Alan Kiecker, QPSA
October 2025 - "Yellow Aspen Reflections"
About the Image(s)
Discussion:
The first week of October I traveled to Ouray, Colorado for a fall colors workshop. This is just one of the many photos of yellow aspens that I captured.
One of the things that the workshop leader stressed was the use of a polarizer in landscape photos. This increases the saturation of vegetation and a deeper blue in the sky. I found that it also produces a non-uniform color in the sky. You can observe this effect in this photo. The sky on the left is quite a bit darker than the sky on the right. This effect can be quite particularly strong when using a wide angle lens. Because of this effect, I'm not sure that I like using a polarizer with landscapes. Comments please.
Technical: Nikon Z7ii, Z 24-120mm lens @ 37mm, 1/80 sec @ f/11, ISO 800.
1 comment posted
These are some gorgeous colors you've captured here. Nice work on the saturation too, it's so easy to overdue those in post with shots like this but you've portrayed them nicely.
I've found the same thing to be true with polarizers and clear blue skies. They're fine (and I do use them) if there are clouds, but I typically avoid using them with clear blue skies for this very reason.
A thought for next time, throw a 5 or 10 stop filter on and bump your exposure time up and it'll smooth out that water, giving it a more uniform look. Also, this image feels like it needs to rotate clockwise a couple of degrees, she's tilting to the left!
Thanks for sharing
Josh Posted: 10/16/2025 21:20:07