Nikon Digital Photography Talk

Using a polarizer filter adds drama to your photos

Indeed, a polarizer filter adds a postcard touch to your pictures
you probably have seen those beautiful landscapes pictures with fluffy clouds against beautiful deep blue skies. You might have seen them also in those travel magazines showing inviting pictures of Emerald green and Turquoise Caribbean beaches. Well, there is no secret that photographers use polarizer filters to increase and dramatize these images. Good thing is that you don’t need to go to the caribbean to get polarized pictures. See, that one on the left was taken in the plain corn fields of Farmington, MN.  What you should know is that not all scenes can NOT be polarized if you are not in the right position and/or the light is not favorable. There will be times when honestly, a polarizer will do little or nothing for your pictures.

First time buying a polarizing filter?

A polarizer filter polarizes the light entering your lens. You should know before you buy that there are two different types of polarizing filters. Linear and Circular: First, linear polarizing filters were designed for manual focus lenses and they are not really friendly with today’s modern auto focus lenses. If you are using an auto focus system (and I bet you probably are), the filter to order before you press place order on your on-line camera supplier, is the Circular Polarizer. Again, Circular polarizing filters are the ones to go with your AF (auto focus) lenses.

Polarizing is fun,
in my case I wear eye glasses and my prescribed sun glasses are polarized, thus I see a ”polarized” scene without having to mount the filter on my lens. You can also raise the filter and rotate it around the scene you intend to photograph, this will give you an idea if it’s worth mounting the filter on your camera or not. If you don’t see any effect while rotating, don’t you even bother. You must know that a polarizer filters cuts about 1½ stop of light. So if it is not doing anything in favor of your picture, then don’t use it and use the extra light and speed on your favor. Polarizer filters are not only to emphasize beautiful skies and clouds on your pictures. They also come handy when taking pictures of high reflective non-metallic surfaces like glass and water. Go outside to your driveway and rotate the filter, you’ll see how the asphalt even turns to a deeper black either if it is wet or dry. Same happens when shooting landscapes with waterfalls. It removes unwanted reflections on wet rocks and even some glare on leafs. If you shoot landscapes you shouldn’t leave home without one of these. They are great to pop-up the greens on foliage.

But which circular polarizer filter?
Well, there are plenty to choose from including generic brands. The best Polarizer filters are made by Hoya/Hama, Heliopan, Nikon, Tiffen and being the top of the line in my honest opinion, Singray and B+W. As a good lens, a polarizing or even a good UV filter is an investment for years to come. Many folks use a ”thin” filter on their 17-55 (or 3rd party equivalent) lens. This prevents dark corners on the pictures caused by the filter’s metal ring. I have yet to experience this problem on my 17-55 AFS F/2.8 because this focal length equals around 25.5-82mm. However, if you are intending to use a polarizing filter with lets say a 12-24, Sigma 10-20, Canon 10-22, ect. I strongly recommend one of the ”thin” also known as ”slim” version. Failure to use a thin or slim filter on one of these lenses, may result in dark corners. Click on this link to see a picture and you will get the idea.

Rule of thumb: I’ve seen this so often, please DO NOT stack a polarizing filter over your UV (ultra violet) filter. Besides polarizing, your filter will also work against UV rays. Stacking both filters will increase the amount of dark corners as seen on the link above. You are degrading the quality of your image by adding more glass on front of your lens and last but not least, your are inviting unwanted lens flare to your photos.