How to use polarized Lens

[snapdog]

I'm not understanding how you'd use an image of clouds on your monitor ro adjust a PL - the light coming from your monitor isn't going to bear any resemblance to the light coming from the sun and bouncing off of clouds or other water.

Just a starting point to understand how it works.

 

[snapdog]

I open my clouds image on my monitor. Take the ND/PL off my drone, hold it up to my eye and rotate it until I'm happy with the results. You can always make your own, or multiple images that mimic your day. But this is a start I've found. Plus in the field the logistics can be challenging

This was just a starting point to understand how it works.

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

Hello guys, I live i the Caribbean islands where its mostly sunny. I like will to use my Polar Pro ND32 Filter. Because I have the mavic Pro 1 Platinum, I am never sure how to put this ND filter on the correct orientation. can you guys help me out? Thanks in advance.

I just bought 3x of the same for my Air 2. Just think of them as sunglasses. Maximum effect is at 90 degrees to the sun. Best for highlighting big cumulus clouds in a blue sky or to remove glare off surfaces and reflections off water. Good also for saturating colours in vegetation. And to check the P/L effect, attach to the lens and then look at your monitor screen as you rotate the filter whilst pointing the drone (in your hand) in the direction of primary flight interest. You should see the P/L effect on screen. Then go fly ..... ??

 

[dronerdave]

I just bought 3x of the same for my Air 2. Just think of them as sunglasses. Maximum effect is at 90 degrees to the sun. Best for highlighting big cumulus clouds in a blue sky or to remove glare off surfaces and reflections off water. Good also for saturating colours in vegetation. And to check the P/L effect, attach to the lens and then look at your monitor screen as you rotate the filter whilst pointing the drone (in your hand) in the direction of primary flight interest. You should see the P/L effect on screen. Then go fly ..... ??

And just like how my DSLR camera works with a polarizer.

I avoid over processing my images and although they can look spectacular (over processed) I feel they appear "not real to my eye". I usually use photoshop to sharpen and adjust contrast but am not very talented processing pictures either. Still I use polarizers on my drone for certain effects. They are just a pain to use.

Polarizers can make the sky poorly uniformed in color depending on the lens, angles to the sun and what not but can be rewarding in some cases such as clouds. I like to use them for macro DSLR photography. For water they work well to get rid of reflection/glare. Personally I prefer to use a polarizer when taking stills as apposed to video. With still images I can calculate the angle of the sun and fly the quad to the spot I want to shoot. However you can't move the quad around at different angles to the sun and expect the same results without returning and repositioning the filter. That might eat up a lot of time and battery power. I put a dot on the filter housing to represent the 90* angle to the sun. If my camera is pointed directly into the sun with the camera angle pointing down into the water, the dot will be at the twelve position. As mentioned there is a variable max and min so it doesn't have to be exact.

 

[TheRock]

Simply put they work best with the sun at your back. I adjust mine by looking at the controller screen and holding the drone with the aft towards the sun and gently turning the polarizer until I get the desired effect with the sky darker and the glare gone from the water. Usually, darkest sky and whitest clouds will tell you that's the sweet spot. Then put the drone down and go through your take-off procedures. So you would then fly the drone with the sun behind it for the best images in a tropical setting. That said, I am using a Polar Pro PL and it is very easy to rotate while on the drone. For others, you may have to do the adjustment while off the drone.