Flash + polarising filter = ?

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Bruin

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My 24-70 is never off my D3, I love it so I invested in a good quality polarising filter for it. I took the filter off last week to photograph a friends dog for her.
That got me thinking - are there any hints, tips or ideas for using a polariser with a flash? eg- will it dull the reflection in the eyes on a portrait? or will it enhance any aspect of a photo?
 
Polarisers are all about angles. For reflections, the angle is around 37 degrees from a flat surface with the filter rotated 90 degrees to it. Say you photograph a girl in a bikini with a bit of oil on her, with and without a polariser is dramatically different, and rotating the filter will dull different areas of the body again.

A easy way to see what's happening is to look at a car with the filter up to your eye (no need for a camera). Walk around the car, note at what angle you have stand to maximise the cut in the reflections. Notice also that you cannot reduce reflections off the bonnet/roof/windscreen at the same time as you can off the doors.

With a dog, the angles are wrong to much effect on highlights in the eyes but a polariser will tend to dull a shiny coat. Probably not a good idea overall.
 
HoppyUK said:
Polarisers are all about angles. For reflections, the angle is around 37 degrees from a flat surface with the filter rotated 90 degrees to it. Say you photograph a girl in a bikini with a bit of oil on her, with and without a polariser is dramatically different, and rotating the filter will dull different areas of the body again.

A easy way to see what's happening is to look at a car with the filter up to your eye (no need for a camera). Walk around the car, note at what angle you have stand to maximise the cut in the reflections. Notice also that you cannot reduce reflections off the bonnet/roof/windscreen at the same time as you can off the doors.

With a dog, the angles are wrong to much effect on highlights in the eyes but a polariser will tend to dull a shiny coat. Probably not a good idea overall.
Click to expand...

now what does this say about hoppys state of mind atm :p
 
Someone actually comes up with a sensible, considered and correct reply and someone else thinks that that's strange.

Now that is strange...
 
I think my sense of humour is excellent - I just didn't think that your post was funny.
We're all different I suppose...
 
Thing that sprung to mind re polariser and flash is how much of the flash power will get eaten by the 1+ stop loss of the filter.
 
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