Why You Should Use a Circular Polarizer for Outdoor Photography

Hey, what's up guys, landscape photographer David Johnston here. And this is gonna be a great shoot, I can already tell, but I'm really excited for this waterfall in particular because you have like multiple cascades, you have some water that's pretty clear on top and then you have some leaves underneath that clear water that can really be a great object or complementary subject that you can shoot, that's kind of like seeing through the water. But how exactly do you do that? Well, you do that with a circular polarizer and that's either putting glare on top of the water or removing that glare from the surface of the water to really be sure you create a compelling composition to your landscape photography. Now, how exactly do you do that?

Well, I have a circular polarizer that I use right here, a Tiffen circular polarizer, and basically what you do with this circular polarizer and this filter is you attach it to the end of your lens and you spin it to remove glare off of the surface of the water or put glare back onto the surface of the water. This is really great for landscape photography just because it allows you to reveal stuff that's below the surface of the water, remove distracting highlights from the water and really be able to create a compelling water photograph. And let me show you how it works right now. Basically, all you do is put it on the end of your lens and spin it either way to reveal or conceal highlights that are on the water. So circular polarizers are also really important for, like, composition.

If you want to reveal something underneath the surface of the water, it's a really good way to add like a foreground or a leading line to your photography. So right now I'm shooting these leaves that are right beneath the surface of the water and directing up at the waterfall that's in front of me. But without a circular polarizer, you know, this is going to look really bad because you can't see those leaves underneath the surface of the water. You don't get the feeling of fall because you're not getting those leaves, those orange leaves under the water. With a circular polarizer, you can reveal those and show exactly what you're shooting beneath that surface of the water because you're able to spin that and put that polarized effect underneath the water.