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TIL a $12 ND filter saved my noon shoot in Phoenix when I almost rented a whole matte box
Last month I had a real estate client in Scottsdale who could only meet at 12:30 pm, worst possible light. I was about to rent a matte box and a set of filters for like $85 a day, but the guy at the rental counter in Tempe told me to just grab a cheap variable ND and see how it went. I picked one up for $12 at a camera store on Mill Ave and shot the whole walkthrough at f8, and the window blowout that ruined my last two shoots was completely gone. Curious if anyone here just runs ND and polarizers instead of a full matte box setup, or am I missing something for those harsh summer shoots?
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carr.cora11d ago
Wasting $12 on a variable ND when you could rent a real matte box misses the whole point of why those setups exist in the first place. A cheap variable ND will soften your corners at f8 and stack weird color casts that no polarizer fixes, and on a real estate walkthrough those flaws show up fast once the client looks at big windows on a big screen. Save the shortcut for hobby stuff and rent the right gear when a paying client's walkthrough is on the line.
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