Photo Tip - Circular Polarizer

After my post about Neutral Density Gradient filter, I had someone ask me what other filters I carry on my camera bag. The truth is beside the NDG I just have one another filter, a circular polarizer. This filter saturates the colours, which results in darker images.

The 3 most common situations that I use circular polarizer are:

1 – To enhance vibrancy of colours


Together with neutral density gradient, circular polarizer is landscape photographers best friend. The saturation of the colours will generate more vibrancy, which translates for instance into a darker shade of blue for the sky or more intense fall coulour.

Image 1 - Fall colours intensified

Image 2 - Darker shade of blue in the sky

2 – To slow the speed


Since the polarizer blocks part of the light reflected to the lenses, hence darker objects, there is a need to compensate the exposure normally for about 2 f/stops, if you are shooting in manual mode. This is a big watch out when photographing without a tripod. However, the slower speed sometimes can be desired, for example, when trying to capture the moving water in that pleasant, soft, almost milky looking way, there is a need for a longer exposure. During the day, the sun might be high up and even on the lowest ISO possible, the speed is just too fast for the effect, the polarizer will help to solve this issue.

 

Image 3 - Milky looking water

Image 4 - Milky looking water

3 – To reduce reflection of surfaces

The polarizer reduces glare from non-metallic surfaces such as water and glasses. When trying to capture the content of this old shop in Killarney at the end of the day, the polarizer helped reduce the glare and reflections on the window to better show the content of the inside of the shop. Also, lake surfaces can be used as mirrors of the surrounding subject without reflecting the glare of the light source. 

Image 5 - Reduction of window glare

Image 6 - Water surface free of glare

Sometimes, I combine both the polarizer with the neutral density gradient. But I try to avoid this practice because the result of more layers in front of the lenses is an image with less definition and quality.