Polorizer or Post?

russellsnr

russellsnr

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Russell
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Hi, Been taking images for some time but for the life of me I cannot get the polorizer to agree with the sky! yes I no how to use a pol filter but always seem to get that kind of darker colour to one side so wonder with the tech available today in software is the better choice to take two images? one for sky and one for forground then merge in software?
Please note where I live the skies are like BLUE!!! and very bright
Thanks
Russ
 
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AFAIK, no software can simulate the features of a CP.
 
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Some problems may be addressed with the CP:

• some shooters will prefer the more saturated colours of the filter
• some others (me!) will use it only to resolve reflections issue in a scene
• many will use it as ND as well.

The way you intend to express your artistic intent or resolve technical issues
will tell to or not and how.
 
You might find that the darkness to one side is being caused by the natural polarisation of a clear blue sky which reaches a maximum at 90 degrees from the sun. The cp will darken this more than the rest but the change should be gradual.
J
 
russellsnr said:
Yes I no that, but if you expose correct for the sky and the forground do you really need the pol filter?
Thanks
Russ
Click to expand...

A polariser is used for more than just darkening a sky.
Whilst you can darken a sky in post, you can't remove reflections in Windows or water, you can't remove the glare from a wet road.
 
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Hi, Many thanks for the replies. I did say in the OP 'I no how to use a pol filter' Often use it when around the woods it just seems for me anyway to darken to much on one side when a sky is involved.
Tried my Lee and my Hoya but just does not come out right.
Thanks for that link Ian will have a look.
 
If you are using a wide angle lens with a polariser, you often get uneven darkening of the sky. This is because the polariser effect changes as the angle of light from the sun changes, becoming strongest at 90 degrees to the sun (if I remember correctly).

So if you have a wide angle lens covering a 60 degree angle of view, and your camera is pointed at 45 deg to the sun, you're going to get an uneven spread of polarisation across the image.

See here: http://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/polarizing-filter-wideangle-lens

If you want an evenly darkened sky, consider a graduated neutral density (ND) filter, or take two exposures, one for the ground and one for the sky, and merge them in something like Photoshop using layers.
 
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Jimi-the-fish said:
You might find that the darkness to one side is being caused by the natural polarisation of a clear blue sky which reaches a maximum at 90 degrees from the sun. The cp will darken this more than the rest but the change should be gradual.
J
Click to expand...
Tobers said:
If you are using a wide angle lens with a polariser, you often get uneven darkening of the sky. This is because the polariser effect changes as the angle of light from the sun changes, becoming strongest at 90 degrees to the sun (if I remember correctly).

So if you have a wide angle lens covering a 60 degree angle of view, and your camera is pointed at 45 deg to the sun, you're going to get an uneven spread of polarisation across the image.

See here: http://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/polarizing-filter-wideangle-lens

If you want an evenly darkened sky, consider a graduated neutral density (ND) filter, or take two exposures, one for the ground and one for the sky, and merge them in something like Photoshop using layers.
Click to expand...
 
As others have said, uneven darkening of the sky can be a common issue with CPs, particularly with WA lenses. The choice of whether to use one comes down is probably best on a case by case basis – if needing to cut reflections, then I would use one, but if the sky is a problem in a particular scene (and reflections aren't an issue) then I'd probably just use a grad ND on its own.
 
When I first started taking landscape-style photographs I used a circular polarizer all the time (must have read somewhere that it was the thing to use!). And I do love how it brings out the clouds on a sunny day. But looking back now, the uneveness of the sky is just really annoying and it is a pain to edit away (although I have some success with graduated filters in Lightroom CC). So the polarizer now only makes an appearance when I want to remove reflections from surfaces or to slow the shutter speed when shooting waterfalls.

Stephen
 
you will get uneven skies anything below around 24mm on a FF sensor. I don't even bother attaching my Lee landscape pol to my 24mm lens, even though they claim the landscape one can go to 18mm or so. On my 50mm and 90mm it's great though.
 
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