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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, what is 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.
Some pictures on this page have
been done with a 77mm Tiffen Circular Polarizer and the following lenses:
Nikon
17-55 AF-S F/2.8, Tokina
12-24 F/4 and Tamron
19-35 F/3.5-4.5.
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