Why did my polariser do this?

[DHA]

I was using a circular polariser on my 10-24 lens and there is this very noticable black band on the photo. I had the white marker on the polariser pointing roughly at where the sun was (this is the correct technique, right??). Is it the polariser, is it my technique or is it the polariser & lens combo?

Cheers

[Super Slo Mo]

It's what tends to happen with a polariser and a wide lens.

[ian in lancs]

They all do that on a wide angle lens! Its something to do with the effect is strongest at 45deg to the light and the lens field of view is more than 90deg. I never used a polariser on my 10-20mm Sigma.

[beano500]

Trouble with using a polariser on a wide lens is that the light from the sun ends up being propagated in different ways depending upon which part of the sky you are viewing.

Try looking through the polariser towards (obviously not straight at ) the sun, at 45, 90 degrees and at 180 degrees. See what happens.

So you end up with an uneven effect. Laws of Physics. And ye cannae break the Laws of Physics, Captain......

[TheEnd]

The short answer is Rayleigh scattering.

The long answer is it's something to do with Rayleigh scattering, but i don't quite know what.

[DHA]

Cheers for the answers guys.

Will leave it off next time!

[paul911]

DHA said:

I was using a circular polariser on my 10-24 lens and there is this very noticable black band on the photo. I had the white marker on the polariser pointing roughly at where the sun was (this is the correct technique, right??). Is it the polariser, is it my technique or is it the polariser & lens combo?

Cheers

No. Ignore the white mark. Rotate your polarizer while looking through the eye piece until the image darkens. Preferably at 45/180deg to the sun

[RobDickinson]

As said thats typical of a polariser on a wide. I am very carefull with mine now as it often ruins more shots than it helps.