How to Use a Polarizer Filter in Landscape Photography

Hi, I'm Ian Plant. And right now I'm photographing the beautiful temperate rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. This is a landscape that's just covered in forest and has thousands of streams and waterfalls. And when you're working in an environment like this a polarizer filter is your secret weapon. Getting photographs that show rich contrast and saturation.

A polarizer filter enhances color and contrast in a photograph by reducing the appearance of glare which is basically a reflection of the sky that appears on reflective surfaces such as wet rocks or foliage, or some foliage is a waxy surface that will reflect a little bit of the sky. So that glare is going to show up as bright annoying hotspots in your photograph. That's going to be distracting and it's going to block the native color from shining through. So when you use a polarizer filter you can eliminate that glare and you can show more of that beautiful native color that's underneath. Polarizer filters designed to affix to the front of your lens and you just screw it on.

And then the front element rotates and this will change the degree of polarization. So you rotate the front element until you get the strongest polarization effect. As you rotate the polarizer you'll see the glare appear, disappear, and reappear again as you keep on spinning. So you want to get it to that position where you get the full polarization effect and the glare disappears. So I'll typically use a polarizer when I'm photographing a forest scene like this, that's got a lot of beautiful lush foliage.

Spring, summer, and fall are all great times to photograph foliage using a polarizer. I'll also use a polarizer when I'm photographing streams and waterfalls. The polarizer is really great at getting rid of that annoying, hot glare. That's all around any of the wet rocks that are around the stream. So you can really bring out the contrast in the color in the waterfall scene.

when you're photographing streams of waterfall. That's where a polarizing filter really shines. Just remember when using a polarizer, it cuts down on the amount of light that's coming through the lens. You typically lose one to two stops of light but that can be a good thing because when you're photographing waterfalls you want to get longer exposure effects to get that silky smooth, look to the water. You'll get the strongest polarization effect when you have your camera pointed 90 degrees away from the source of light that you're seeing.

Just remember that on a cloudy day the entire sky acts like a giant reflector. So really pretty much anywhere in the sky is part of that light source. So you'll be able to use a polarizer on a cloudy day in just about any direction that you point and still get a really strong polarizing effect. Just be aware that sometimes when you're using a polarizing filter you're not going to be able to completely eliminate all of the glare in the scene. So what I do is I spin the front element until I get rid of glare in the places that are most important in my photograph.

So remember the next time you're photographing a stream or waterfall or a beautiful forest scene, reach for a polarizer filter to enhance color and contrast in the final photo. I'm Ian Plant, And thanks for watching.