Polarising Filters?

[TheStoat]

Hello, me again!

I've been lurking for a while and taking photos but I've come up against a problem. In ultra bright conditions I can't seem to get a balance to my photographs without losing some of the detail or colour saturation. I really suffered at Le Mans last year where I encountered "proper sunshine" for the first time! I'm using Martin's old 20D and I've got a 100-400mm L, 10-20mm and a 50mm prime. All of these are nice lenses but I'm still struggling...

Is it time to get a circular polarising filter (or three)? Having searched a bit my conclusion is that these filters will clean up the images by reducing the glare etc in really bright conditions. The consensus of opinion appears to be that Hoya is a good make. Any advice on filters to avoid or if I have the wrong end of the stick completely?

Muchas gracias,

Andy

[matthew_h]

Have a look at this thread:

www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=364064&f=109&h=0

Full of info on CP filters

[beano500]

Also - what are your in-camera settings doing? Usually you can select different levels of saturation (amongst other things)? Or are you shooting RAW. That will give you more control, but you won't be seeing an algorithm in the camera tweaking these things for you - you'll need to work on your conversion workflow.

[TheStoat]

Genius! Thanks for the link, I'm off to read for a bit

Yep, shooting in RAW mode as I find it easier to correct my mistakes. However, even fiddling with the camera settings only compensates so much. Seems like these filters are the way to go to achieve a better quality RAW image in the first place though

Thanks for the help,

Andy