Circular Polarizer not working?

[Brighter Day]

I have a Hoya NXT Plus circular polarizer, that I cannot see polarizing the light thru the camera. I have tested the filter at home, and have gotten black while looking at a lamp while wearing polarizing sunglasses. Testing it outside the effect is very subtle and it's tough to tell the darkened sky. I am wondering if there are anytips for working with these. I am mostly working with pale blue skies, wanting to darken it.

 

[480sparky]

You need to adjust the filter so it's at a specific orientation on the camera in relationship with the sun.

 

[Strodav]

So, you are telling me if you look outside at a scene with a blue sky just holding up and looking through your polarizer and rotate it (no sunglasses please), you cannot see much of a change with and without the polarizer. I use a number of different Hoya filters and have never gotten a bad one. Something is definitely wrong. Try looking through a window with glare or reflections. Rotate the filter and the glare / reflections should definitely change. If it doesn't, you live in a place where the laws of physics are different than on the rest of the planet.

 

[JoolsW]

It does help to have really clear bright conditions.

 

[Thiophilos]

Polarizing filters only work on light that is polarized. Blue skies have polarized light, but it is optimal only at certain angles, and not straight toward the sun. Cloudy conditions might not respond at all. Ordinary light reflected off non-metallic surfaces becomes polarized and should work with your filter - but again there are optimal angles, usually around 45 degrees. Shooting straight down into water won't work, nor will a steep angle like you have when driving and looking through polarizers at a distant road. Metallic surfaces won't polarize light, so don't expect to be able to control reflections off chrome bumpers.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

The previous postings are thorough enough so I'll just add a couple of quick notes:

1. A puddle makes a good test target. Look for a reflection of something in the puddle.

2. Turn it s-l-o-w-l-y.

 

[Brighter Day]

So, you are telling me if you look outside at a scene with a blue sky just holding up and looking through your polarizer and rotate it (no sunglasses please), you cannot see much of a change with and without the polarizer. I use a number of different Hoya filters and have never gotten a bad one. Something is definitely wrong. Try looking through a window with glare or reflections. Rotate the filter and the glare / reflections should definitely change. If it doesn't, you live in a place where the laws of physics are different than on the rest of the planet.

If it doesn't I need to negotiate a return.

 

[Brighter Day]

It works fine, it's more subtle than I thought it would be. Outside I get a darkening of the sky some of the time. Some times it doesn't do anything. It's hard to live here without wearing shades. I will have to look for some non-polarized that I can shoot with. The sun is too damn bright.

 

[dxqcanada]

 

[Brighter Day]

Very nice. I will work with that in mind.

 

[Woolsocks]

Very nice. I will work with that in mind.

Another option is auto bracketing. Your camera should have this function. Different shutter speeds and different ev steps. When you combine them either in photoshop or gimp, you can get a sky that is lacking details because the highlights are blown out/over exposed.

 

[Strodav]

It works fine, it's more subtle than I thought it would be. Outside I get a darkening of the sky some of the time. Some times it doesn't do anything. It's hard to live here without wearing shades. I will have to look for some non-polarized that I can shoot with. The sun is too damn bright.

Think of light as waves coming to your eyes (filter and camera as well) from ALL different directions at ALL different angles. What a polarizer does is select a much more narrow range of directions and angles and filters out the rest. If you have 2 polarizers, one in front of the other, like looking through your polarizer sun glasses then through a polarizer filter, you should be able to rotate the polarizer to block almost all of the light and it should look very dark. That's assuming your sunglasses are polarized. That's why I take my sunglasses off when using my cameras here in SE Texas and rely on the brim of my hat to block the bright sky.

Polarizers can be helpful with bright skies, but a gradient filter works better. Most of the time I use my polarizers to filter out reflections off of water or to minimize glare off of glass.