Polarizing Filters for Digital Cameras
Polarizing filters are one of the useful filters for outdoor digital photography. The film cameras which were used earlier, also needed filters to modify the colors and generate effects. However, color modification can be easily done in a digital camera. Therefore, the color modification filter is not present for the digital cameras. Polarizer filters are used to create the effect of a polarizer. A polarizer is a device which converts the unpolarized light or light of mixed polarization in a light of single polarization. A polarizing filter eliminates the glare from the reflective surfaces and increases the overall color saturation of the photograph. The polarizer filter brings out the rich deep colors in the photograph.
Choosing a Polarizing Filter for Your Digital Camera
Polarizing filter is an optical filter used in the digital cameras. When you are taking a photograph of an object or a scene, light falls on the object and reflects back in all directions. This reflection of light produces a glare in the photograph. This light falling on the objects is unpolarized. Now, you must be wondering what is an unpolarized light and how does it affect the clarity and colors in your photograph! The answer is, the unpolarized light means, it is without polarization. This is the reason that the wave property of light has modulations in all the directions in which it travels. Now, the light reflected back from the surfaces of the objects becomes polarized after reflection. And, here the polarizer filter comes into action. The polarizer filter for a digital camera is used to absorb this polarized light reflected from the surface of the object. Thus, the polarizing filter gives more clear results as compared to a dark filter. For adjusting the polarizing filter, the filter is rotated. The rotation angle of the polarizing filter is carefully selected to get a more clear image and eliminate the unwanted light that is reflected from the surface of the objects.
Types of Polarizing Filters
There are mainly two types of polarizer filters for digital cameras viz., linear polarizers and circular polarizers. Both the polarizer filters work in the same manner with a slight difference. The circular polarizer has some added optical component which is not present in the linear polarizing filter.
Linear Polarizing Filters
The linear polarizer is nothing but a basic polarizer which filters out the unwanted reflected light. The light which is modulated on all the other axis is eliminated and only the light polarized to the desired axis is passed to the camera.
Circular Polarizing Filters
The digital cameras available these days have an internal light meter and an autofocus system. However, the autofocusing system in the camera creates some problems with a linear polarizer filter. Hence, a circular filter is used instead of a linear filter. The circular polarizer has a linear polarizer as one of its component and one another lens. The second lens converts the linear polarization into circular polarization. In short, the second polarizer eliminates the effect of polarization, as the light is fully polarized when it passes from the first lens to the second one. Many photographers suggest that a circular polarizer is used only with digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR). This means that it is used if your camera has a lens metering or a autofocus.
Lastly, 'how to use a polarizing filter with a camera lens', will be your next question. It is very simple to use a polarizer filter in a camera. All you have to do is screw a polarizer to your camera and once you are done, you are ready to take photographs. This was all about polarizing filters for digital cameras.
