Circular polarizing filter

Just got my circular polarizing filter from linkdelight.com, a Hong Kong based Ebay seller. Received it in 7 days from the time I ordered, which was very impressive considering it came all the way from Hong Kong. Even more impressive is that it was only $7 with shipping just about anywhere in the world. These ebay retailers are going to reshape the retail market.

So a circular polarizer is good for eliminating glare and getting darker, more saturated colors, especially outside. This could be reflections in a window, specular highlights from water, and generally bluer skies. Simply rotate the polarizer until you receive the desired effect. This usually comes at a "cost" of 1 or 2 f stops. While this effectively eliminates any reason to use one of these inside, it is especially useful outdoors.

What most people don't realize is that there are times the scene is too bright, and the circular polarizer not only eliminates the glare, but lets you use a more open aperture than you would be able to otherwise. This could mean the difference between being able to blur the background or not.

Here there are two photos. On the unpolarized photo, the sky is less blue, and you can see the glare reflecting off the bricks on the building and the glare off the windows.

Unpolarized


Polarized

The polarized photo eliminates that glare on the bricks of the building, shows a bluer sky, and the windows seem much more uniform because there is are not specular highlights on the window glass. Also, if you notice the trees have fewer highlights off the leaves. Most landscape photos or foliage photos would use a polarized filter as well. Circular polarizers are used now so they do not interfere with the focusing of the newer cameras.