Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Current thinking at my department is to perhaps invest in the new Zeiss
> manual focus 21mm Nikon mount wide angle. . . .
>
> Which brings me closer to the question. I have a circular polarizer for the
> 24-70, and I'm not afraid to use it. But I've also noticed that the wider the
> shot, the more likely the polarizer is to fade out, leaving a part of the sky
> a rich blue, and the rest of it, well, not so much. (Unless you're dead-on 90
> degrees from the sun.)
>
> Example: http://www.bwp33.com/page5/files/page5-1000-full.jpg
>
It's my opinion that polarizers on digital should be reserved for
controlling specular highlight reflections and for "seeing through"
water and glass. In my experience, it's easier to add the darkening
effects to sky in post than to correct for uneven darkening from a
polarizer in post.
In this particular case, it's not hard to do a decent job of correction
even on such a small image. However, the circular gradient filter I used
to equalize sky brightness across the frame doesn't quite match the
polarizer created gradient. It's not too troublesomely obvious on this
small image, but might be on a larger one. I believe the final result
would be better from the same image taken without any polarizer at all.
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Whitmire/PolarSky.htm>
> Seems like it would be even worse on a 21. The Zeiss 21 will take a
> polarizer, but I'm wondering if it would be worth buying. I know some of you
> folks have much wider lenses than I do, and so it seemed the logical place to
> bring up questions of value when it comes to polarizers and extreme wide
> angle lenses.
>
You are correct. The wider the lens, the worse the problem of uneven
sky. In fact, it starts to happen even without polarizer with very wide
lenses and some sun angles. Here's a 17 mm shot of some nice Maine
clouds that may have been hanging over Round Pond, as I think that's
sorta the direction of the shot.
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/tech/Process/Polarize/Polar.htm>
As is often the case, it's necessary to take a step that makes the image
worse on the way to something better. As shot, the image has darker sky
in the upper left, moving to much lighter in the lower right.
Application of a gradient layer corrects that, but makes the sky flat.
LCE and Curves adjust micro and macro contrast. I then thought the blue
might be overdone, so tried toning it down. Individual tastes for color
and contrast of the final image will vary, but the basic process is
relatively straightforward.
> (And sorry for actually talking about photography. I promise not to do it
> again for a while.)
>
Oops, me to. :-)
Moose
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