i'll be back on later this evening with some examples for you to see...a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

but...keeping in mind that for a dSLR you would need a CIRCULAR polarizer (not just a polarizer) and that you would need to keep in mind the diameter of the lens you intend to use with the filter. a 52mm lens needs a 52mm filter (or a filter with an adapter ring.)

essentially a polarizer reduces or eliminates reflections. by removing the reflection of water droplets in the sky, you get a deeper, more rich blue hue. by removing water droplet reflections in the air, colors tend to be more saturated. shadows will be deeper.

most will reduce light into your lens by as much as 1.5 stops...so keep that in mind when shooting.

i'll post more later, i'm headed out to a shoot and will be getting there a little early to shoot some examples for y'all.

Thanks for the start -- I'd love to see pictures when you get a chance.

I'm *slowly* working my way through Peterson's Understanding Exposure, I'm still such a beginner and have so much to learn!

ok. this is going to be photo intensive...just FYI.

the circular polarizer is actually a two-part filter. it has a ring that rotates around the lens, and as you rotate it (looking through the viewfinder) you will see that it lightens and darkens your image (remember what i said about reducing light by up to 1.5 stops? it darkens...hence less light enters the sensor, reducing exposure by up to that amount. that varies though...depending on where you have it on the rotation of the filter.)

it works best when you have the sun at a 90 degree angle to your subject.

the first series of photos i'll post are with the sun more or less behind me.

ISO 400
1/160
F9
RAW converted to jpg in ACR

you'll notice that the tree is pretty...but not spectacular. the sky is blue...but from one photo to the next there is some change in the sky saturation...but not a lot. the clouds are not defined. it doesn't make much impact. i was shooting as i slowly rotated the filter around it's axis to show how it darkened/lightened the subject...but since the sun was BEHIND me it doesn't impact things much.

all images on THIS thread are sooc. no sharpening or saturation...just straight from the camera.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0001.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0002.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0003.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0004.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0005.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0006.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0007.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0008.jpg

give me a few minutes to load the next set of photos...and you'll see the difference, ok?

ok, in this set i was standing in the SAME spot, i just rotated 45 degrees to my left. you'll see my clients arriving in their van :lol: (they were early...oops.)

notice the change in the sky. the way the clouds are more defined (and IRL...the clouds looked the same in both sets of shots...the filter helps pick up on that when you are at 90 degrees to the sun) see the difference in the colors of the foilage. overall, notice the change in saturation of color in the images.

i did the same thing. stood still and shot one after the other as i slowly rotated the filter. the first several images had the following settings:

F9
1/125
ISO 400
RAW converted to jpg in ACR

the last THREE images were shot at
F9
1/200 (sorry...their arrival threw me off...i had intended to shoot them all the same.)
ISO 400
RAW converted to jpg in ACR

all images in this thread were shot with a d50 and 50mm 1.8 lens, no tripod.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0009.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0010.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0011.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0012.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0013.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0014.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0015.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0016.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/snugglbond/polarizing%20examples/0017.jpg

i'll have to check and see if the lake is ok tomorrow...if it is i can get some off the lake with the filter and w/o so you can see what i mean with water AND sky.

i wasn't near the lake today but tomorrow and tuesday i'll be driving over it twice so i should be able to stop and take some more shots so you can see that...it's pretty spectacular what it can do.



i hope i *kind* of explained a polarizer. sort of? it removes reflections and as a result saturates colors.


i have a couple other filters i will play with tomorrow and add to this thread, ok?

did this help any?

it sort of gives more depth... almost as if it's starting to become 3 dimensional.

Thanks!

Tracey -- thanks so much for taking the time to explain and post pics. I think I have a much better understanding now. So, would you consider a polarizing filter an essential tool? Is it something you'd leave on your lens the majority of the time, or only when you're shooting at the angle to the sun that it has the most impact with?

I take a lot of baseball pictures, which are often in full sun in the middle of the day. I'm thinking a filter might be a great help for shooting at ball games?

Thanks again -- you rock!

i meant to get shots of the lake today...i was running late this morning and this afternoon. i'll try tomorrow. sorry.


for what *i* do i would not leave it on all the time. portrait work is not an appropriate use in most cases for a polarizer. you would want to use it when you need to reduce reflection or make the sky more blue. games may be an appropriate use if your skies tend to be whited or greyed out.