Polarizers and 90 degrees to the sun question

So i know that a polarizer works best at 90 degrees to the sun. Does that mean if i do landscapes at 12 noon i can pretty much shoot in any direction as long as i rotate the CPL to cut off reflections? Will it also give maximum effect since it is 90 degrees to anything at 12 noon?

At local noon, which may not correspond exactly to the clock time. And the latitude will make a difference too (seasonally). Not going to be as much an issue in Indonesia as it would in South Africa, say, but in Nome, Alaska, on June 21, when the sun essentially never sets, that zone of max. polarization is going to dip well below the southern horizon while flying above the northern one.

Well ok i guess since im on the equator i didnt think of it like that. Its just that i got a request to do a family shoot at 12pm harsh sun. The first thing i saw was shadows were directly below without showing any direction. I chose to use a polarizer and it definately saved my butt by reducing the contrast between shaded areas and sunlit areas. The use of a flash also helped a great deal and i realised that doing a session in mid day sun is not as traumatic as i had experienced before. If the sun is directly overhead, it is afterall close enough to 90 degrees to the camera axis which made shooting in any direction possible. I was also wondering if anyone uses mid day harsh sun with polarizers for landscape as a rule or if the golden hour is still the better choice but then you will be forced to compose accoring to the position of the sun.

I suspect it was more the flash than the polarizer that helped in that shoot. You might have tamed some skin reflections, but not much else. Fill would have done more to level the lighting.

boerewors wrote in post #14153978
Its just that i got a request to do a family shoot at 12pm harsh sun.

Personally, I would have turned that job down if I couldn't get them in the shade. Even with a strobe or reflector, there's going to be some squinting in the eyes.

Jon wrote in post #14155082
I suspect it was more the flash than the polarizer that helped in that shoot. You might have tamed some skin reflections, but not much else. Fill would have done more to level the lighting.

I agree. Look at these: One shot has flash fill, but I like the others best. Notice the detail in the black coat & white boa.
Angeline outdoors

Nooo it was not a paid shoot, i am still in the learning curve for this sort of stuff. I only get paid if someone requests me to do a wedding or the odd studio work. Well here is one example from the shoot. Maybe the flash did the job but usually without a polarizer, the dappled light does not show colour as it does here. The green grass and background vegetation is just specular highlights without the polarizer.