foggy polarizing

[Emerana]

I just got a polarizing filter yesterday so I took it for a "test drive" today. UGH!!! Alot of photos turned out foggy while some turned out lovely (although totally needing some pp to bump up light). Is there a reason for this?

Also when ever I tried to turn the polarizing lens I would just adjust the focus...is there a trick or am I just slow?

 

[Sandspur]

1. I'm assuming you bought a circular polarizer and not a linear one.

2. Foggy ... I can only guess, but I'm guessing that the fog was coming from moisture (condensation trapped between the filter and the front element of your lens.) on the filter - going from warm to cold will do that. Did your pictures get clearer after the filter had been mounted for a while?

3. A polarizing filter actually has two rings - the one that screws into the lens and the outer one that rotates. It's tricky, but in time you'll get the hang of rotating without twisting the mounting ring and therefore the focus. (Note: If your filter doesn't have a rotating outer ring, it's a linear and not a circular polarizer. Get your money back and buy the right thing)

I'm sure you already know this, but just in case: the polarizing effect of this filter operates on it's relative angle to the light source (the sun). So every time you change the direction in which the camera is pointed you must re-orient the filter. Otherwise, it's just operating as a darkening filter - thus causing low exposure. A polarizer does affect exposure, reducing your f stop by as much as one full stop, maybe more. Your camera's light meter takes care of this, but unless you're aware of what's happening it's possible to be shooting much lower than you thought.

How to adjust a polarizer? Point in the direction you're going to shoot, then, while looking through the viewfinder, rotate the outer ring until you see a slight darkening of the image. It's very subtle, but you can see it. that the indicator that the filter is properly aligned and most effective.

Hope this helps!

 

[Happy Hour]

Was it fogging up from temperature change? Did you buy a cheap polarizer? is it separated from the threads( so that a section of it will turn without turning the threads)

 

[Helen B]

When you say 'foggy' do you mean low contrast? Could it be overexposure? A linear polarizer can fool the exposure meter in a camera into overexposing.

... (Note: If your filter doesn't have a rotating outer ring, it's a linear and not a circular polarizer. Get your money back and buy the right thing)...

Just a small point, but linear polarizers rotate just the same as circular. Linear polarizers have the same effect on the image as circular ones, it's just that they may affect the exposure meter or autofocus system.

If the filter isn't marked linear or circular, you can tell the difference by looking at the filter from both sides while rotating it and observing reflections from glass, for example. A linear polarizer behaves exactly the same whether you look at it from the back or the front. A circular polarizer will have a noticeable reduction in effect when you look through it backwards. A circular polarizer is a linear polarizer followed by a depolarizer, in simple terms.

Best,
Helen

 

[Emerana]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes circular. Yes expensive (B+W, good quality). It seemed to e worse after I switched to my 50 f/1.8...maybe it did just get dirty or something...

we were outside the whole time, it was warm...but we were next to the water. My guess is it was the lens, maybe dirty or smudged...I looked closer and noticed my nice photos were with one and not the other.

 

[Thornedogg]

This evening I just had this fogging experience withf my Hoya PL-CIR. Its effect was so bad that I decided to shoot in B&W to see the effects and take advantage of it. I was shooting outside with my dogs playing around with a new lens during the sun set. There was not temperature change, not dirt, no grime, it only lasted about 10 maybe 15 minutes. This happened as the sun was fully setting behind the trees in the horizon and it was a super cloudy day.