I have a Canono EOS 300. I have bought a Polarising filter but have conflicting advice about increasing exposure when using it.In Automatic mode you can not adjust exposure but in the others you can. Some books say half a stop and other say up two stops. Please some help David

-- David Boyadjian (davidboyadjian@paradise.net.nz), October 18, 2001

Answers

You're using the camera's built-in light meter, right? You aren't using an external handheld meter. So there's no need to compensate manually at all.

Just take photos as you would normally. The camera reads the amount of light coming in through the lens - polarizer or no polarizer - and sets the exposure accordingly. This is called "through the lens" metering.

The only thing to keep in mind is that you must remove the polarizer when shooting in low-light conditions. The polarizer cuts back some of the light coming in through the lens, and in low-light conditions you need all the light you can get. Besides, most of the benefits of a polarizer don't come into the picture (so to speak) when it's dark.

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), October 18, 2001.