Category — Polarizing Filter

Anytime you go to the beach and it’s sunny out, you’re combating the bright rays of light that can nearly blind you. If the sun’s power is affecting your eyes like that, you can imagine the kinds of effects it can have on your camera’s lens, and as a result on the photos you eventually take.

A Polarizing Filter: Sunglasses for your camera
Just as people wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from the solar rays of the sun, photographers can attach a polarizing filter to the lens in order to mitigate the sun’s glare. The key thing to do is to experiment and rotate the filter such that the glare is minimized as much as possible.

Glare can happen when you are photography any surface that reflects light. The ocean, windows, surfaces of cars or other objects and even people’s glasses or sunglasses. Keep in mind that the polarizing filter does the most good when you are at a 90 degree angle from the sun (say the sun is in the west and you’re facing north or south). If the sun is directly behind you (180 degrees), the help the polarizing filter can do for you is minimized.

Instead of photographing directly out at the ocean, try taking pictures from an angle. Be coginizant of the sun’s position and use it to your advantage while also utilizing your polarizing filter.

Remember that practice makes perfect and to keep experimenting on subsequent trips to the beach. You can also practice with local bodies of water like swimming pools and ponds as they present similar challenges to the ocean.