blue-gold polarizer

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Archive 2009 · blue-gold polarizer

apsphoto
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p.1 #1 · blue-gold polarizer

I am just curious if anyone has been using a blue/gold polarizer? I know Cokin makes one, and there is a very high dollar Singh-Ray version, but has anyone found them to be useful at all? I have tried one a couple of times and just don't see that it has much use, but that is most likely just me. So is anyone using one? What kind of conditions work best? any examples?

Thanks a lot!

Alan

Jul 09, 2009 at 03:17 PM

Binh Ly
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p.1 #2 · blue-gold polarizer

i have the singh-ray one and used it for the first time last month. i think that it is useful as follows:

1) add artistic flair into your photos (for example, make the blues/yellows really look unnaturally vibrant)

2) save your a$$ on a vacation you paid a lot of money for (or a paid gig) and the light was just not there. sometimes when the light is so dull and boring, i put it on and see what it can do.

i've also seen people like bob krist use it for cityshots (sunset or sunrise) to get more of the yellow reflections from the buildings to come out together with the dull fading blues in the sky that you see during that time of the day.

i think singh-ray has a blog where you can also see some real examples of the filter applied artistically to certain situations where the light is dull or just not there.

Jul 09, 2009 at 03:37 PM

floris
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p.1 #3 · blue-gold polarizer

http://singhray.blogspot.com/search/label/Gold-N-Blue

Jul 09, 2009 at 03:45 PM

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p.1 #4 · blue-gold polarizer

Thanks this is all very useful I have a feeling I was not using a good white balance after reading the blog. Thanks again!

Alan

Jul 09, 2009 at 04:27 PM

Ben Horne
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p.1 #5 · blue-gold polarizer

I had one. It was alright. I found that the novelty wore off thoguh.

Jul 09, 2009 at 05:09 PM

Doug Otto
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p.1 #6 · blue-gold polarizer

I have one and while I don't use it very often it can be fun to play with. I've written several posts on my blog about it.

http://www.binaryemulsion.com/wordpress/tag/gold-n-blue/

Jul 09, 2009 at 05:10 PM

kdphotography
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p.1 #7 · blue-gold polarizer

Singh-Ray Blue and Gold---worth the investment! Not used all the time, but nice to have in the bag, especially for times when the light needs just a little something more...

www.houseoflandscapes.com has several images made with the Singh Ray Blu n Gold Polarizer

Jul 10, 2009 at 04:31 AM

hfillmore
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p.1 #8 · blue-gold polarizer

When you need it, nothing else even comes close. And when you need it the most, is when things are kind of grey, colorless, and blah. It works like this: A regular polarizer will remove glare, allowing for more saturated colors. The Gold/Blue, will also remove the glare, but in addition to removing glare, will also add gold or blue to the areas with glare.

Like regular polarizers, the effect is greatest at ninety degrees to the light source. But as others have said, it's always a surprise. Depending on the angles involved, sometimes you get gold in the sky, and blue in the water, or conversely, or sometimes splotches of gold, blue, and magenta in the same shot. I think that after the basic polarizer, this is my next most loved filter. I might even prefer it over ND grads if I had to choose, since you can usually duplicate the effect of ND grads by blending layers in PS. But like regular polarizers, the effects of the gold/blue polarizer can not be duplicated in PS.

Here's a couple of shots I posted on another forum. The day was almost totally grey, here's the result, adjusted to add gold.

Harvey

Jul 11, 2009 at 12:21 AM

jcbenner
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p.1 #9 · blue-gold polarizer

Can anybody post an example where the Blue/Gold PL produced a result that you could not get in PP? I'm curious about this filter, but it seems that many of the uses I've seen could easily be accomplished in PP. I'm mostly interested in it for warming up sunrise/sunset and other end of day shots. The ability to warm up highlights (like reflections on water) is intriging. Thanks.

Jul 11, 2009 at 11:55 PM

hfillmore
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p.1 #10 · blue-gold polarizer

jcbenner wrote:
Can anybody post an example where the Blue/Gold PL produced a result that you could not get in PP? I'm curious about this filter, but it seems that many of the uses I've seen could easily be accomplished in PP. I'm mostly interested in it for warming up sunrise/sunset and other end of day shots. The ability to warm up highlights (like reflections on water) is intriging. Thanks.

Check out the Singh blog. Click on the Gold N Blue, and you'll see many examples. It was specifically designed for exactly what you want to do. Often times, when looking at a shot done with this filter, you may think you could duplicate the results in PS, but in reality, you can't, any more than you can duplicate the effects of a polarizer in PS. I have a little explanation of this in my above post. The Singh site has more. I think Darwin Wigget has an extensive article on the filters use over on the Singh blog. Another guy over there has a before and after airial shot of Philadelphia, comparing the same scene with a regular polarizer, and the Gold N Blue. I tried duplicating the effect in PS, and I couldn't. I could get the yellows close, but it destroyed the blues.

Harvey

Jul 12, 2009 at 05:41 AM

jcbenner
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p.1 #11 · blue-gold polarizer

Thanks for the info, I'll order one and try it.

Jul 12, 2009 at 04:34 PM

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