A polarizing filter reduces reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as windows and water. In doing so it also increases contrast and makes colours saturated to give more impact and depth to photographs.
It will make blue skies look really deep to add drama to your land and seascapes. Best results are with the sun at 90 degrees to you.
Slip the polarising filter over the lens and rotate it while you look through the viewfinder. If you use one on a camera without a direct viewer hold the filter in front of your eye, adjust and then with it in the same position fit over the lens.
It works best at about 40 degrees angle from the reflective surface.
Polarising filters have a filter factor of about 3-4 which is 1.5 to 2 stops exposure increase.
Use two polarising filters together and you can create a variable neutral density filter.
Use a polariser with a red filter and you have a powerful filter for infrared.
A linear polariser is best used with older manual cameras and a circular polariser with modern AF cameras.
It’s one of the few filters that cannot be replicated digitally.
Links to buy
Hoyarex 611 Linear Polariser
Hoyarex 621Circular Polariser
Cokin A160 Linear Polariser
Cokin P Linear Polariser
Hoya 49mm Circular Polariser
Jessops 62mm Circular Polariser
Check this page Filters For Sale regularly for updates and other filters
In the early days of the polarising filter there was just one type – the linear. The circular type arrived when the cameras with advanced metering (and later focusing) systems arrived. The Canon T90 and Olympus OM4 both had new advanced TTL metering that would be affected by the way a linear polarising filter worked. So A circular had to be used instead.
Later, when autofocus came along, some systems got confused by the affect of the polariser. So, as a rule of thumb, use a linear on old manual and semi automatic cameras and circular on newer modern multi menu models.
If you do have a linear filter and a modern sophisticated digital SLR it will still work, but you may get inconsistent exposures. This is easily rectified by looking on the LCD preview and reshooting with necessary compensation applied.
The top ten filters you should own will obviously vary from person to person but our choice is most definitely the following:
- 1 Circular Polariser (glare reduction and colour saturation)
- 2 Grey Grad 4x (balance sky brightness)
- 3 Skylight (protects lens)
- 4 Neutral Density x4 (reduces overall exposure)
- 5 81A (warms up skin tones)
- 6 Close up +4 (for the macro shots)
- 7 Grey Grad 2x (a weaker variation on 2)
- 8 Neutral Density x8 (a stronger variation on 4)
- 9 Softar style diffuser (best softener for when you cant be bothered doing it in Photoshop)
- 10 Star 8 (Adds star burst to shot – great for jewellery)
Good selection? Let us know your top ten.
