To all ye who want to paint with light ...

I should have started this blog many moons ago as I started experiencing the joys of rediscovering the art of photography. But as the saying goes - it's better late, than never!
So, here I am, in the hopes of recording what I learn as I progress from ignorance to enlightenment; about what my eyes can see that my camera can capture; and, what my mind imagines and my camera paints with its capabilities.

Please feel free to add any comments and share your wisdom (tips or tricks) that you have picked up along the way.

And do check out my How-To and Birding pages as well.


Monday, February 22, 2010

To polarize or not to polarize

I'm doing a lot of experimentation with the C-PL right now and I wanted to post just two shots of what I found about reflections on indoor objects, both under natural (details in my earlier post of yesterday) or artificial light (under tungsten).  I took a shot of this hand-painted plate first without the C-PL and the next with it.

I shot both at ISO 200, f8, 2.5s.  The first one @100 mm and the second one @96 mm (don't remember why I changed that all of a sudden, but it's not much of a difference anyway).

Here are my findings:


The one above is without the C-PL.  Notice the colours, and especially the washed-out effect on the bottom edge of the plate.  It almost has a glare.


This second one is with the C-PL on.  I think the colours are much richer and practically no glare since there are no reflections.  And honestly, this is closest to the original colours of the plate.  I find the saturation pretty appealing.

My finding of the day, therefore is the C-PL must be great for the outdoors (since that's the main reason I got it in the first place after my disappointments at the Old Port recently), but I'm finding that it could be a good tool to use indoors as well when the lights aren't ideal.


Would love to hear back from the others about what your thoughts are on this.  I am right now in R&D mode and will keep experimenting to push the boundaries.  

Happy clicking!

P.S. I'm planning to start a Photo 365.  Any tips are greatly welcome. :-)

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