How to Elevate your Autumn Photos using a Polarizing Filter
We are officially in Autumn! One of the most beautiful seasons for photographers to go out and take photos while Leaves are changing to beautiful reds and yellows. One of the best and most important accessories to have to capture these vibrant colors would be a Polarizing Filter. Here’s why using Polarizing filter can elevate your autumn photos as a photographer:
What is a Polarizing Filter?
A Polarizing filter or CPL (Circular Polarizing Filter) is a photographic filter that adds vividness and contrast to a scene. It also helps to either enhance or reduce reflection from a shiny or reflective surface. This filter is especially popular among landscape photographers as a first purchase to improve their photography!
Why use a CPL:
- Enhances deeply saturated colors by excluding reflected light and adds contrast to your scene
- Allows you to control light reflections you want to keep. Let's say you’re shooting a scene with a reflection, a polarizer will allow you to change the scene by enhancing the reflection or by removing it on your photo.
- CPL stops down light by 2 stops so you can use this as a ND filter as well., By doing so, it allows you to use slower shutter speeds for milky water shots.
Even with today’s advances in technology and software, CPLs still remain as one of the few filter effects that cannot be reproduced digitally, which makes this filter uniquely important for photographers that want to take it to the next level.
In Conclusion:
CPL is a basic yet essential tool for any photography enthusiasts to have. Pairing with the use of Neutral Density filters, you can create images that would have the “wow” effect that many photographers desire.
Although it can be a bit tricky to use at first, it's one filter that would be beneficial to master for your photographic growth through practice.
For more reading about balancing exposure, check out my other blog post where we talk about this in details:
https://bccamera.com/blog/how-to-balance-exposure/
Check out all the filters we carry here.
Happy Shooting!
Paolo
Your Resident Photographer at Broadway Camera