Karl Taylor takes us on a video tour of Lee Filters factory, tries his hand at making a filter

 

 

Have you ever wondered how filters are made? If so, photographer Karl Taylor's latest video is for you. Karl visited the LEE Filters factory, received a tour from the company's sales director, Ralph Young, and is taking us along for the ride.

The filter-making process starts with a resin liquid, which is then casted into large sheets of glass which are cured over 24 hours in a specialized oven. The second stage of the process is the inspection stage. Every sheet has to be measured for hardness. Based on the test results for each individual sheet, it is determined which kinds of filters that sheet of resin can be used for. Beyond strength testing, resin sheets are also tested for optical qualities before they can move to the next stage of processing. Any sheets that fail the tests are removed from the chain and that's the end of the road for them.

Once resin is past inspection, it's cut and prepared for the dying process, which is all done by hand. So when you get a hard-edged graduated neutral density filter from Lee, someone at their factory marked the filter and dipped it into a hot dye tank by hand. Karl even tries his hand at dipping a filter. Check out the video below to see how he did and to see the rest of the stages of filter production at Lee.

If you'd like to see Lee Filters kits that Karl has hand-picked himself, see here. And to see more of his work, visit his website and his YouTube channel.

To learn more about Lee Filters' products, check out their site!

(Seen via The Digital Picture)