Polorizers-OH MY

[britt777]

Hello all and thanks for checking this post. My problem is. When photographing outside my photos seem to get very washed out. Sky that is. So I decided to use a polorizer and my photos got real dark and grey. I know polorizers are best when sun is at a 90 degree angle but I have also read using a polorizer on sunny days is alway good no matter where the sun is. If sun is not at a 90 degree angle should I just be turning the polorizer until everything appears light or what? please post tips, suggestions, comments anything that will help. Thanks so much

[britt777]

ut oh, I was trying to cut down image and when I type in 500 pixels wide. my image is still much larger than it should be. What did I do wrong? Today is not my day.

[robertwgross]

I use a polarizer a lot.

In general, a polarizer will do a good job of making a blue sky look bluer and white clouds look whiter. The effect will be at a maximum if you are 90 degrees from the sun direction. However, if you use a very wide angle lens, there will seem to be too much difference in effect from one side of the lens to the other. Therefore, be careful.

If you don't have that sunny sky situation, then you can still use the polarizer, but keep in mind that it has a cost of about two stops of light. That may be a big deal, so again be careful.

If you are around water, then the polarizer will tend to cancel out a lot of reflections. That may be good, or it may be bad. You have to decide.

---Bob Gross---