The Many (Almost Magical) Uses of a Polarizing Filter

If someone told you that they could sell you a single lens filter that could darken blue skies, saturate colors, remove surface reflections (including window reflections), intensify rainbows and reduce haze--would you buy it? You bet you would. And a polarizing filter can do all of those things and, at times, they seem like an almost magical accessory.

Polarizing filters are one of the most versatile and important photo accessories that you can own and, even though I use one less with digital cameras than I did with film cameras (I'll explain why in a minute), I still use one regularly. Polarizing filters work (there's a lot of physics going on here and you can find lots of info online if you're curious) by blocking certain wavelengths of light from entering the lens and allowing others. They are sold in a rotating mount that screws to the front of your DSLR lenses and as you rotate the filter, it blocks different wavelengths. Among the things that a polarizing filter does superbly well:

• Darken blue skies. Be blocking extraneous scattered light reflections in the atmosphere, you can rotate the filter to darken blue skies. I use them less for this than I used to because I can create the same sky-darkening in editing and have somewhat more control. I also feel that polarizing filters tend to over-darken skies with digital cameras if you're not careful about exposure and the exact rotation position. Sky darkening works best when the sun is to your right or your left (of shooting position) and not at all when the sun is behind or in front of you. You can see the effect in the viewfinder as you turn the filter and as you alter your position to the light.
  
• Saturate colors. Again, because you're blocking superfluous surface reflections, when you turn a filter the colors of things like leaves and grass or people's clothing becomes more (or less) saturated. This is the main thing that I used to use polarizing filters for, but again, I can saturate colors more selectively in editing. Still, I will sometimes use a polarizing filter with landscapes where I want to control the color saturation at the time I'm shooting.
  
• Eliminate reflections. This is something you can't do very easily in editing! You can remove reflections from any nonmetallic surfaces just by rotating the filter. If you're shooting a store-window display, for example, you can penetrate the reflections to reveal what's behind the glass. This can be a real life saver in a lot of situations, especially when you're traveling and might shoot a lot of store windows or displays.
• Reduce atmospheric haze. Polarizing filters are much more efficient at reducing haze (not fog) than so-called "UV" (ultra-violet) filters and they're essential in landscape photography for that reason.
  
• Intensify rainbows. No joke! By reducing the atmospheric haze and by blocking certain wavelengths of light you can strengthen the colors of a rainbow substantially. And because you can see the effect in the viewfinder, you can decide how much intensity you want (yeah, like anyone would dial up less than maximum color with a rainbow).
  

Polarizing filters are not inexpensive and you will probably spend between $40-100 on a good one. If you're using auto-focus lenses, be sure to buy a "circular" filter, but check your lens or camera manual to be sure of the type you need.

Reflect on Autumn's Beauty

As beautiful as autumn in New England is, photographing it has always been a double-edged sword for me. On one hand, I find it to be (visually, at least) the most beautiful and inspiring season. The light at this time of year, with the sun lower in the sky and the lighting softer and more golden, combined with the radiance of the autumn leaves changing, is a soul-expanding experience.

On the other hand, beautiful as it is, I find it difficult to photograph, partly because trying to capture that beauty in a mere photograph can be overwhelming. I struggle between looking for the quintessential New England autumn shots of barns and covered bridges surrounded by flaming trees and searching out simpler, more symbolic images--a leaf floating in a stream, or a single golden branch against a radiant blue sky. The worst thing to do probably is to just drive around "looking" for pictures. I do, of course, scout around town by car for a half hour or so, but I find that parking, getting out and taking a closer look at simple scenes is often the best way to find pictures. It's really tough to spot winners at 30 mph!

Perhaps because I find fall to be such a reflective time, I often seem drawn to create compositions that include actual reflections. Reflections work nicely with autumn foliage partly, I think, because they double up on the color in a scene and also because we all seem to find reflections interesting, even alluring. By including the edge of the pond in this scene, for example, I was able to include the leaves twice--once in the scene and once in the reflection--while at the same time adding an interesting foreground.

You can intensify the colors in a reflection by using a polarizing filter if you position yourself at an angle of about 45-degrees from the surface of the water. Polarizing filters are set in a rotating mount and as you turn the filter you'll see the reflection become stronger and then (if you keep rotating it) the reflections will largely disappear. If you're shooting scenes that include a blue sky, you can also use a polarizing filter to darken blue skies, though I use them a lot less often now that I shoot digitally because I can adjust the skies more accurately in editing. I will write more about polarizing filters in a future posting, however.

By the way, I will say without shame that I warmed up this shot a tad during the RAW conversion process by increasing the color temperature of the white balance. There is not, surprisingly enough, much saturation going on; just increasing the warmth was enough to intensify the colors quite a bit. Incidentally I'm addicted to using the RAW format now and feel free to post a comment or write if you'd like me to talk more about why I now love RAW so much (and this is a relatively new development for me!).

Here's an interesting historical side note about the pond in this shot: Peck's Mill Pond is just a mile from my house and in 1899 it was the scene of the worst train disaster in New England history up to that point. A trolley went off its tracks crossing a small bridge over the pond and 36 people were trapped inside and killed. I grew up in this town and have always known of the tragedy that took place at the pond and so (speaking of reflections) there is some element of reflection on that tragic event whenever I shoot photos of that pond.

Reflect on Less Conventional Compositions

In some ways photography can be a very literate graphic medium: if you aim the camera at a sailboat passing through the sunset everyone will look at your photograph and know exactly what you had in mind when you shot it. But just how obvious your subjects are is really up to you--they can be literate and straightforward, or you can spin them slightly into the abstract.

One way to turn away from reality a bit is to literally turn away from your subject and look for its reflection. You can find reflections in some of the most unexpected places--shiny car fenders, polished car hubcaps or even in the surface of a puddle after the rain.

I shot the photo here in Galilee, Rhode Island (a beautiful New England fishing village if you're looking for one too shoot) during the peak of a very colorful sunset. But after spending about 20 minutes watching the sunset get more and more intense and framing it against very common subjects like the rigging on fishing boats and a ferry boat passing by, I wanted to find something that would capture the color and drama of the sunset in a dramatic but more freeform way. As I walked along the pier between giant fishing boats, I noticed that the sunset was reflecting in the almost quicksilver surface of the water and so I tried to shoot photos of just the reflection--but something was missing. The shot could have been made anywhere and I wanted it to have some connection to the locale.

Then as I came out between two boats tied to a narrow dock, I saw this rope hanging down into the sunset from the side of a fishing boat and it was exactly what I was after. I don't know if anyone else gets the sunset/fishing boat connection, but because of the snippet of the boat in the shot, I'll never forget where I shot it. The waterline stripe on the boat and the rope bring back the moment perfectly for me. I've made other similar shots of reflections to get the same effect--once photographing the Eiffel Tower in the reflection of a tour-bus window and another time photographing neon signs reflecting in the windshield of a car in Las Vegas.

Sometimes turning away from your subject and looking for reflections is the best way to find new viewpoints. Not everyone will appreciate your flights into whimsy, but who cares. It's a great exercise in expanding your creative reach.

Include Interesting Reflections

Like almost everyone, I've always loved the great photography that is published in National Geographic and I've learned a lot by studying how they were made and what made the shots so special. One of the first National Geographic photos that made a huge impression on me was a photograph of a sunset in a church window in the midwest. I don't recall who the photographer was or where exactly the shot was made, but the photographer did a beautiful job of showing a colorful sunset sky reflected in the simple window of a small-town church. Since then, I've always made it a point to try to find interesting or colorful reflections in windows, especially when the subject itself was somewhat low-key and simple.

The shot here is a worker's shack at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park (see yesterday's post) in Florida. I shot it very late in the day and the sun was behind the building, so that the front of the building was in almost complete shadow. I liked the shot but it was kind of bland from most angles. But as I explored more I began to see that from certain angles the palm trees and a barn behind me were being illuminated by the late afternooon sun and reflected in the shack windows. Beautiful! Once I knew that I wanted that reflection I just kept moving until I got a colorful but simple pattern of reflected light in the window.

And yes, I did boost the reflection's colors a bit in Photoshop using the hue/saturation tool. I used the individual-color pull down menu (at the top of the hue/saturation tool box) and "pushed" the yellow and green a bit to make the reflection pop. There is a tutorial about saturating individual colors on my main site.

By the way, finding the best place to stand to get a good reflection is easier if you remember a little bit of high school physics and the laws of reflection: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. If you were to draw a perpendicular line straight out from the center of the window and then stood to one side of that line, whatever you saw reflecting in the glass would be (on the opposite side of that line) at the exact angle that you are standing from the window. Here's a really simple diagram that explains it. And you thought all those hours napping in your high school physics would never come back to haunt you!

Wait for Still Waters

Here's a quick tip that I use a lot in my own work: If you're shooting a small harbor on a breezy day, wait until just before the sunset begins and you'll notice that the surface of the water gets a lot smoother--creating pretty reflections and streaks of color. As the sun sets, breezes tend to die down and that creates that pretty calendar-look sheen to the water.

I can actually see the moment happen sometimes when the water is a bit choppy one minute and then glassy smooth the next. I really prefer that smooth, slippery look to the water's surface and I love the reflections that it creates. I shot this scene in Stonington, Maine just after the sun hit the horizon but before the actual sunset had begun. The colors are still fairly neutral at this time so you get a natural-looking scene that has an almost soft-focus sheen to it. A few minutes after this frame was shot, of course, the sun had set and the colors began to warm significantly--creating a whole new dynamic.