Using a polarizing filter for night photography???

[K-Lapse]

Is using a polarizing filter for night shots a good idea? I always find stray light a problem on city shots at night so gonna stick my Polarizing filter on and see what I get.

Any advice/ideas would be great!

[kencaleno]

Not a good idea,you will lose up to 2 stops of light: here's my take on night photography:

At twilight, that is from about 30-45 minutes after sunset, is the ideal time to capture night landscapes, just before the sky turns black. Here is where you find the “Sweet-spot”-the balance of natural ambient light and artificial lighting in city scenes. Best to arrive at your chosen venue about 30 minutes before sunset, then you can capture your sunset images first, then wait for the right time for the twilight shots.

A tripod, of course, is mandatory as exposures will be quite long. So, if you are able to lock up the mirror on your camera, this will help with avoidance of shake. If you have a remote control, terrific!-use this, too. If you don’t have either of these functions, just set self-timer for 10 seconds.
Aperture priority; bracket exposures, (1 stop over; One stop under) using shutter speed as the variable unit. Chimp your screen after each shot, to check progress.
White balance, of necessity, will be tungsten, of course, to reinforce the blue sky, and to help de-saturate the yellow artificial light, which can be overpowering. Experiment and try using Fluorescent White balance for brilliant color in the sky. Lowest ISO as usual-at least, at first! Aperture depends-F8 to F11 is the sharpest range for your lens, but you may need to forsake the threat of diffraction, and go for F16 or 22, if you are getting lens flare.

regards, Ken

[OsmosisStudios]

A polarizer will do nothing for the "stray light" your mentionning. It'll just make life harder on you and your camera with longer shutterspeeds or wider apertures.

[dcclark]

... and by forcing you to use longer exposures, you'll have even more time for stray light to enter!

[K-Lapse]

Originally Posted by dcclark

... and by forcing you to use longer exposures, you'll have even more time for stray light to enter!

Ahhhh......Very good point!


And to Ken, thanks for all your advice.....very interesting and informative.

[DogHeadGod]

Could somebody explain why a polariser would increase stray light? I thought the purpose of it was prevent stray light in the firstplace!?

Secondly, yes you will lose a couple of stops of light but it will allow you longer exposures in "bright" light. So you may get some long exposure effects, (light trails, blurred water etc) on top of the nice twilight.

If you are having a problem with stray light, make sure your lens is immaculate, with no dust, smears or fingerprints.

DHG.

[dcclark]

DogHeadGod -- my point was that a polarizer will force a longer exposure. If you dislike glare around bright lights, or if you have glow from other light sources which you don't want, then this will hurt the photo.

Of course, a better answer is to recompose, but that's not always possible.

[K-Lapse]

I might just try it and see what the differences are..... I'll let you know the outcome

I do want light trails in the shot, so if the exposure is too short to get car trails or some area is over exposing while leaving the shutter open long anough to get the trails; I’ll put the polarizing filter on.

I’ll just experiment and see what I get

[kencaleno]

Rather than using a polarizer,just use a smaller aperture for a longer exposure-any filter can attract flare-and, of course use a lens hood. Ken