A polarized filter is good for when you have harsh lighting, usually from the sun.

For example if you are shooting a car, and the windshield gets that terrible glare, you use the polarizing filter and turn it so that it goes away. It's like the polarizing sunglasses, the way the filter sits on the lens it reflects the light away and only lets in the light that you want.

Like my signature, if I had my polarizing filter when I took those shots, you would see all the black on the car, and not that glare on it.

 

Thanks for the tip. I have Photoshop and just got Lightroom for cataloging and post processing. I'll be on the lookout for a circular polarizer but the Nikon brand one runs $80, yikes.

 

I was able to pick up a Hoyo for cheap on Amazon. Just be careful that you don't get an off-branded one.

 

Picture I took of my son, shot manual and touched up in lightroom.



1/60
f/4.8
32mm
ISO 800

Still trying to figure out how to bring out flesh tones a bit more.

 

Probably because of automatic white balance you are getting bad flesh tones.

Also I like to reserve higher ISO settings for sporting events, 800 seems a little high, you should be able to shoot 400 and below outside.

Also, upping the saturation can sometimes make a person look a little pinker, from the grass and the red poles it looks like you upped the Saturation a little bit.

 

I did pump up the contrast, saturation, and brightness a bit. It was a very overcast cloudy day and the sun was mostly set so I had to shoot with the higher iso and drop the shutter speed unfortunately. I was using auto white balance, surprised you caught that, what should I use instead?

 

I wish I had a nicer camera but I'll have to settle for what I have. Mom says she still has her 35mm that she had before she got her digital Rebel. I've thought about asking if I can have it but I do like the convenience of the digital versions (which I'm not at a point I can afford one).

 

Use the white balance setting for where you are. You say it was a cloudy day, there's a white balance setting for cloudy days and it will take the "blue" out of the picture which I can tell you compensated for the saturations :P