Circular polarizer.

Gonetae

Gonetae

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Tommy
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Hi folks, I've had my circular polarizer for a couple of weeks now and have certainly noticed a difference with it but was wondering if there are any particular subjects or lenses that I shouldn't use it for and why ?

I've mainly been using it for landscape type shots on my kit lens but I tend to swap it on to my Sigma 70-300mm whenever I use it also for birdy pics.

Tommy
 
Polarisers are most useful on wide-angles for landscapes, as they darken blue skies which have a lot of polarised light in them. They also reduce reflections off things like leaves and grass, which adds saturation to colours. They cut down reflections off water, depending on the angle, and off other shiny things like car paintwork and windows. They don't work on highly conductive metalic surfaces like chrome though, it's to do with light being part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Some say you shouldn't use a polariser with ultra-wide lenses as you can get an uneven polarising effect across the sky. I find that's rarely the case, and when you do get that effect it usually doesn't matter much.

One thing you perhaps won't get much benefit with is a long lens for birding. Any upside is likely to be outweighed by the loss of a couple of stops of light which might be better used to increase the shutter speed.
 
I agree with HoppyUK.... you will get a loss of couple of stops of light, so dont use it where there's not much light or you need to be fast with the shots.
 
ekso said:
I agree with HoppyUK.... you will get a loss of couple of stops of light, so use it where there's not much light or you need to be fast with the shots.
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:thinking::thinking::thinking::shrug:


:lol:Not sure I get what you mean m8.

@ the OP:

In my experience CPs are best used on reflections (water, glass) and primary colours...reds, whites, blues, yellows etc BUT always note the direction of the light as the best results are obtained shooting across (approximately 90 degrees to) the sunlight.

Something I have learned is that the sea or any large body of blue water might appear green or otherwise as the blue reflection of sky off the water surface is now cut back enormously by using a polarizer.

HTH
 
I hate the odd colouring of skies with ultra-wide lenses myself - very distracting to me

I've had my CP about 3 years and used it abut 3x too, first shots were with my 12-24 and showed the limitations of CPs with ultra-wides - so I don't use it now :(

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
I hate the odd colouring of skies with ultra-wide lenses myself - very distracting to me

I've had my CP about 3 years and used it abut 3x too, first shots were with my 12-24 and showed the limitations of CPs with ultra-wides - so I don't use it now :(

DD
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So don't use them on ultra-wides DD...agreed though, the banding in the sky is quite horrible but CP's do have their use.

Have you used regular polarizers much?

I would like to believe that their effect is better but you lose AF of course...
 
I don't use them at all mate

Most of my landscape work is done using my 12-24 as I like to include extreme close-up foreground interest, so the CP's banding is just a big :nono:

I've used polas for donkey's year with my old film cameras (never had anything wider than 28mm in those days), but (reflections aside) I find I can do well enough without them now

DD
 
ekso said:
I agree with HoppyUK.... you will get a loss of couple of stops of light, so use it where there's not much light or you need to be fast with the shots.
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Sorry, a bit confused on this. Are you saying that with my CPL I will lose light? So......... If I am shooting a landscape at say 1/200 without the CPL on, once I put it on I will be shooting at 1/50 to get the same exposure?
 
swag72 said:
Sorry, a bit confused on this. Are you saying that with my CPL I will lose light? So......... If I am shooting a landscape at say 1/200 without the CPL on, once I put it on I will be shooting at 1/50 to get the same exposure?
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Yup - exactly :thumbs:

And my old film Nikons worked in AF with Linear Pols too :)

DD
 
ekso said:
I agree with HoppyUK.... you will get a loss of couple of stops of light, so don't use it where there's not much light or you need to be fast with the shots.
Click to expand...

I think ekso missed out a "don't" which I've added above ;)

Linear polarisers are supposed to be a bit more efficient than circular, but the difference is slight. The new Hoya HD polarisers look good, only losing a little over one stop of light. £170 for a 77mm though :eek: http://www.kenrockwell.com/hoya/hd-filters.htm

The uneven effect you get in skies with an extreme wide angle depends on the angle of the sun. If you're lucky and get a symetrical effect it looks fine. I took some pictures with a Canon 10-22mm in Greece during early summer, at 10mm with the sun almost directly overhead, and I just got darker corners. It looked quite dramatic but the polariser turned the extremely blue sky almost black, so I took it off! With the lower sun angles here, I guess it's a good time for an ND grad to avoid uneveness. Of course, it's easy to check with digital.

I use a polariser almost all the time for landscapes. It can only darken a blue sky with lots of polarised light in it and has zero effect on overcast days, but the light reflected off foliage is always strongly polarised and the filter always adds quite a lot of punch to colours.

With a grad, there's always something important protruding above the skyline! But they work on dull days, and of course you can add coloured grads. Between grads and a polariser there's usually an answer :)
 
One of the other things where you need to think carefully about using a polariser is for motor sport. If I remember correctly, a CPL will give a strange effect on windscreens, windows etc. I can't remember if this is in all cases, or just on race cars where the glass has been replaces with plastic....it's something to do with the stresses in the plastic I think? I'm sure someone will be able to explain in more detail!

Chris
 
Thank you all for responses, it's really helped clear up a few things for me, I was wondering why when shooting birds at 300mm I was having to drop my shutter speed a wee bit more than I thought I would have to. :thumbs:

Tommy.
 
silly question time , would you use said filter for handheld shots or is it a tripod thing ?
 
As far as I know it's fine for both, I should add that when I bought it I never really expected to see much of a difference from it but some of the shots I have taken it has really given new life to what would otherwise have been a pretty pale looking sky.
 
CPL won't work if it's overcast it will just act as a ND upto 3 stops.

if you take very wide angle shots be aware that the sky do not polarise at the same angle. ie the region on your photo closest to the sun and opposite to it will have least polarising effect and the region 90 or 270 degrees to the sun will have the most effects. therefore on a 180 shot you can get dark ends or dark middle ;)

the CPL doesn't work on metal for one reasons or another (i think the light wave become un-polarised or sumthing), but works on all things natural :p
 
CPL won't work if it's overcast it will just act as a ND upto 3 stops.

if you take very wide angle shots be aware that the sky do not polarise at the same angle. ie the region on your photo closest to the sun and opposite to it will have least polarising effect and the region 90 or 270 degrees to the sun will have the most effects. therefore on a 180 shot you can get dark ends or dark middle ;)

the CPL doesn't work on metal for one reasons or another (i think the light wave become un-polarised or sumthing), but works on all things natural :p
 
DiddyDave said:
I hate the odd colouring of skies with ultra-wide lenses myself - very distracting to me

I've had my CP about 3 years and used it abut 3x too, first shots were with my 12-24 and showed the limitations of CPs with ultra-wides - so I don't use it now :(

DD
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I've followed this thread with interest and it has made me think twice about blinding screwing my CPL onto the lens when it gets a bit sunny. Is anyone able to post any example shots showing the various unwanted effects described above?

TIA

Iain
 
idkb said:
I've followed this thread with interest and it has made me think twice about blinding screwing my CPL onto the lens when it gets a bit sunny. Is anyone able to post any example shots showing the various unwanted effects described above?

TIA

Iain
Click to expand...

I can't post any examples as I haven't got any. The effect described is not so much odd colouring - there are no other colours invloved - just uneven darkening of the blue tone.

But it's only an issue, occasionally, with very wide angle lenses. And the Sigma 12-24 on full frame is incredibly wide - it's like 8mm on a crop!

I don't see the problem. You can see the filter effect in the viewfinder, so if you don't like it, just take it off.
 
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