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The one filter that I always keep on my camera is a
Polarizer. The polarizer is a neutral gray filter which serves several purposes:
Protects the lens from dust, debris, and flying rocks.
Lets face it. Dust will get on your lens. Many people are concerned about how to clean
their lens, so they either don't, or they do it wrong. When you have the polarizer on your
camera, it protects the lens, and all you need to do is clean the
polarizer. If you
scratch it, it will cost much less to replace it than if you scratch your lens. Also,
although it has never happened to me, if a pebble or rock hits your lens, you might as
well fork over a few hundred dollars to replace it. If a rock hits the
polarizer, it will
break, but leave your lens unharmed. $10-$15 dollars later and you are back in business.
Cuts down on glare and reflections from water and glass.
Besides protecting your lens, the polarizer will give you more control over your pictures.
The polarizer filter itself screws onto the front of your lens. Once in place, there is an
outer ring which allows you to rotate the filter in front of the lens. This allows you to
control how much of an affect the filter will have on the pictures you take. Although the
filter can remove glare from a picture, you can spin it in such a way that the glare
remains intact. Giving another half twist to the filter removes the glare. I hate changing
lenses and filters, so this feature gives you quick control over your scene without having
to take off, or put on the filter.
Here are two thumbnails of pictures I've taken
to show you what the polarizer filter does. While both were taken with the polarizer
filter on the lens, one shows you how a scene looks when the polarizing effect is
"turned off" while the other picture shows you the exact same scene with the
polarizing effect "turned on." You can change this effect by turning the filter
90° in either direction. Click on the thumbnail to get a larger view.
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Polarizer On
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Polarizer Off |
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Brightness in the picture is better balanced
As
you can see in the above pictures, the one with the polarizer effect turned on is a better
balanced picture. The one without the polarizer effect looks too dark in some areas, and
too light in others.
Colors look richer, more lifelike
Better
brightness balance translates into better, more lifelike color. Without the
polarizer, the
pond only shows the reflection of the sky, which is overexposed. When the polarizer is
added, you can see color within in the pond. You'll also notice that the tree on the left
is much greener with the polarizer than without. This is more true to the actual color of
the tree than when a polarizer is not used.
Remember to remove your Polarizer when you are
using a flash.
Whenever I forget to do this, my pictures come back looking a
little grainy, with low contrast. I think that the polarizer cuts down the exposure by one
stop (or maybe even more when it is fully activated) and somehow screws up the camera's
ability to get the correct exposure. That's just a guess, but whatever it does, the
results are not pleasing to the eye. If you still want to protect your lens when you're
not using your polarizer, get a skylight filter. |