Many photographers purchase a CPL filter to spice up their portfolios with unique photos. Reading this review, you can learn about the advantages of having such an accessory in your bag, how to use it to improve your landscape shots, as well as to get overall control over the resulting image. Here I also describe the main features of these filters and explain how to benefit from them to accomplish impressive results.
A CPL filter – which is deciphered as a circular polarizer/linear – is among the most popular filters for landscape photography. In fact, this is an optical accessory for reducing the appearance of reflections and glare in pictures.
Nowadays, the market offers various types of filters, but the models that have a circular shape are in the most demand as they are easy to attach to virtually any camera lens. To adjust the intensity of the effect, you just have to rotate a polarizer in the required direction to the desired extent. My recommendation is to shoot at 90 degrees to the sun for maximum effect. Increasing this angle is not a good idea, as you will have to deal with the reversed effect in this case.
However, you always need to articulate in a full 360-degree circle and see how it affects the contrast, saturation, and reflection and only then decide on the most optimal position. Note that polarizers perform their best during the day. So attaching this filter when photographing at night does not bring any benefit.
Landscape photographers cannot do without a polarizer in most cases. But it is important to note that the accessory does not work with ultra-wide lenses properly producing images with undesired optical effects.
People who specialize in travel and landscape photography get the greatest benefit from the use of CPL camera filter, as it allows refining pictures on the spot.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to achieve proper color rendering when shooting the sky without the help of optical accessories. In this case, a polarizer can come in handy, as one of its main tasks is to darken the over-bright sky. The filter works best when refining the blue horizon as it darkens the color and makes it more intensive by boosting saturation and contrast. This is great for enhancing both landscapes and cityscapes.
To achieve a more dramatic effect, the sun should be to the side of the shooting point. And vise versa, when taking pics at sunrise, sunset, or during cloudy weather, having the sun at your back results in vague polarization.
Diminishing the reflections with a CPL filter is an intuitive and speedy procedure. No matter whether you need to process water, glass, non-metallic or metallic surfaces, this accessory will manage to do the job right.
When shooting sea or other water bodies, the polarizer decreases dispersed light and removes sky reflections from the surface. This enables photographers to accentuate every ripple and bring the focus to the objects underwater. So the viewers will even manage to see what is going on at the bottom. Moreover, CPLs will come in handy when shooting wood, painted metal, or things covered with lacquer.
If you are shooting in foggy weather, attaching a polarizer to your camera lens is a great idea. This will result in clearer and more contrasted images. The effect is comparable to that one you would see when wearing polarized sunglasses.
The way a filter lessens the atmospheric haze is similar to a UV filter. With the help of these accessories, the distant objects will appear sharper, more saturated, and distinct.
When taking landscape shots, a circular polarizer can intensify colors not only of the sky but also of some other components like foliage. Attach a filter to a camera to take a picture of the forest, and the level of saturation, vividness, and contrast will impress you. The CPL can boost every color and tone of nature allowing you to achieve the most impressive pics when shooting outdoors. Note that fall is the most interesting season in this case as its variety of hues is the richest.
When it comes to lessening reflections and glare from leaves, trees, or plants, the polarizer demonstrates stunning results as well. If you want to add drama and make the atmosphere in your images more intense, a CPL filter will do this job by darkening and saturating colors.
Not only CPLs but also other filters like UV and ND work well with lenses for landscape photography https://fixthephoto.com/best-lenses-for-landscape-photography.html (Best Lenses for Landscape Photography List). However, very often amateur photographers confuse these three types, but actually the difference between them is dramatic. Each of them is designed to perform its specific task and refine various aspects of your images.
A UV filter diminishes atmospheric haze in images, but in doing so it does not alter the exposure or tweak the colors of the source pic. Furthermore, covering your lens with this accessory protects your optics from scratches and prevents dirt and moisture from getting inside. As UV filters do not change the exposure or colors, the difference in images is often not so vivid.
Although ND filters have many applications, their main objective is to limit the amount of light for capturing incredible long exposures. This is a must-have accessory for photographers who shoot beautiful nature scenes capturing silky waterfalls, smooth water surfaces, motion blur, etc.
Notably, the resulting images are not overexposed even when taken in daylight. Coupled with a tripod for landscape photography and ND filter, your camera will manage to take stunning portraits in bright environments as wide aperture settings. With this accessory, achieving an appealing composition with a focus on the subject against a beautifully blurred background is easy.
A CPL filter enables you to suppress unwanted light reflections achieving highly contrasted and more distinct images. Use it to get the right balance of light and shadow and increase saturation. A final image will lack haze and undesired glare catching the eye with its vibrant and balanced colors.
Usually, photographers do not leave a polarizer on their landscape camera continuously, especially for protecting the lens. However, they can’t do without this accessory when there is the need to balance the colors of the scene, get rid of unwanted reflections, etc.
By spinning a filter a full 360 degrees, you can check the level of contrast, saturation, and reflection in this or that stop. This helps decide, at which position the filter offers the most optimal performance for a specific shot.
Most CPL filters limit the light coming through your camera lens by approx. one stop. It is possible to adjust exposure compensation by two extra stops. Unlike ND filters, CPLs offer a certain variability when absorbing light.
This is only possible if these filters are of two different types: linear and circular. Note that the second one should be closer to the camera, otherwise AF or metering system will fail to function correctly.
In most cases, using a CPL with a wide-angle lens is not very wise as it is dependent on the angle of the sun. To achieve a maximum effect, the filter should be positioned at 90 degrees to the sun. The angle of view of the wide-angle lens is usually greater than 90 degrees. So such a combination can result in an uneven polarising effect.
