you have to take a shot while you can. In this particular place, waiting around till dark, we’d have been eaten alive by sandflies. Personally, I also like seeing a hint of sunlight within the photograph, that I would not have had the opportunity to capture if it were a later time in the day.

Camera Settings

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 17-40mm f4 L
Exposure: 0.5 sec (1/2)
Aperture: f/22
Focal Length: 33 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Exposure Program: manual

Here is another example, this time taken at 5.30 in the afternoon. Once again, keep in mind this is North Queensland Australia where the sun doesn’t go down until late in the day in summer time.

For this landscape, I use a 0.9 ND Lee Filter to deliberately prolong the exposure and accentuate the movement of the water. In real life, waves were crashing in over the rocks seen on the lower right.

Camera Settings

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 17-40mm f4 L
Exposure: 10 sec (10)
Aperture: f/22
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 50
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Exposure Program: manual

I can see this ND filter is going to quickly become one of my favorites.

Experimenting with combining 2 Lee Filters .9 ND (neutral density) plus a Coral Stripe

As you can see by the example photograph below, our recent trip away to Cape Hillborough Resort was the perfect landscape to test out a few new Lee Filters. The Lee foundation kit that I purchased a week ago allows me to combine up to 3 filters to my camera lens simultaneously. For the photograph seen below, I combined a .9 ND with a Coral Stripe filter on top.

Why did I choose those two filters?

The .9 ND (neutral density) Pro Glass filter reduces light by 3 stops. This allowed me to set a slower shutter speed of 30 seconds, which created a smooth milky water effect.

The Coral Stripe Lee filter was perfect to help enhance a band of orange in the sky that was already naturally there. We are lucky here in North Queensland Australia to see this often just above the horizon line during sunsets and sunrises. I’ve found in previous experiments with Lee filters that they often look too fake if you try and put color into the photograph that isn’t in the scenery to start with.

Other camera settings:

Exposure: 30 sec (30)
Exposure Program: Manual
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 50
Exposure Bias: 0 EV