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| Barrow's Goldeneye Drake - Stark Landing - Merrimack River - Manchester, NH 01-10-16 |
It is getting close to that time of year when many of us spend a lot of time by water in search of migrating ducks. You all love ducks... don't you? DON'T YOU?? I'm so glad I heard you all say yes!! Many great species that either migrate thru here or spend their winters here with us.
I am going to show by 3 sets of examples what a circular polarizing filter can do for your images. They take the glare off of water and other nonmetallic surfaces, and bring out the colors without effecting the color balance. Thus are an important tool for the duck hunter hunting with glass.
You can also see into the water much better with a polarizer.
A circular polarizer is a split ring filter that screws onto the end of your lens, or, in the case of the big primes, drops into a special slot near the camera body. It works on the same principal of polarized sunglasses.
As you turn the outer section of the filter, every 90 Degrees turns the polarization on or off. You can adjust the amount you wish to obtain by viewing the image as you turn the filter.
I have used a few, but my go to brand on these are Pro Master CPL's Be sure to check the diameter of your lens before you order one. And trust me when I tell you... but the best one you can find. They are not cheap. But if you are putting a filter on an expensive lens, you want to make sure your filters have the same level of quality.
It is said that you should not stack filters and that before you attach your polarizer, take off your protection filter. Um... you DO have protection filters on ALL of your lenses, right? A heck of a lot cheaper to replace a $100.00 filter than a $2,500.00 lens!
I leave my protection filters on all of the time, and stack the polarizer on top. But I have told you what you SHOULD do. Now I don't have to worry 😊.
I had read recently that the best way to use a polarizing filter is at 90 degrees off the sun. Today I put this to the test, and I am happy to tell you this is correct. Normally we want the sun behind us, but when shooting with a polarizer, if you can, shoot 90 degrees from the sun, which will put the sun to our side.
In my first set of examples, I am shooting facing WNW with the sun 90 degrees to my left.
In this first image I have the polarizer at an off position. Watch what happens when I turn the outer ring 90 degrees!
***The settings are identical for each pair***
Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
ISO 400, f/4.0, 1/1600th Sec., 185mm
Hand Held. Cropped for Composition.
Manual Mode, Partial Metering, Auto White Balance
Edit Flow: Selected and previewed in Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw with final editing in Photoshop
*** NOTE. For this entire series, all I did was some basic cropping and added my watermark. Otherwise these are as they came out of the camera.
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| Looking down into the water of Turee Pond with the polarizer 'off' |
With ALL variables the same except for removing the shade of my lens, turning the outer ring 90 degrees then replacing the shade (Some lens shades have an opening with a sliding door. This is to adjust the polarizer without removing the shade).
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| Looking down into the water of Turee Pond with the polarizer 'on' |
Quite illuminating, wouldn't you say?
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***The settings are identical for each pair***
Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
ISO 400, f/3.5, 1/1600th Sec., 70mm
Hand Held. Cropped for Composition.
Manual Mode, Partial Metering, Auto White Balance
Edit Flow: Selected and previewed in Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw with final editing in Photoshop
*** NOTE. For this entire series, all I did was some basic cropping and added my watermark. Otherwise these are as they came out of the camera.
In my second set of examples, I am also shooting facing WNW with the sun 90 degrees to my left.
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| Shooting across Turee Pond with the polarizer in the 'off' position |
Ready to see the REAL magic of a Polarizing Filter?
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| Shooting across Turee Pond with the polarizer in the 'on' position |
Wild, huh? All I did... to change from the first to the second image, was rotate the polarizer 90 Degrees!!
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***The settings are identical for each pair***
Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/2000th Sec., 70mm
Hand Held. Cropped for Composition.
Manual Mode, Partial Metering, Auto White Balance
Edit Flow: Selected and previewed in Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw with final editing in Photoshop
*** NOTE. For this entire series, all I did was some basic cropping and added my watermark. Otherwise these are as they came out of the camera.
In my third set of examples, I am shooting facing the sun. I wanted to see what a polarizing filter did when shooting into the sun... I can barely discern a difference.
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| Shooting in the direction of the sun with the filter in the 'off' position |
There is a difference, but not enough to worry about if you don't use a CPL.
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| Shooting in the direction of the sun with the filter in the 'on' position |
I also took some images shooting directly away from the sun, turning the filter on and off.
I was having difficulty determining which were on and which were off when it came time to select the images for this post from today's shoot.
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I believe that to gain the amazing quality of the top two image sets, a circular polarizing filter is worth every penny you spend.
I need to remember to use them more often!
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