Forums

Please allow me to help provide food for thought on the great debate on whether to polarize or not.

I shoot outdoors with a circular polarizer at all times. I refuse to shoot outdoors without it. Here is why. I come from the premise that I am where I am and will only have this chance, this light, this train, this place, one time, and it could be a long time before I get "this opportunity" ever again. So why take a chance? Why not stack the deck in your favor by making the best of your chances to get the shot with the gear you have?

First, in either film or digital, the Media simply does not have the full range of adaptability to see what the eye can see. There are pictures that simply cannot be taken without filters, Neutral density, Graduated Neutral density or polarizers in place. The range of brightness is seen by the eye, but the optics and film or media cannot make this stretch. Further, it is always wise to shoot with a UV filter over the lens as well. These rays have a different effect on film than they will on the eye. Film and CCD's in Digital do not and cannot see what the eye sees in term of brightness to darkness in the first place and photographic Media does not "See Light" the same way our eyes can, They also do see light in ways that eyes do not, and this is apart from the "visual effects" of Focal length and Aperture/Shutter speed situations. Ultimately, we want the photo to reflect what we saw when we were there, and so we use the filters to help this process along.

What a polarizer does is align the light waves so they arrive at the film at the same time and Vertically rather than both verticaly and horizontally random times during the exposure, this is partly why color seems more real to the eye than it does on film without the Polarizer, when you look at it on slide film. It can make the difference of a shot you can use and love and a shot that goes in the trash as a failed attempt. I am a big fan of Polarized Sun Glasses. I work outdoors and the eye relief is amazing. You will notice much less eye fatigue when you use polarized glasses. In all outdoor light you will see more and see better, period. I am very biased about this as you can see but I will leave you with this thought. Cameras are nothing more than a device that meters light to something that is exposed to light. Film of various types, a CCD or what ever. All things being equal, The light, and the color of light is merely a reflection of the color something has when it is illuminated. This light wave frequency is what it is imparted by the color of what it is reflected off of, and this is what we "see". So if color looks more true when polarized than when it is not, it is still a true representation of _real_ color with only the wavelengths of that color aligned, but not altered. The frequency is still the same. Polarizers are not an effect, they are a purifier, they seem to add drama and depth, but in truth, they really do the same thing a lens does. A lens has to focus an image to capture the truth of the image and in the exact same way, the Polarizer focuses the light for truth in color.

By all means Buy a circular polarizer for your camera and use it often, It is a tool that is appropriate for getting the real image in the first place. You will be very glad you did.

Trackside with Erik and Mike Vol. 6: April 19, 2004