The Lee 'Big Stopper'

In photography there are a few pieces of equipment or brands that attain legendary status and the Lee Filters 10x Neutral Density filter is one of them.  Known as the 'Big Stopper' this filter is almost opaque and, when fitted to the camera lens, reduces the exposure time by 10 times.  For example a 1/15 second shutter speed without the filter becomes 1 minute and 1 second becomes 16 minutes.  

Why would you want to do that I hear you ask? Well when photographing moving water or moving clouds a scene can suddenly take on a different look as the long exposure makes water 'creamy' and clouds 'streak' across the sky.

Here is an example taken at Elgol on the Isle of Skye, the first shot is taken without the filter and the second is with the 'Big Stopper' fitted to the camera.

NO FILTER - 1/4s @ f16 - Nikon D300s - Sigma 10-20mm - ISO 100 

BIG STOPPER - 2 minutes @ f8 - Nikon D300s - Sigma 10-20mm - ISO 100    

 Obviously with long exposures a sturdy tripod is a necessity and a lot of patience because it takes 2 minutes to take the shot and another 2 minutes for the camera to process the image but the results are very dramatic. With long exposures the colour of the image tends to shift to the blue end of the spectrum but this is easily corrected in post processing.

Like all things in photography you shouldn't overdo things but having a Lee Big Stopper in my camera bag gives another creative option to use when the situation allows.


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