Polarizing filter regret

NB23 · Jun 4, 2022

I regret NOT having used a Polarizing filter for ALL my color film photography, ever. Going through my 2005-2010 Kodachrome... my color negs from 1990 onwards... tsk tsk.

A thing which I have since corrected. I mean how can I start rivaling Gruyaert, Webb and all those masters without a Polarizer? No more Clown acting.

madNbad · Jun 4, 2022

Did someone mention polarizers? No it's not a gimmick, they really work.

Sacramento, 2009

NB23 · Jun 4, 2022

That’s good!

Sirius Glass · Jun 4, 2022

madNbad said:
Did someone mention polarizers? No it's not a gimmick, they really work.

Sacramento, 2009

Once one has one and starts using, remember to take it off sometimes so that it is not used in the wrong situation or too often. A polarizer on a very wide angle lens can cause some unusual skies in an unpleasant way.

McDiesel · Jun 4, 2022

@NB23 and how exactly are you going to do that on your Rolleiflexes and Leicas?

Paul Howell · Jun 4, 2022

There are a few special polarizers for TLR and Leica's as well. I have a very old and now likely faded SV,VI, and VII polarizers for rangefinders and the like. The Kodak version has a pin that acts as the maker to show when the polarizer is at max effect. Leica also made or still makes a polarizer.

tokam · Jun 4, 2022

I have a couple of B30 polarizers I use on a Yashicamat 124G. Once they are mounted in sync with each other I can use the filter on the viewing lens to determine degree of polarization and then set filter on taking lens to the same position. Both filters have index marks to allow duplication of the angle of polarization. (Purchased from an APUG member several years ago.)

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 4, 2022

Polarizers if used to the most degree will strip off all reflections on leaves. This tends to make it look unreal. I've found backing off a little still saturates the greens without overdoing it. Here's a picture with the polarizer turned all the way up. If all your shots look like that, it gets "old" fast.

Pond 1 by Alan Klein, on Flickr

Bill Burk · Jun 4, 2022

I regret not using the Galen Rowell graduated neutral density filters for very long before I stopped shooting Fuji Velvia.

I got 2 of the four with the Cokin holder and used them on one backpacking trip.

I think I have one scene in which I used the filters.

I never got enough experience with them. I noticed that my “yield” went down because you have to shoot several frames to get one good slide.

But then I switched to 4x5 black and white and joined APUG and abandoned color slides entirely.

NB23 · Jun 5, 2022

McDiesel said:
@NB23 and how exactly are you going to do that on your Rolleiflexes and Leicas?

Super easy, two filters, both marked on their maximum polarizing setting at 12 o’clock. One on the camera and one in your pocket. You use the one in your pocket to analyze a scene and match the mark on the filter which is on the camera.

This is very accurate.

By doing that, you quickly understand that you are usually almost always on the maximum setting with the filter set at 12 o’clock regardless if the scene, just like polarized sunglasses are always on their maximum effect because the lenses have been carefully set to the maximum effect at the 12 o’clock oosition, and so you lieave the filter at that position, and if shooting vertical, you realign the mark at the 12 o’clock position once the camera is vertical

A circular polarizing works on a 90 degree basis, not on a full 360 turn. It all pretty much becomes clear after a while.

NB23 · Jun 5, 2022

tokam said:
I have a couple of B30 polarizers I use on a Yashicamat 124G. Once they are mounted in sync with each other I can use the filter on the viewing lens to determine degree of polarization and then set filter on taking lens to the same position. Both filters have index marks to allow duplication of the angle of polarization. (Purchased from an APUG member several years ago.)

One in pocket, one on camera. All pola filters are the same. Just determine the index mark on both with nail polish.

NB23 · Jun 5, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
Polarizers if used to the most degree will strip off all reflections on leaves. This tends to make it look unreal. I've found backing off a little still saturates the greens without overdoing it. Here's a picture with the polarizer turned all the way up. If all your shots look like that, it gets "old" fast.

Pond 1 by Alan Klein, on Flickr

You have to decide: to keep the reflection on the water or not.

tokam · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
One in pocket, one on camera. All pola filters are the same. Just determine the index mark on both with nail polish.

That will work as well. Advantage is that you don't have to use B30 filters if you have an appropriate step-up ring.

My way with 2 x B30 filters is for convenience and I can use the correct Rollei / Yashica lens hood without affecting the view through the top lens.

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
You have to decide: to keep the reflection on the water or not.

That reflection in the water is with the polarizer on full. But note the lifeless greens in the foliage. Polarizers saturate the color of foliage by removing specular highlights and natural light reflections. But it kills the leaves making them look lifeless. So now, I back off from the full polarizer effect.

Sirius Glass · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
Super easy, two filters, both marked on their maximum polarizing setting at 12 o’clock. One on the camera and one in your pocket. You use the one in your pocket to analyze a scene and match the mark on the filter which is on the camera.

This is very accurate.

By doing that, you quickly understand that you are usually almost always on the maximum setting with the filter set at 12 o’clock regardless if the scene, just like polarized sunglasses are always on their maximum effect because the lenses have been carefully set to the maximum effect at the 12 o’clock oosition, and so you lieave the filter at that position, and if shooting vertical, you realign the mark at the 12 o’clock position once the camera is vertical

A circular polarizing works on a 90 degree basis, not on a full 360 turn. It all pretty much becomes clear after a while.

Maximum filtering may be the strongest effect, but not the best choice. I always wondered how TLRs and RF used polarizers, so I stuck to SLRs of all formats.

NB23 · Jun 5, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
Maximum filtering may be the strongest effect, but not the best choice. I always wondered how TLRs and RF used polarizers, so I stuck to SLRs of all formats.

I explained how to use filters on those cameras: a pola filter in your pocket with the same index mark as the one on the camera.

NB23 · Jun 5, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
That reflection in the water is with the polarizer on full. But note the lifeless greens in the foliage. Polarizers saturate the color of foliage by removing specular highlights and natural light reflections. But it kills the leaves making them look lifeless. So now, I back off from the full polarizer effect.

Yes, but maybe a turn of the polarizer would have canceled the reflection on the water while adding some back into the leaves. That’s how a circular polrizer works.

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
Yes, but maybe a turn of the polarizer would have canceled the reflection on the water while adding some back into the leaves. That’s how a circular polrizer works.

Move the polarizer around until it gets to the point you think reflects the best picture. And snap.

NB23 · Jun 5, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
Move the polarizer around until it gets to the point you think reflects the best picture. And snap.

So you decided to prefer keeping the reflection instead?

Sirius Glass · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
I explained how to use filters on those cameras: a pola filter in your pocket with the same index mark as the one on the camera.

I had not heard that method before. I had seen people hold the polarize in front of their eyes and then attempt to keep the same orientation when they put it back on the camera.

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
So you decided to prefer keeping the reflection instead?

No. I was showing a bad picture where I used a 100% polarizing effect that washed out the greens. I should have reduced the effect so some specular highlights were retained in the foliage. The water would be what it would be. Like most things, there are tradeoffs.

BobUK · Jun 5, 2022

In the seventies I saw a rotating polariser set for TLRs.
It had two filters in one mount, one above the other with both filter holders connected to each other by small hidden gears.
As one holder was rotated the gears drove the other holder in the same direction. In that way what you saw through the viewing lens was the same as the the image passing through the taking lens.
I am afraid I cannot remember the make, but they were beyond my pocket at the time.

tokam · Jun 5, 2022

BobUK said:
In the seventies I saw a rotating polariser set for TLRs.
It had two filters in one mount, one above the other with both filter holders connected to each other by small hidden gears.
As one holder was rotated the gears drove the other holder in the same direction. In that way what you saw through the viewing lens was the same as the the image passing through the taking lens.
I am afraid I cannot remember the make, but they were beyond my pocket at the time.

You could be thinking of the Minolta Autopol. Be surprised if Rollei didn't make one as well. Don't know if Yashica offered one.

Although all three manufacturers sold TLR's using the B30 / Bay 1 filter size I don't know if the spacing between viewing lens and taking lens was standardised meaning that the Minolta Autopol may not mount on Rolleis and Yashicas etc.

I was lucky to score 2 x B30 polarizers which can be used on a variety of TLR's. Or you can use @NB23's approach and mount a polarizer on the taking lens, (use a step-up ring if not B30 size), and hand hold a separate polarizer. Make sure that the filter on the taking lens is mounted to a known index mark as per your hand held filter.

reddesert · Jun 5, 2022

NB23 said:
A circular polarizing works on a 90 degree basis, not on a full 360 turn. It all pretty much becomes clear after a while.

All polarizing filters have a 180 degree symmetry, that is if you set the filter mark at 1 o'clock, it has the same pictorial effect as if you set the mark at 7 o'clock. They filter the linearly polarized light entering the filter from the scene.

Circular polarizing filters have an additional component behind the polarizer that un-linear-polarizes the light entering the lens. This aids certain metering and auto-focus systems that would not work right with linearly polarized light (because they use a beamsplitter or similar components). The additional piece is called a quarter wave plate. It has no pictorial effect. It's still true that a CPL filter has the 180 degree symmetry.

A side effect of the CPL construction is that if you turn a CPL back to front, it will have only a greatly reduced pictorial effect (because the light from the scene passes through the quarter-wave plate before the linear polarizer). So be careful which way you hold the viewing filter.

Paul Howell · Jun 5, 2022

I don't think Yaschica made a polarizer, does not appear in the manual with other filters and lens hood. I used a SVI polarizer, in a adaptor that fits over the taking lens outer ring. Had to guess as the effect, worked sort of ok, not ideal.

Polarizing filter regret

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