Polarizers – Lighthouse

[daz]

This is a photo of an old lighthouse. I know it doesn’t look much like a house but that is because the point (the place to put the light) was on a mud flat. The house (the place the keeper lived) is behind me on good dry land. So what is here is just the light. Some time later the CG come in and had the mud filed in so now it is a park with grass.

Now on to the polarizer part. I use a polarizer often but I usually only take the photo I want using the polarizer not a photo both ways so this was a little different. A polarizer can be used to reduce a refection but it can also be used to isolate the refection you want from those you don’t. It can be used to not only darken the sky and water but also make other thing look brighter. In this case it increases the contrast. For this photo I cheated a little. I did not remove the polarizer I just rotated it to show the deference. In general if you put a polarizer on you will get a 1 stop reduction in exposer. This is true if the light is all equally random in polarization. But if more of the light is of 1 polarization then the others you can get more then 1 stop.

These two photos are just out of the camera (the only PP was resizing). The photo that I turned the polarizer to reduce the sky/water reflections is at 1/400 and the one that shows all the sky/water reflections is at 1/640. This is about a ½ stop difference. If I had taken the polarizer off it would have been over 1 ½ stops. In this photo the use of a polarizer is not to just make the sky/water reflections less but helps the lighthouse look whiter and the mountains stand out more.

As a rule having the sun 90 degrees to what you are trying to use a polarizer on is true but fare from always the only time to use a polarizer. In this photo the sun was almost behind me. I have found that for me the best way to know when to us a polarizer is (when it is sunny of course) to ware polarized sunglasses. I have a pear I ware for photography. With just a little tilt of my head or a quick flip up I can see if a polarizer maybe a good idea. I have found the best places to get good polarized sunglasses are where they cater to fishermen. Some place like the Bass Pro shop or Cabela's. You can get some extremely good (and extremely expensive) sunglasses there but you don’t need that expensive just a good pair. The one I have are only about $25. I would recommend for photography going with glasses that are color neutral.

DAZ

[calr]

Nice job, Daz. An excellent example of the use of a polarizer.

Cal

[mtngal]

A good example. I took something today that showed similar changes, but yours is a better picture. Very nice!

[selvin]

Great example.

[wave01]

very nice