Polarizing filters are still relevant
August 28, 2007 Filed in: Photography
Something you don’t hear about much from up-and-comers is polarizing filters. Long since considered the HDR of a simpler era, polarizing filters can offer a glimpse into a more natural world than what a frame of film or sensor can detect on it’s own.
What a polarizing filter does mechanically can be summed up easily; a polarizing filter converts an unpolarized or mixed-polarization beam of electromagnetic waves (e.g., light) into a beam with a single polarization state (usually, a single linear polarization). (source wikipedia) However, what polarization does to an image at time of capture is a little tougher to explain. In essence, a polarizing filter cuts out the haze, the glare, the shine from just about everything, whether you are aware it’s reflective or not. It more or less does the filtering that your brain and eyes do in the field. It helps make images as vivid as your mind likely remembers them.
Probably the most dramatic effect obtained with polarizers is the darkening of the sky and increased contrast it provides for the subjects in the frame. Normally, a properly exposed image of clouds in the sky would offer perhaps a 1/4 to 1/2 stop difference in range from cloud to sky. With a polarizing filter you can get up to 3 1/2 stops or more (depending on your film stock or capture format) leaving clouds to literally pop out of the surroundings.
By dialing in how much or how little effect you want you can control the reflectivity of elements like bodies of water. In the image above I wanted to show some reflectivity from the sky above but not so much that the water simply mirrored it. I was able to adjust the polarization to give some depth to the water while at the same time reflecting a hint of the clouds above.
Take a minute to give polarizing filters a try. How you choose to use them and what you choose to shoot can be as varied as the effects that they can have in the end, but one thing is for sure, you images will take on a closer rendition to what your mind will remember seeing in the field. For the best effect, try underexposing you shots by 1/2 to 1 full stop as I have done in all of the above.
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