Shooting boats on water - circular polarizer advisable?

[Lightstream]

Hi folks,

Wanted to get your opinions. I might be shooting some boats on water soon, and I went to get some test frames under similar conditions. See the attachment for what the water looks like.

In your opinion, would you recommend a circular polarizer to kill the reflections on the water? Contrast is a bit lacking IMO. I completely forgot that I was wearing polarized shades, and thus the view thru the finder was a little bit different from what hit the sensor because of the shades in front of my eyes ;) (yeah, talk about 'rear filters'..)

[tzalman]

Definitely recommended, providing it is good quality.

[DannyG]

In all my shooting on the water I only use a polarizer about 10% of the time. If you going to be shooting sailboats, many of the new high-tec sails will end up with an undesirable rainbow effect when using the filter. Also know that the polarizer is most effective when it's 90 degrees to your line of sight. If the sun is behind you it won't do much good. The filter I use the most is a graduated filter that will help balance the bright sky with the darker water and boats. Bottom line, if you composition will be primarily the boat, close up, you don't need the filter. I do use the polarizer often when I'm shooting shorescapes and to answer your question, I use circular filters from B+W.

________________
Dan
website (http://www.danmurdoch.com)

[PhotosGuy]

If you have a blue sky, then a CP could be good. I wouldn't use one with a gray sky as the water might reveal a nice brown color. Best to try & decide for the conditions that you have on that day. I didn't use one on this cloudy day & felt that the results were better without one:
Radio Controlled Boats (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=101101)