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| Here's an oil painting that presents significant problems when shooting photos of it in full sun. It was painted with a knife, which gives it a shiny gloss, and a gloss varnish was applied, making it even glossier. I've tilted this painting so it has maximum glare. |
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| Same painting, same angle. But I've used a polarizing filter to cut glare dramatically. |
Are you having a hard time eliminating glare and "sparkles" when photographing your oil paintings? Professional photographers use a polarizing filter to cut down the glare. Amateurs like me, on the other hand, will tilt and angle and swear until we get a decent shot.
I like to shoot my paintings in full sun. The color is richer and the focus, tighter. But when the painting was made with a knife or has had gloss varnish applied, glare is guaranteed. The little irregularities in surface texture pick up the sun and bounce it back like sun diamonds on water. Some of this can be removed by Photoshop or GIMP, but not all of it, and the process can give an odd, pock-marked look to the image.
Tilting the painting or angling the camera helps. But this introduces distortion in the image; suddenly, the painting is no longer square. Again, you can use your favorite photo editor to fix this, though some parts of the image may end up without sharp focus. It's still not an ideal solution.
For many decades, polarizing filters have been available for the traditional 35mm SLR (and now, the DSLR.) I had such a filter, but I stopped using a DSLR some time ago. These days, I use my handy point-and-shoot, a Canon SX610 HS for all my photography. The auto-focus is better than my DSLR's ever was. Although the Canon won't shoot RAW or TIFF images, I find it completely adequate for what I do. I even use it to shoot images for my magazine articles.
But I couldn't find a polarizing filter for it—until now. The Magfilter Circular Polarizing Filter fits and works perfectly. (Mine is 42mm; it's important to get the right size.) A little metal ring with an adhesive backing fits on top of the lens barrel, and the magnetized filter snaps to this. You remove the filter when not in use; the little metal ring with the adhesive stays on and doesn't impair the movement of the lens barrel.
The trick, of course, with any polarizing filter is that you must rotate it to get the optimal effect. (It has to do with the fact that sunlight is polarized, and the angle of polarization changes with the movement of the sun.) I shoot a few photos at different rotation angles until I find the one that cuts down the most glare, and then I keep it on that setting for my photo session. If you don't rotate it to find the right angle, you'll think the thing doesn't work, so make sure you do this step.
The filter was $29.95 and comes with an extra adhesive ring, just in case. There's no manual included to tell you how to install or use it, so you'll want to refer to the website. And make sure you rotate the ring to get the right angle!
I got mine at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/MagFilter-Circular-Polarizer-Carrier-Panasonic/dp/B06ZYWQMDP.
Some tips on using a polarizing filter.
