 Mandy Hank |
Filter questions I have been shooting with my Canon 70-200 2.8 IS and I have the circular polarizer filter to darken the glare but my skies are still showing up white, I can't pull the blue from the sky in the photo- what am I doing wrong? Should I try something else?
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Ariel Lepor |
First of all, you have to rotate the polarizer until the sky is darkest. Second of all, there might be lots of haze, especially if the sun is infront of you. So, you might need to do one of the following: a) Use graduated ND filters to darken part of the picture (the top area, sky). b) Keep the camera in position, expose one shot for the darker areas, another shot for the midtones, and a third for the sky, and combine them all into an HDR using Photoshop, Helicon Filter, or another program that can do this.
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Ariel Lepor |
Oh, by the way, if you are photographing something in the shadows and the sky at the same time, that is a very large range in brightness, and it would be very necessary to do an HDR. But, if you photograph a white house with the sun hitting it and the clear sky behind it with the sun behind you, you will notice that the sky is nice and blue.
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Alan N. Marcus |
Hi Mandy, A polarizing filter (screen) must fit correctly on you camera. The filter mount must allow you to rotate the filter. As you compose you must look through the viewfinder or scrutinize the LCD screen. You are required to rotate the polarizer for best effect. The polarizing screen is the best way to darken a blue sky in color photography. This is true because a polarizing device gives maximum darkening without changing the colors of other objects in the scene. The polarizing screen works best when you are shooting straight ahead and the sun is over your shoulder. In other words you want to shoot at a right angle (90°) to the sun. Again you must rotate the screen for best effect. Polarizing screens also reduce reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as glass or water and they help penetrate haze. Two types of polarizing screens are available. The standard or conventional screen passes light waves that vibrate only in one plane. This is the best type for most applications. A circular polarizing screen is a double filter. The first filter is a conventional polarizer. Behind it is another filter that causes the polarized light to again vibrate in all planes. A circular polarizer is required on some auto focus cameras, the ones that use a semi-silvered mirror and/or polarizing filters in the sensor light path. Sorry most camera makers will not put this in the specification sheet. A conventional polarizing screen causes these designs to fail. Alan Marcus
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