I am reseaching a new DLSR and having only used a canon powershot andSLR in the past (with Jpeg) I am not familar with RAW. I used tolike to use polarizing filters on my SLR (which was annoying)..

Why was it annoying? They need a little adjustment but it's not hard..

Do Ineed to worry about getting a lens with a polarizing filter? Or canI take the picture in RAW format and then apply a filter usingaperture(apple's photo product) or photoshop?.

Well, if you've used one before you know what it can do. A correctly-adjusted polarizing filter will give rich, saturated colours, especially in blue skies, and helps to elminate glare and reflections from e.g. snow, sea etc. The results can look great but it's easily overdone. Whether you need one or not depends on your style. if you take pictures of your kids in the park you don't need a polarizer; if you want to take landscapes it would be worth having one..

You can't simulate the effect of a polariser in photoshop as it is not a simple additive effect (like putting a coloured filter on); different parts of the picture are affected in different and quite complex ways. Shadows wouldn't be affected but reflections would affected a lot. Far too hard to do in Photoshop, if not impossible..

On a side note, do I need to bracket the photo when shooting raw orcan the adjustments be made later?.

You don't need to bracket at all if you are confident that the exposure is correct. You can review the picture and check the histogram. Bracketing is worth doing in awkward lighting conditions if you don't have time to review your shots and tweak the exposure until it's just right: you can just take a pic at what the meter says, then one at +1 and one at -1 EV compensation. One of them should be close and in RAW you have more possibility to recover shadow / highlight detail, and compensate for exposure errors, than in JPEG where information is lost during compression..

But it's better to get the expsure correct in the first place if you can of course..

Thanks,Jeff.

You're welcomeBest wishesMike..

The image sensor in current digital cameras doesn't capture light polarization information, so the effect of a polarizing filter can't be correctly reproduced in post-processing. Of course you can try to fake it by "airbrushing" the image manually in Photoshop or other software..

Shooting in RAW doesn't replace correct exposure by either bracketing or getting it right in one shot ..

Mike703 wrote:.

I am reseaching a new DLSR and having only used a canon powershot andSLR in the past (with Jpeg) I am not familar with RAW. I used tolike to use polarizing filters on my SLR (which was annoying)..

Why was it annoying? They need a little adjustment but it's not hard..

I had two lenses, one wide angle and one zoom. I always found myself repeatedly changing lenses, repeatedly adding or removing the polarizing filters..

But it's better to get the expsure correct in the first place if youcan of course..

I am still learning so, sometimes I didn't have know or have the correct exposure. I am hoping that bracketing would help with that...

Raw bypasses sharpening, contrast, saturation and WB. But you still have to get the focus and exposure right for a good image. Bracketing can help in difficult lighting situations..

The dark blue sky and great sky/cloud contrast you get with a polarizer can be done better in an image editor. It is usually a single click to select the sky and you arent dependent on sky polarization. That is especially true for wide angle and panorama shots where a polarizer will give you an uneven result due to different parts of the sky having varying polarization..

You cant remove reflections without a polarizer. You sometimes cant remove them with a polarizer either. It is dependent on the angle of the reflection whether the reflection is polarized..

I live on the water and take a lot of water shots. The water is sometimes different with a polarizer but not necessarily better..

Foliage often has polarized reflections and a polarizer can give better contrast. You cant exactly replicate that in post processing, but I can come close enough that I dont find messing with a polarizer worth the effort. Perfectionists feel differently about that and I cant argue that they are wrong. If you have plenty of time and have your polarizer with you it would be worth attaching it for scenery. The exception to that would be a wide angle or panorama shot with blue sky. It is easier to get the foliage right than to even out a graduated sky color IMO...

I had two lenses, one wide angle and one zoom. I always foundmyself repeatedly changing lenses, repeatedly adding or removing thepolarizing filters..

You can get away with one filter even if your lenses are different sizes: get a filter that fits the largest lens, and use step-down rings (effectively, simple adapters) to fit it to lenses with smaller filter sizes..

Best wishes.

Mike..