Well, I found a neat way for beginners (and I have no idea if this has been posted before) of polarizing photos on site. Since my camera's a compact digital, and can't handle slr stuff, I decided to stick a pair of polarized sunglasses in front of the lens. Trick is, to get the light metering done before adding the additional lens. Sunset pics turn out great, and I don't get lens flares anymore. Also, I used clip-ons, which are nice b/c they don't have arms to get in the way, and are pretty easy to hold still in front of the lens.

If I recall correctly, there is already at least one photo around here somewhere that used the sunglasses as polariser trick... I think it was one of Maynes?

No, not mine Sam, but I do recall the photo you mentioned. I think I may have suggested that as an alternative method in some disgustion;-)

Im curious as to why you would do the light meter before putting the sunglasses in front. Would the shot not come out under exposed? I would say you probably want to do it after.

actually, that's the point of the polarizer... to deepen the colours and contrast of the image. On my camera, if I put it in front before metering, the image goes back to how it would have looked before polarization. This might be different depending on the camera, so everyone who reads this: go out, get some polarized shades, and test it!

Your secret is out .. HERE .. you better hustle if you're going to patent this ...
Think of it .. people being led off in handcuffs for non-payment of royalties

Hurry!

LOL nice.

Over HERE boss!

Think this is the one Sam was thinkin' 'bout.

cool pic, and kudos on pioneering that... when I used my shades, they covered the whole lens (it's a compact digital... only about 10mm wide), so the polarizing effect was over the whole pic. Also, as a side note, you can generate different effects from tilting the lenses.

hmm i don't think that is quite right. A polerizor does much more then simply darkening the exposure. A picture with a polerizor should still be metered with the polarizor on because what it does is block out one of the planes of light. This causes glares and reflections to be minimized or eliminated, and it also darkens the blues in skys.

Maybe my camera's different, but i found that it didn't make any difference to the pic with it on before metering. Anyway, thanks for pointing out how a polarizer works... I'd forgotten about that.

the problem is probably either the sunglasses had crappy polarizing film, and do more darkening than actual polarizing, and just say they're polarized... or because they're linear (ie dont have a scrambling element after the polarizing film) the camera meters improperly with the polarized light it is recieving. this is because light polarized one way is used to meter while you look through the viewfinder, and the other half is what you get to look at

As Carl said, if the polarizing filter (the sunglasses in this case) is linear, it might screw with the
camera's metering system. Polarizers for digital cameras are usually circular polarizers, which
don't have this problem. (note that the fact of being linear or circular has nothing to do with the
shape of the filter itself.)