Salt Point Beach and Polarizer

Nikon D3100 Kit lens (18-55mm) at 24 mm,

 ISO 100, f/25, 1/30, polarizer filter on

Last week I joined a meetup group again to go photograph Fort Ross and its vicinities, in the Northern California coast. It was a lovely day with the usual blue, cloudless sky, temperature in the 80s (Fahrenheit of course) and lots, lots of sunlight.

This time I was a little more prepared than on my last beach outing, back in February: I took my circular polarizer with me and carried a tripod around to be able to use a slow shutter speed. 

Another photographer in the meetup was even more prepared, with square Lee filters. It was a great learning experience to see the square filters being used, something I had only seen before in books.

Despite my efforts to “be there”, however, and to be prepared, I was extremely distracted and felt utterly uninspired. My photos do reflect that in that they were, for the most part, poorly composed. Adding to the problem were the several people in the group who would take the best frames, into which I did not want to walk to take my own photograph.

For one thing, I am proud that I got some cool results blurring water for the very first time in my life, and it was during the brightest part of the day.

The photo above was taken at Salt Point State Park with the sun at a 80 degree angle and the polarizer fully rotated. I do not recall where I focused, which is a shame. The photographer with the Lee filters got a much closer shot of the slush, I wish I had thought about zooming in.

The one below, at Salt Point Beach, turned out really well with the foamed effect on the water, but composition was poor to begin with and I had to crop significantly, including the sky that was washed out.  

Nikon D3100 Kit lens (18-55mm) at 20 mm, 

ISO 100, f/14, 1/15, polarizer filter on

After considerable cropping and playing around with Photoshop Elements' graduated filter (see a tutorial here), I arrived at this photo. It is almost too processed, some would say, but I am pleased with the colors.  

Nikon D3100 Kit lens (18-55mm) at 48 mm, 

ISO 100, f/14, 1/20 , polarizer filter on

And finally, a quick look at the tide pools, to be spied on with the polarizer....

Nikon D3100 Kit lens (18-55mm) at 29 mm

ISO 180, f/5.6, 1/30, polarizer filter on

Remember when using a polarizer filter to stand at about a 90 degree angle with the sun, to rotate the filter to where you get the effect that you want, and finally, if you are using a wide angle lens, the color of the sky will inevitably turn out uneven. This can be corrected in photoshop, as I did in the third figure, but this is something you need to know beforehand.