Polarising filters are probably the most important filters in photography. 

To understand when to use polarisers, it is important to understand reflectance.

Simply put, reflectance is defined as a "measure of the ability of a surface to reflect light or other electromagnetic radiation". 

While the polariser hasn't changed the amount of light leaving the surface of the an object, in this case bracken on the hillside, it has remained the same - but the polariser has prevented some of that light from reaching the lens and sensor.

In this case, the striking green landscape of Ireland's Wicklow Mountains, we can easily see the difference between the polarised and non-polarised image.

In the non-polarised image, below, the bracken have part glossy leaves and many are angled towards the camera meaning that without a polarised the sensor is seeing bright light, not a problem in autumn and winter when the plants die back and give the hillsides a characteristic reddish-brown with little chance of reflectance.

As a result there is quite a bit of contrast in the image and very little colour is being recorded.

Whereas, looking at the polarised image below, the polarising filter has blocked some of that reflected sunlight shielding the sensor and allowing the colour information to be recorded as true - here it's the bright green that Wicklow is famous for.

See the effect of using a polariser on architecture and clear blue sky in this previous post: https://panoramicireland.com/photo-tours-blog/using-polarising-filters-photography-architecture

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours and workshops cover topics such as using polarising filters, when to use them and when not to use them. Join us to learn more about photography and learn from our years of experience working for the biggest names in world publishing.

And if you are searching for jobs in wildlife photography check for vacancies on Jooble.

Users of Serif's Affinity Photo software have something big to look forward to in the coming week. 

The company have announced a major update of some kind coming to the line-up.

"...a next-level creative experience..."

Speculation is that it could be a video editing program that would add to the company's current photography, graphic design and desktop publishing offerings.

Or it could be an Adobe Lightroom style addition to Affinity Photo, a program that really has no competition yet.

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Who knows as Serif are keeping this one tight under wraps but they are promising a "next-level creative experience".

Will you be tuning in on Wednesday? As users of Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher we are excited to see what the announcement will be, expect a post soon.

Here is an image of one of my favourite places in Ireland, stone circles at sunset. It's a slide film image, digitised and I was recently using Affinity Photo to edit it.

Keep an eye out on November 9th at affinity.serif.com for more - currently the site is showing as down for maintenance with a message stating "Working on something big ;)"

Adobe's Lightroom is a powerful piece of software and sometimes it is necessary to change settings.

Here for example is one use, the standard settings for filenames on export can cause problems. If for example you have an image that has been edited in Photoshop and has the suffix -Edit like I do here then on export the entire filename can sometimes go missing.

Or if you work for different clients or publications then it is nice to apply their naming structure to exported images.

For me, I like to keep the original filename in as part of the export so that it makes finding images easier if a client has a query.

Even if a client has no specific requirements for naming images it is still useful to be able to identify or file away finished images based on the filename.

So I add some custom text based on where the image will be used, keep the original filename and sometimes add other information.

Thankfully Lightroom allows all this to be done quite easily.

Here's how:

1. Export the image using Ctrl+Shift+E or right click the image and choose Export > Export... as described here.

   

2. Here I have chosen to go with Filename and Custom Text (set on the main Export dialog so Insert > Filename and Insert > Custom Text followed by Done.

   

3. Check that the example filename is correct, here in the final image it shows correctly as Filename > Custom Text.

   

 That's it, you can now export your images with filenames that suit.

I hope this short tutorial has been useful, check back regularly for more or sign up for more information. Panoramic Ireland's workshops run all year round, in Ireland and online.

Another year is almost over and Adobe has announced major updates to its Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge applications.

Here, one of my favourites with changes to layout in Adobe Bridge when using more than one monitor.

Rearranging workspaces is now easy and dragging panels off screen to a second monitor allows for a more streamlined experience.

Adobe Bridge is of course a very underrated program, I don't use it a lot but I do use it for important tasks - more to come on that later.

Here some images I have photographed in my Bridge Library featuring Billie Eilish and Trinity College's campanile. The campanile was completed in 1853 to designs by noted architect Charles Lanyon. Seven-time Grammy-award winner Billie Eilish wrote and performed the theme song to Daniel Craig's fifth and final James Bond film No Time to Die.

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Drag the area shown in the above image and move the image preview off screen to the second monitor so that one screen can hold all of the panels and one screen holds only the image.

Here, below, the dual screen layout is shown.

And here, right click on the panel at the top, here I'm in Filmstrip and this brings up a context menu that allows you to reset to the original layout, to bring the panels back from the second monitor and any layout changes you have made.

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Adobe Bridge might not be the program that you use most often, but there are good reasons to start it up and recent updates have made it more usable, particularly with dual or multiple monitor setups.

More posts to come soon on Adobe's recent updates to Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge. Check back regularly for more and sign up for updates.