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Polarizing filter in wedding photography

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nightbreath:
Hi everyone!

My main area of concern is the image quality, the feel and look of shots I get out of my camera during wedding photoshooting. I was thinking a lot about possible improvements and a thought that is floating around for a while is to use polarizing filters to reduce harsh light strength in the middle of the day.

So I'm just curios if it is wise to use polarizing filters for outdoor portraits as it's where I want IQ improvement in. This filter is usually used to lessen glare, reflection, saturate colors and add contrast, so I'm wondering if it would work for me or add more inconvenience to the workflow?

I would also like to ask the same question about ND filters (in combination with flash), graduated ND filters, UV filters and lens hoods. It would be great is someone can share their experience or some technique they use to get the best portrait quality out of the camera?

Here's an example of the creamy look that can be taken as a reference (it is most likely that this shot is balanced by flash and is heavily processed in post, but it can give a background of what I seek for):



I also heard that anything one puts in front of the glass degrades image quality to some extent, and it is always a trade-off of adding artistic manipulation. Currently I use flash and UV+protective filter, so I'm able to get this:



But I'm always wondering if it is possible to change the way I shoot for retrieving more important information and being more flexible in post.

I understand that flash / reflector is something that is normally used to balance scene lightness, so please don't turn the discussion into incorrect direction.

Kernuak:
Coming from a wildlife perspective, where polarisers can be handy for white birds to show more feather detail, I imagine it could help with detail in white/near white wedding dresses.

briansquibb:
Flash is a valid way to overcome the ambient and calm the bg down

PL is a good way to reduce glare from the bg and white wedding dress

ND grads are very difficult to control in a dynamic shoot

ND just takes away the light to enable shallower DOF

nightbreath:
Thank you for your responses. What about lens hoods and UV filters? Is there a need in them at all?

nightbreath:
I have also found this statement on Flickr discussions:


--- Quote ---Sure you could use polarizing filter on a sunny day and would get dark blue skies and bright white clouds. It has a slightly strange effect on skin and removes moisture and specular light (shinyness) - not something you think about, but people look dry and appear to have extra powder makeup in my opnion.

It's actually very good if you shoot or intend to output in black and white.
--- End quote ---

Could anyone comment if he had the same experience?

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