If I’m shooting outdoors, during the day, I almost always use a polarizing filter. I once had a fellow photographer say to me, “You’re using a polarizing filter on cloudy day!?!” Yes, yes I am. For shooting cars, I find the filter essential no matter the type of sky.
For me, it’s not about bluer skies. It’s all about minimizing reflections on those wonderful, old, shiny car finishes. The following examples were shot under typically cloudy Central Ohio spring skies.
Without the filter, I’m seeing way too much of the parking lot and landscaping reflected on the fender and door of this amazing 1955 Chevy Nomad. All that visual noise takes away from the lines of the car.
With the filter “dialed in” that great Gypsy Red paint really pops, and you can see how nice and straight the sheetmetal is.
The B5 Blue of this SRT8 Challenger is such a great color, but without my polarizing filter dialed in, the color looks washed out, and I’m seeing way to much of the trees above the car. I love the trees, but I didn’t come to this Cars and Coffee to shoot trees.
Much better! With the filter dialed in, the vibrance of the Challenger’s paint really comes through.
One of the disadvantages of using the filter is it doesn’t eliminate reflections at all angles, especially if you’re shooting straight-on. This is frustrating when I want to eliminate the unintentional “selfie.” Also, you have to shoot at a higher ISO, and when it’s really cloudy, I can find myself shooting at up to ISO 800. This is less of an issue with newer cameras that do a much better job of handling noise than cameras of several years ago. It’s never been an issue with either my Nikon D90 or D7000.
Technical note: all photos were shot in RAW format, and comparative images were processed in Adobe Camera Raw using identical settings.