A use for polarizers

[Gord]

The rainbow and swans scene I took worked better with a polarizer. It was a bit of a dark day and not one that losing light with a polarizing filter would be very appealing. But, using a tripod (I didnt have one though) can still make the result ok.

The first one is without a polarizing filter. The exposure is more or less ok, but the rainbow does not stick out very well (partly because it was not a strong one)



The polarizer helps bring out the rainbow colours and also the clouds are a little more sharply defined. It is still more or less correctly exposed, but the colours are enhanced. I think it works a little better.



I welcome any thoughts or comments. Thought it was worthwhile to show that the polarizer is not only to enhance a blue sky or cut down on reflections.

[kenpossum]

Very Interesting Gord. I have never seen a polarizer work to enhance a rainbow, as usually the polarizer will make it disappear. It depends upon the angle from the sun. If the sun is at your back (180 degrees) the polarization effect should be nil and the rainbow will not be affected. The extra dark glass would act as a neural density filter and darken your image. I believe that is what you have here.

[Chris]

Would polarizers work to cut down the 'white' of snow? When I have taken pictures of birds in snow, the white can be too much to handle.

[kenpossum]

They can bring more contrast to the scene, giving the opposite of what you want, so the short answer is no. What whites are washed out, stays washed out.