Polarizer usage

[Ken Grooms]

Do you guys use polarizers for color landscapes in direct sun?

Also, my 35mm lenses are threaded, but my Rodenstock isn't. Do I get a non-threaded filter?

Thanks.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Really? There is no thread?

[Frank Petronio]

Which lens did you get again? Every 210mm Rodenstock Sironar I've ever seen has 67mm threads inside the rim of the front element, just like a 35mm lens.

[Capocheny]

Ken,

What Rodenstock lens do you have?

It might be useful for you to look for your lens on the Rodenstock website at:

http://www.linos.com/pages/home/shop...oto-objektive/

Strange!

Cheers

[Eric Leppanen]

Ken,

To answer your first question: if your objective is to darken the sky, polarizers have their strongest effect at a ninety-degree angle from the sun; they have no effect looking directly at or away from the sun. So there is no point to pointing a polarizer directly at the sun unless you have an unusual situation where you want to eliminate reflections (say on a window or body of water within the composition). In fact, a polarizer pointed directly at the sun can degrade your image by exacerbating lens flare (especially if the polarizer is not multi-coated).

[Robert Oliver]

I use a polarizer in very rare situations only when using color film.

For black and white film I tend more towards colored filters (ie... red, green, yellow filters) depending on what effect I am going for.

[Emrehan Zeybekoglu]

Ken,
I agree with Eric. Polarizers are most effective when you use them with an angle. When used in the direction of the sun's rays, I find no effect at all.

Secondly, as a side point, I find myself using fewer filters in 4x5 than in 35mm. Most of the time I find the color rendition and the contrast of my lenses pleasing in LF, so with the exception of a few basic filters I've made no investment in those things for my 4x5 camera.

My best..

[Ken Grooms]

Sorry - I found the threads.

Perhaps I'll try it without using a polarizer, however, since that seems the conventional wisdom around here.

BTW, I meant to say sunlight, not direct sunlight. I've used polarizers before, so I'm used to angle needed for maximum effect.

[Brian Ellis]

The problem with polarizers, especially when using wide angle lenses, is the vignetting that tends to occur in broad expanses of a single tone such as the sky. So when I printed in a darkroom I seldom used them to darken the sky, my main use was to reduce reflections. But with digital printing and Photoshop it's easy to eliminate the vignetting in the print so I've used them more in the last few years than I used to.

With b&w film I prefer to use a polarizer to darken sky rather than an orange or red filter because they usually have less effect on other things in the scene, especially green foliage. As you know, a red filter often will turn green foliage almost totally black which seldom is desirable. In fact the polarizer sometimes helps improve separation in green foliage by removing reflections. Also, with a polarizer I can predict the degree of effect the filter will have. With orange or red filters and b&w film you're pretty much guessing. But either will work in the right situation, it's mostly a matter of what you're used to and comfortable with.

[Jim Jones]

Long ago most lenses weren't threaded for filters. We used slip-on filter holders. They came in a series of several sizes. Some old camera stores may have boxes of these somewhere. Your lens will likely use the larger and somewhat scarce filters and holders. Once you have the right slip-on filter holder, it can accept threaded filters via an adptor. You might also find the filters that fit the slip-on holders, although old ones won't be multicoated, and likely not even coated.