Les Jones

New Polarizing Filter + The World’s Friendliest Muskrat

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 | Photos |

300mm F/5.6 1/60s ISO 200

The circular polarizing filter I ordered arrived today, so after work I walked over to the pond in our office park to give it a try. I was standing there photographing some fish when Mister Muskrat swam up, investigated me, and swam off.

Polarizing filters eliminate reflections, glare, haze and scattered light in general. That’s why fishermen use polarizing sunglasses to eliminate the reflection off of the water’s surface so they can see the fish below. This picture shows the blue sky and white clouds reflecting off the pond surface:

70mm F/4.5 1/640s ISO 200

Here’s the muskrat with the reflection on the water’s surface causing a slightly oily look:

122mm F/4.8 1/100s ISO 200

And here’s the same scene a few seconds later with the polarizing filter turned to eliminate the reflection, which also darkens the colors beneath the surface of the water:

122mm F/4.8 1/100s ISO 200

(And as a side note, this is another case where I wish I had shot at a higher aperture number like F8 or F11 so that more of the subject would have been in focus.)

Here’s a picture showing haze from the low-angled sun and the mist created by the fountain:

70mm F/4.5 1/160s ISO 200

And here’s the same picture with the polarizer rotated to eliminate the haze. Notice the sharper details and deeper colors behind the fountain:

70mm F/4.5 1/125s ISO 200

Here’s pretty much everything I know about polarizing filters at this point:

• Minimal polarizing effect is at 0 degrees (lens facing directly into the sun) and 180 degrees (lens facing directly away from the sun).

• Maximum polarizing effect is at 90 degrees (lens perpendicular to the sun).
• To find the maximum polarizing angle point your index finger to the sun with your thumb cocked like a pistol at a 90 degree angle. With your finger pointing to the sun you can rotate your arm and your thumb will point to the maximum polarizing angle in all directions.
• From Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure: “Working in bright sunlight at midday isn’t a favorite activity for many experienced shooters since the light is so harsh, but if you need to make images at this time of day, a polarized will help somewhat. This is because the sun is directly overhead - at a ninety-degree angle to you, whether you are facing north, south, east, or west.” (To which I have to add: whether the sun will be directly overhead depends on both your latitude and time of year, but I get what he’s saying.)
• You can learn lots more about filters from Ken Rockwell, Thom Hogan, and Great Landscape Photography. Wikipedia has great examples of photos with and without polarizers.

P.S. I ordered the filter and two other things from Adorama Camera. One item was backordered. Adorama was very prompt in notifying me that it was backordered and could take 10-12 days to ship. What they didn’t tell me is that they were holding the entire order until that one item arrived. A week later I told them to go ahead and ship me what they had and I canceled the other item.

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