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Derek.Laurence

Derek.Laurence

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Derek
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Hi everyone,

I was out at dawn this morning (first time ever!) for some shots down a beach close to me.

Because I was primarily taking sea and sky I thought I'd use my circular polariser filter

Even though the pics looked reasonable on my LCD (Sony a230) once I've reviewed them at home they are all very dark.

My question is this, are there any hard and fast rules for exposure whilst using filters?

I normally have a uv filter on as well, but to my uneducated eye I never really notice much of a difference.
 
Did you exposure then fit the filter or expose with it on as they can cause a few stops difference in light.
If you use photoshop it would be possible to correct the exposure.
 
As has been said countless times, you don't really need the uv filter nowadays. it just causes more problems.

I take it you were pointing your camera towards the rising sun?
 
Yes I exposed with the filter already in place.

I am new to this forum ( and photo forums in general) so have never read that uv filters are useless. I'll go read up.

And yes I was shooting towards where the sun was rising. I really need to get into reading histograms more.
 
It should expose correctly with the filter in place.

If you were shooting toward the sun it most like exposed for that. Also, it might depend what metering mode you're using?
 
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Although I was pointing in the suns direction the sun wasn't fully up.
I was on spot metering which I'm now thinking would've been part of the problem.
 
it was probably dark due to spot metering, a polariser won't do much pointed directly into the sun, they're best used at a right angle to the sun (have the sun on one shoulder) and as said, check histograms. If you're wanting to shoot seascapes, get yourself a hard grad ND filter to balance the sea and sky.
 
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oROSSo said:
it was probably dark due to spot metering, a polariser won't do much pointed directly into the sun, they're best used at a right angle to the sun (have the sun on one shoulder) and as said, check histograms. If you're wanting to shoot seascapes, get yourself a hard grad ND filter to balance the sea and sky.
Click to expand...

Or better still, if you're looking to shoot sunrises and sunsets a reverse grad.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys


Much appreciated
 
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