LEAVE POLARIZER FILTER ON ALL THE TIME?
Apr 11, 2016 10:05:55 #
dmdpeterdmd wrote:
Will be traveling to Europe this summer with a 28-300mm nikon lens and a D4 - wondering if I should just leave this polarizing filter on all the time.
No. In fact leave the lens home too and bring better glass.
Apr 11, 2016 10:08:24 #
mohawk51
Loc: Texas
The only three filters on my F3 I use are the polarizer, a warming filter and ND grad.
The polarizer when it's sunny, the warming filter on cloudy days and the ND when there's uneven lighting.
The polarizer when it's sunny, the warming filter on cloudy days and the ND when there's uneven lighting.
Apr 11, 2016 10:16:27 #
I leave mine on most of the time mainly as protection for the lens. Some people use a UV filter for that purpose.
The polarizer is there when I want to use it and I have not found it to create any problems when I don't really need it. But whether UV or Polarizer, you are still adding an extra layer of glass which can degrade the image, especially if it's not clean.
The polarizer is there when I want to use it and I have not found it to create any problems when I don't really need it. But whether UV or Polarizer, you are still adding an extra layer of glass which can degrade the image, especially if it's not clean.
Apr 11, 2016 10:17:02 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
mohawk51 wrote:
The only three filters on my F3 I use are the polarizer, a warming filter and ND grad.
The polarizer when it's sunny, the warming filter on cloudy days and the ND when there's uneven lighting.
The polarizer when it's sunny, the warming filter on cloudy days and the ND when there's uneven lighting.
Nikon F3? = film.
With digital both warming filters and ND Grads are unnecessary.
In fact, if using Auto White Balance, that will cancel out any effect a warming filter might have. If setting a Custom WB, that can easily be skewed for a slight warming effect (one way is with Warm Cards).
And, instead of ND Grads, with digital it's often easier, more accurate and controllable to take multiple shots (stationary subjects) or multi-process a single image (moving subjects), then merge those into a final image.
Apr 11, 2016 10:18:30 #
dmdpeterdmd wrote:
Will be traveling to Europe this summer with a 28-300mm nikon lens and a D4 - wondering if I should just leave this polarizing filter on all the time.
To add to what the other first few replies were...
...do you want to see INTO water or the REFLECTIONS OFF the surface of water. Likely both at various different times. Like virtually everything with photography, think, compose and use what your equipment can do for you.
Personally I rarely use PL filters. I used mostly older super multicoated lenses which give much more contrasty and saturated images than most modern lenses. So I get very blues skies and nice clouds with little effort. Perhaps not on totally overcast days.
Apr 11, 2016 10:19:50 #
mohawk51 wrote:
The only three filters on my F3 I use are the polarizer, a warming filter and ND grad.
The polarizer when it's sunny, the warming filter on cloudy days and the ND when there's uneven lighting.
The polarizer when it's sunny, the warming filter on cloudy days and the ND when there's uneven lighting.
F3 or D3? Warming Filters? What, film? For digital you adjust the WB.
Apr 11, 2016 10:22:50 #
amfoto1 wrote:
Nikon F3? = film. br br With digital both warming... (show quote)
And if shooting Raw, WB can be easily changed in PP.
Apr 11, 2016 10:25:39 #
Apr 11, 2016 10:36:51 #
mohawk51
Loc: Texas
amfoto1 wrote:
Nikon F3? = film. br br With digital both warming... (show quote)
True...
Apr 11, 2016 10:50:31 #
dmdpeterdmd wrote:
Will be traveling to Europe this summer with a 28-300mm nikon lens and a D4 - wondering if I should just leave this polarizing filter on all the time.
You have spent a lot of money on a lens and now are suggesting reducing the quality, reducing the aperture by about 2 stops and increasing the chance of flair. :thumbdown:
Apr 11, 2016 10:55:10 #
Polarizing adds beauty to only certain scenes. It can remove or reduce reflections, darken skies if the sun is in the appropriate place etc. Mis-use by leaving it on all the time may produce a lot of flat, poor images that cannot be rescued even in PP. Just sayin'
Apr 11, 2016 11:18:03 #
sbschippers
Loc: Baltimore MD
Sounds like a bad idea to me. You paid a lot of money for the f2.8 lens. Why make it into a f5.6? Use the polarizer when you want its effect, take it off the rest of the time.
Apr 11, 2016 11:24:51 #
SharpShooter wrote:
If you leave it on all the time, you obviously don't know what a polarizer is for!!
If I had a choice between leave any filter on all the time or leave it off, personally I'd leave it off.
If your lens was designed to have a CPO on it all the time, it would have been built into the lens!! ;-)
SS
If I had a choice between leave any filter on all the time or leave it off, personally I'd leave it off.
If your lens was designed to have a CPO on it all the time, it would have been built into the lens!! ;-)
SS
How nasty Mr. knowitall.
Apr 11, 2016 11:46:19 #
The answer to that would be determined by where you will use your camera and the particular filter you have.
If your camera does well under low light conditions, the CPL may do no harm, although it may not be of much help either.
I leave my Marumi EXUS CPL on my short zoom virtually all the time. However, it only reduces light by 1.3 stops and I rarely shoot indoors. That particular lens is mostly used for scenery pictures where the CPL is most beneficial.
If your camera does well under low light conditions, the CPL may do no harm, although it may not be of much help either.
I leave my Marumi EXUS CPL on my short zoom virtually all the time. However, it only reduces light by 1.3 stops and I rarely shoot indoors. That particular lens is mostly used for scenery pictures where the CPL is most beneficial.
Apr 11, 2016 11:47:45 #
photoman022
Loc: Manchester CT USA
Experiment before you leave! Take the filter out and shoot with it on multiple days and see what happens. I did that a couple of times and found out that my filter caused distortions under some circumstances.
The kayakers I photographed across the lake were blobs on the sensor (but I had a really nice sky and the water didn't have any reflections on it). I've had similar results on other occasions as well. It could be this particular filter (that's why I say "experiment").
Other times I've used it without any problems at all and with superior results.
Because of my own experience, with my CPL, I do not keep the Polarizing Filter on at all. I use it under certain conditions and then put it away.
The kayakers I photographed across the lake were blobs on the sensor (but I had a really nice sky and the water didn't have any reflections on it). I've had similar results on other occasions as well. It could be this particular filter (that's why I say "experiment").
Other times I've used it without any problems at all and with superior results.
Because of my own experience, with my CPL, I do not keep the Polarizing Filter on at all. I use it under certain conditions and then put it away.
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