VEGAS! GRAND CANYON!!

[Mav]

Alfred, what do you shoot with anyways? If your proposed solution to almost everything is to shoot in RAW and bracket which I've seen you post multiple times now then it makes me think that either you have bad photographic technique, or your camera has the most unbelievably crappy JPEG handling, or both. As if it's simply not possible to get it right in the camera the first time. YOU CAN

Some circular polarizer samples: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121907

My CP filter actually reduced contrast in those photos because it was filtering out unwanted light reflections off of both leaves and water and making a far more pleasing photo. Got a bright sky and a darker foreground? Use a grad ND filter. I commonly use a 2-stop. Do you have a very contrasty scene in general? Manually lower the contrast setting on your camera, and pay close attention to your histograms on-camera. If you happen to shoot Nikon, it has Auto Contrast and will reel in contrast automatically for you. The newer ones have adaptive dynamic range (D-lighting) which when switched on handle highlights far better. I'm approaching 30,000 shots between my two Nikon DSLRs and have never had contrast issues on any of the JPEGs, and I don't even know how to use the bracketing feature on my D80, and almost never need to shoot RAW. Most of my photos look great straight off the camera and need little if any post work.

 

[Mav]

BTW, you CAN use circular polarizers on ultra wide lenses. You just have to be careful that you don't get the splotchy sky effect. You can see this easily as you're composing, and also on the image review. I have a special Nikon 77mm CP filter which is HUGE and I've used it on my Tokina 11-16 no-problemo. Yes you do have to be careful and pay attention though.

 

[davebmck]

I'm also going to Utah this summer, and I plan to take a lot of shots with my soon to have 10-20mm and my 18-55mm lenses.

I just want to recap this thread, so which filters would be necessary for Utah shots in the summer?

As others have mentioned you want to use a circular polarizer and a hood. I just got back from Arizona/Utah and shot about 800 shots. I got the best results with my circular polarizer by turning it slightly off of the darkest position.

 

[davebmck]

Another caveat:
polarising increases the contrast of a scene. The contrast will soon exceed your sensor's dynamic range capacity, and so your image will not be able to reproduce the original scene's contrast anywhere near faithfully.
If you shoot RAW, and bracket, you will be able to recover much of the original contrast range in post production. And even give you the option to apply HDR techniques.

Why would you bracket when shooting raw? You can adjust the the exposure 2 or 3 stops in Camera Raw. The most important thing is to not over-expose the shot. If the highlights get clipped, you can't get them back.

 

[kundalini]

Wow, methinks some erroneous information is being spewed in this thread as well as some very good information.

Get yourself a CPL filter, IMO preferably a slim B+W (77mm will set you back ~$165). Keep in mind that it will achieve maximum effect when turned 90° to the sun, but can benefit the composition regardless.

While it is true that if you blowout (clip) one of your color channels you will have lost data and unable to recover, if you underexpose and attempt to recover in post, you will effectively also increase noise. Best to keep chimping and get that sucker exposed right in camera.

Bracketing will benefit you if you want to try HDR work or combine multiple exposures of the same scene. A Graduated ND filter is a better alternative IMO. If you shoot RAW, you can make correction much easier with a lossless edit. Also think about how big your files will accumulate while your "out there". Have you enough memory and some way to tranfer in the field?

There was one or two ther things, but it's late, I'm tired and someone else will come up behind me and say what a load of bull I have said.

Good Luck.

 

[abraxas]

...
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There was one or two ther things, but it's late, I'm tired and someone else will come up behind me and say what a load of bull I have said.

Good Luck.

Tap, tap, tap,... ... No one?

As of this moment, it's getting really, really, really hot out here.

If you shoot during daylight hours, keep your equipment out of the sun (I keep a couple blankets over everything), be conservative on activity, wear a hat, sunscreen, sunglasses and have plenty of water available at all times.

Photography isn't fun if your equipment fries, then melts into a puddle of distorted plastic, you get heat stroke, or become dead (IMO).

Good luck.

 

[TamiyaGuy]

A circular polarizer really helps with landscapes. Not only does it deepen skies, make clouds pop out and reduce reflections, it also has a similar effect to a UV filter in that it reduces haze in far away scenes. Definitely worth it.

 

[Helen B]

Another caveat:
polarising increases the contrast of a scene. The contrast will soon exceed your sensor's dynamic range capacity, and so your image will not be able to reproduce the original scene's contrast anywhere near faithfully.

Polarizing filters can increase local contrast, but they rarely increase the overall brightness range of a scene. It is the brightness range that determines whether or not the sensor's dynamic range will be exceeded.

The whole idea of a polarizing filter is to adjust scene contrast. If it didn't, you could just as well use an ND filter.

Best,
Helen