Rediscover - Understanding Polarizers

Understanding Polarizers
Care, Feeding & Proper Use
There are few more important things that a nature photographer can do to improve his or her photography than becoming familiar with the use of the polarizing filter.
What can a polarizing filter do for you? Among other things, it can darken the sky, remove reflections from water, and make foliage appear less shiny. Colour saturation is also significantly enhanced. It is the only filter for use with colour film that can do all of this.
 
Lone Crane — Yucatan, 2002 Photographed with a Pentax 645NII and Pentax (67) 200mm f/4 lens on Provia 100F — Polarizer
As seen above the use of a polarizing has been effective in removing reflections and glare from the surface of the water, and also in increasing the saturation of the colours beneath the water. The remarkable colour is caused by run-off from the surrounding mangrove swamp near the estuary in Celestún, Yucatan, Mexico.
Polarization and Wide Angle Lenses
There are two issues to...