Playing with Polariser

[owen]

Hey guys, what do you think of these pics?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/ ... C_4275.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/ ... C_4286.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/ ... C_4269.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/ ... C_4264.jpg


I haven't pp'd at all besides resizing. Any comments appreciated.

Thanks,
Owen.

[flipfrog]

i like the first one the most....



i think it could be better with a bit of the sky cropped out, and maybe fix the horizon...
but nice work....

are those all with your new filter ?

[owen]

Yep, just took them at lunchtime and still trying to work out how far to turn the polariser to get good pics. I found out that making it too dark makes the photos look pretty ordinary

Thanks for checking it out.

[mudder]

G'day Owen, doesn't the CP make the sky sing! Ooops, I assume you used a CP

Everyone's different that's the beauty of an artform like photography, I'd try the landscape orientation for something like this, there's a lot of solid sky in the portrait style and all the clouds are fairly low over the horizon so the solid blue sky seems to take over the shot... Just my ramblings... First is definately my favorite... Nice shots...

[owen]

Hi Mudder.

Thanks for the comments.

I was going through and marking all the good ones, and when I went over them I realised that all the good ones were portrait orientation. The landscape ones just didn't turn out very good. I do need to play more with the CP but hopefully I'll work it out for my holiday.

Thanks for taking the time mate.
Owen.

[BBJ]

Owen, They are nice pics and i too love the effect of the CP once you have a play with it and get it right can make a picture look very nice. I love to use 1 on bright sunny days of course and well i always have mine in my bag. Here is 1 i took not so long ago when i was up in Adelaide.
cheers

[daniel_r]

Yep, just took them at lunchtime and still trying to work out how far to turn the polariser to get good pics. I found out that making it too dark makes the photos look pretty ordinary

Thanks for checking it out.

Owen,
the best way to work out how to get the best pics out of your CP is just get out there and experiment! (by the looks of your shots here, you've got that bit sorted )

random musings:
* note where the sun is - the polarising effect usually strongest when the sun is directly behind you.
* experiment with water and glass surfaces.
* my CP usually cuts about 2EV - try doing some EV adjustments in-camera and see what happens - this shot was achieved with a CP on the kit lens + a EV adjust of 1.3 (I think)
* shoot RAW if possible, PP white-balance comes in handy

Hopefully useful hints


D.

[owen]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions daniel, here are a couple more that I have had a chance to play with. I did find most of the shots under exposed significantly though (1-2 stops)

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/owenschmierer/DSC_4310-01.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/owenschmierer/DSC_4289-01.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

[jethro]

owen where is the second it looks familiar. i know it has to be south coast maybe bendalong area? or maybe jervis bay?

[owen]

They were all taken at Jervis Bay. Huskisson White Sands beach to be precise. Impressive you could recognise the place.

[jethro]

jervis bay the whitest sand on the coast. ive have heaps of pics around callala bay and the same can be said of the sand and the area.
great pics owen

[Geoff]

Beautiful shots Owen, the South Coast is beautiful and your shots remind me of my childhood holidays. One of my favourites is Hyams Beach! Definately need your sunnies on that white white sand!

[birddog114]

owen,
Very nice photos and landscape, and great works!
I've been told by your people, you were not in the office and out for work, now I've seen these photos

[thaddeus]

very nice shots owen
do you have any in landscape orientation? it would be interesting to compare the feel of the same scene with a wider as opposed to longer view. thanks

Edit: oh, just realised you have already answered the question above

[owen]

owen,
Very nice photos and landscape, and great works!
I've been told by your people, you were not in the office and out for work, now I've seen these photos

hehehe Birdy. I was actually out there for work, fixing up computers at the tourist parks out there, thought I'd take my lunch break and go shoot some photos. So you can rest assured that the ratepayers of the Shoalhaven weren't having their money wasted. It was all done in my own time

Thanks Geoff. You know I have only been to hyams beach once, and can't quite remember the scene. I will definitely have to head on back there.

Thaddeus. I will have a look and see if I can find any that will be okay to post in landscape orientation.

Thanks guys

[owen]

Here are two shots I just worked on quickly in landscape orientation...

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/owenschmierer/DSC_4290-01.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/owenschmierer/DSC_4263-01.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

I don't feel that they are as good as the portrait ones as I already mentioned.

Thanks for checking it out.
Owen.

[gstark]

Owen,

I love the first of these landscape shots, and I think that this one shows clearly one of the benefits of the CP in that in the foreground you can clearly see what's under the water, rather than a reflection off the water's surface.

While it's possible to darken the sky quite dramatically, it's this removal of the reflections that's a key point in using the CP correctly. Well done; you're well on the way to mastering this new member of your toolbox.

[owen]

Thanks Gary. That was what I was trying to achieve with all the cracks and stuff under the surface of the water. I'm actually finding that I needed to PP these shots less than ones previously taken without the CPL. I did need to dial in some exposure compensation, however saturation levels and contrast I didn't change much at all.

Thanks for the comments and help.
Owen.

[gstark]

Owen,

You'll get there. With the CPL, try to remember to dial in about +1.3 - +1.7 EC on the camera and you should be fine.

You might also like to play around with fine tuning the WB settings as well; use the front command dial while holding down the WB button and shoot some otherwise identical shots, and see which variants you like the best.

There's a lot of scope available to you with just the in-camera settings, and the closer you can get to obtaining a satisfactory (to you) image in camera, the less time you'll need to spend in PP.

[Hlop]

You'll get there. With the CPL, try to remember to dial in about +1.3 - +1.7 EC on the camera and you should be fine.

Gary,

That's an interesting point. May I ask you why? Doesn't camera's meter do the job well like in case if you use ND filter? What about blown highlights with such strong EC?

[owen]

That is what I read too. The cameras meter adjusts accordingly, however in practice I did find myself putting about that much adjustment into the exposure meter in nikon capture. Strange but true.

[gstark]

Mikhail,

Good question, and I really don't know the answer, but I do know what the results look like, and what actually works in practice.

I don't have a CPL with me ATM, (and I've never actually checked mine out) but do they have a compensating factor embossed onto the mounting ring?

[Hlop]

I don't have a CPL with me ATM, (and I've never actually checked mine out) but do they have a compensating factor embossed onto the mounting ring?

Never checked mine as well I'll have a look when I'll get back home tonight

[Hlop]

Just checked mine - there is no compensation factor on mounting ring. I'll go to do some test shots tomorrow

[owen]

None on mine either.

[mudder]

G'day Owen,

Really like that first one in landscape, the way the interesting foreground takes me further into the image really works for me... Nice shot...

[daniel_r]

I don't have a CPL with me ATM, (and I've never actually checked mine out) but do they have a compensating factor embossed onto the mounting ring?

I've found that it's sometimes noted the origami-like manual that comes with filters

From my filters:

scary kenko 67mm CPL:
"Exposure factor - depend on polarizing condition but usually 3 to 4 times exposure increase"

Marumi 62mm CPL:
"it is similar to the ordinary polarizing filter, except rays go circular, not linear, after passing through the circular polarizing filter. It elimiates possible exposure errors which may be caused by the slight polarizing of rays in cameras of the TTL system using fixed mirrors. Factor 2."

Hoya 55mm CPL:
Exposure compensation = 2 stops.


edit: Owen, Jervis bay is a great area of the South Coast - lots of great photo oppportunities - love Hyams & Murrays, Husky is great too. Not so keen when Caves goes through the dead Mutton bird season though

[PiroStitch]

I prefer the footprint photo The photo with the rock pool(?) at low tide would benefit from a crop and removing most of the foreground IMHO.

[Hlop]

You'll get there. With the CPL, try to remember to dial in about +1.3 - +1.7 EC on the camera and you should be fine.

I did few test shots today - it didn't work for me. With +1.3 EC I've got huge blown highlight. With +0.3 sky and ocean were just right but white waves foam was blown highlight also. Filter B+W MRC CPL Kaesemann