full time on CPL

[boilerplate]

Hm why not leave GND + ND8 + CPL on. We will be often be shooting with bright skies at the top, shooting flowing water sometimes, shooting foliage/water at other times, so just leave everything on! Just lose about 4-6 stops, can be compensated with a boost from ISO 100 to ISO 3200/6400, which is readily available on high end models

 

[brapodam]

Hm why not leave GND + ND8 + CPL on. We will be often be shooting with bright skies at the top, shooting flowing water sometimes, shooting foliage/water at other times, so just leave everything on! Just lose about 4-6 stops, can be compensated with a boost from ISO 100 to ISO 3200/6400, which is readily available on high end models

Why not just slap on that ND110 that cuts 10 stops of light all the time? I mean if you have a D3s, why shoot at ISO 200? You should be shooting at ISO 102,800!

There are implications of shooting at higher ISOs. You may get clean images at ISO 800, but every time you raise your ISO, you are losing a little here and there in terms of image quality, dynamic range etc. Sometimes you also don't want the polarising effect, like when the blues in the picture aren't that bright, as you'll end up over-saturating the blues and make the picture look very unnatural.

 

[Edwin Francis]

Hm why not leave GND + ND8 + CPL on. We will be often be shooting with bright skies at the top, shooting flowing water sometimes, shooting foliage/water at other times, so just leave everything on! Just lose about 4-6 stops, can be compensated with a boost from ISO 100 to ISO 3200/6400, which is readily available on high end models

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or naive. But assuming you're serious, there's a laundry list of reasons why this is a terrible idea, and I can only think of one 'advantage' i.e. saves a few seconds (in some situations).
- will your AF even function properly with so little light reaching it?
- would you have a useable viewfinder image? esp at dusk or night?
- sometimes reflections are what MAKE the the photo good! We're not ALWAYS trying to eliminate them
there are tons of other reasons, mentioned by other posters already.

If you think it might still be a good idea dunno, try it out for a day, then tell us your findings

 

[brapodam]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or naive. But assuming you're serious, there's a laundry list of reasons why this is a terrible idea, and I can only think of one 'advantage' i.e. saves a few seconds (in some situations).
- will your AF even function properly with so little light reaching it?
- would you have a useable viewfinder image? esp at dusk or night?
- sometimes reflections are what MAKE the the photo good! We're not ALWAYS trying to eliminate them
there are tons of other reasons, mentioned by other posters already.

If you think it might still be a good idea dunno, try it out for a day, then tell us your findings

He was obviously being sarcastic

 

[spree86]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or naive. But assuming you're serious, there's a laundry list of reasons why this is a terrible idea, and I can only think of one 'advantage' i.e. saves a few seconds (in some situations).
- will your AF even function properly with so little light reaching it?
- would you have a useable viewfinder image? esp at dusk or night?
- sometimes reflections are what MAKE the the photo good! We're not ALWAYS trying to eliminate them
there are tons of other reasons, mentioned by other posters already.

If you think it might still be a good idea dunno, try it out for a day, then tell us your findings

Haha yea, have to agree, he was obviously being sarcastic.

To TS, I used to leave it on all the time even night shots, after 1 or 2 night shoots I realised that I start losing shots due to the lsower shutters speeds and rather than boosting ISO and degrading the image, I think the smarter thing to do is to remove the CPL

 

[nathaniel]

Wide angle + CPL may actually work against you, since you can get uneven darkening of the sky. Sometimes it's ok, but other times can look odd. Just have to keep in mind if you have the CPL on a WA lens all the time.

I've had this experience too. A CPL doesn't only cause problems at night--even during the day the CPL can sometimes make the sky look weird. Sometimes it changes to colors of the non-sky areas (not sure why, but maybe the CPL confuses the automatic white balance).

 

[Octarine]

I've had this experience too. A CPL doesn't only cause problems at night--even during the day the CPL can sometimes make the sky look weird. Sometimes it changes to colors of the non-sky areas (not sure why, but maybe the CPL confuses the automatic white balance).

Auto White Balance is not a good idea. Why using a CPL to emphasize the blue of the sky when the AWB removes it again because it's recognized as colour cast? There is a reason why cameras have a WB preset for sunny days.