Winsor Crosby wrote:
> You are such a lucky guy. It is a clear air effect.
>
> I used to be accused of using a polarizer with my hiking shots
> because people had never seen blue skied unbleached by dust and
> moisture. This picture obviously has the sun behind the shadowed
> hill. The other one you posted shows lightening near the horizon
> where the thick atmosphere is. Of course the wide angle exaggerates
> the effect.
I believe Winsor's bang on the money. This is quite common in wide
angle shots in Western Canada, where we have lots and lots of clear air
-- I see it in every few shots I take of landscapes. It also shows up
when you're doing panos.
Basically, as you look toward the sun, you're also looking through water
vapour, low-level ozone, etc. Most of these particulates/molecules do
*not* scatter light widely; for example, it's unusual that sunlight
would be reflected 90 degrees off-axis. But, say, 20 degrees? Sure, no
problem. The sky near the sun tends to seem "washed out" by this
effect, because scattered sunlight's coming at you from a "halo" around
the sun.
Turn 90 degrees away from the sun in either direction, and you'll see
less of this effect in the sky. (Polarized light from other effects may
be greater, though.)
I've tried playing with a polarizer to reduce this effect. It works
*slightly*, but not enough to really float my boat. I assume that the
scattered light near the sunlight's axis of origin (WRT the observer) is
either not strongly polarized or there's something else going on that
I'm too scientifically illiterate to comprehend. (Probably the latter
-- I expect many replies by Listees ready to pounce on my simplistic
explanation.)
But there's nothing "odd" about your lens (other than it captures a
HOOGE HONKING ANGLE OF VIEW, an "oddness" I dearly covet). ;-)
Garth
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