The Effects of a Polarizing Filter

B

Budgieboots

Well-known member
Hi, I was wondering if anybody could post side by side comparisions of the effects of a polarizing filter.

I am considering purchasing one but I am not completely sold on one yet.
 
The very least you would get one so it could protect your lens - better to use it as a free frag than screw up your leica dicomars. I dont have one myself but in terms of difference i guess its only shiny surfaces, like if you're shooting a shiny reflective window, or water, etc. Its basically polarising sunglasses for your camera.
 
well, i find that outside, shooting straight with the dvx without a polarizer, or UV filter ( are they the same thing? ) that colours outside on a shiny day are vrey washed out and grey. Using the filter makes things, yes, a tad darker, but also gets rid of the hazy look and lets the colours really shine through. Granted, most of that can be correted in post, but only to a certain degree. Best to have maximum results going in and tweak what need be remainder.
 
Here you go man, here's a pretty simply walkthrough of the optics:

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/polarization/polarizationI.html

(It might even be too simple :P)

What I find, and what is generally said, is that in short, the polarization filter removes reflections from NON-METALLIC surfaces (water, windows, etc) and is good for bringing the blue color in the sky for example stand out, and look really good. White clouds against a blue sky looks really good with a pol filter. Also, the filter has to be at an angle, I think 45 or 90 degrees in relation to the light, to filter out the unwanted light.

On the last film I shot I had a lot of shots where I shot through the window of a car, and I have to say, without a polarization filter, those shots would have been impossible. I might be able to post some examples later if you want.
 
Ugh couldn't find some good examples, so this is the best I can show you, both shots are with the pol filter ON, so it's not really good for reference, but it will show you what it does to reflective surfaces:

Pol filter not working. Here you can see that the sky is reflecting heavily in the windows:
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/3610/circleofcrimerest5gk.gif

Here the car is on the right angle, and you can see the pol filter is filtering away the light that is reflected in the window, you can see their faces easily:

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1962/circleofcrimerestpol6uj.gif

Hope this helped you a little! :)
 
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