Circula Lens filter Polarizer

[elolaugesen]

I take primarily images of two dimensional art work and print Giclees/reproductions on art paper.
  I have now been requested to do some prints of collage work made with many different kinds of textured materials/cloth, wool,canvas  including shiny thread, pins, needles etc.   lots of reflections.   all small stuff about max 10inches by 10 inches.
I use a canon 60mm macro prime lens.

Will a circular polarizing filter help me out with the reflections? or/and will it also change the colours too much?

newbie with this kind of stuff..

cheers elo

[Ken Bennett]

A polarizer can help tame reflections, and should not change the colors in the photo (except so far as they become richer and more saturated, which is the point of a polarizer.) The problem you will find is that when shooting shiny reflective objects, you are actually shooting the reflection, not the object -- it's the reflection that defines its shape and tone. So eliminating the reflection may cause the shiny bits to disappear completely, or just look odd.

You might experiment with very large light sources, like a light tent, that will show a smooth reflection over the entire shiny surface. Of course, that's easier with small objects than large artworks.

[elolaugesen]

thank you . 

will look at a light tent.  I know where there is one I can borrow for some tests.   

re the polariser more saturated and richer colours  that is not what one wants when working with original art.

Artists wants the end product to be as close to the original as possible.
I aim for 98%(sounds good) this gets the message to the artists that it is impossible to get 100% so they will then look at it from that perspective.

thank you any other suggestions and comments are welcome. 

cheers elo

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... re the polariser more saturated and richer colours  that is not what one wants when working with original art.

Artists wants the end product to be as close to the original as possible...

Poor choice of words in the original statement. "more saturated and richer colours" is supposed to be in comparison to the image without polarization. In comparison to the original work of art, colors should be close to "as close to the original as possible" after polarization.

However, for artwork, you might want to look into cross-polarizaion, i.e., a combination of polarizing filters in front of lighting sources AND the lens. You can find more by googling, but this article would be a good start.