Filters can be used to enhance colors in a photograph.  They may filter out some light rays, while accentuating others.  My favorite filter is a Polarizing filter.

With a polarizing filter, it cuts the “glare” from the sunlight off of the surfaces being photographed.  It can turn the sky a deep blue, or bring washed-out colors back into a normal range.  The photo above was taken in the morning around 9 am.  This was shot in the high desert in Eastern Oregon, and the light started becoming harsh a little after 9 am.  The polarizing filter enhanced the blue sky, and the red in the hillside.

The photo below was taken later in the day.  The leaves are green, because of the polarizing filter.  This filter can change water reflections, by enhancing them or making them disappear.  In clear water, this allows for the bottom of the water source to be seen, like in the last photograph.

The digital medium requires a circular polarizing filter, to properly work with the medium.  It is most effective 90 degrees from the sun, though it does continue to work at lessor angles (with less polarization).  The filter freely turns, and the amount of polarization in the photo is affected by this.

There is not a filter that can correct bad lighting, such as mid-day in the desert.  Creating brilliant color in photographs requires good light, proper exposure, correct white balance (WB) and appropriate filters.  Some of my previous posts discuss lighting and exposure.

More later, and Happy Shooting. . .Karen