Moment’s AntiGlare CPL Filter | Cut Reflections and Make Colors Pop

Cure Overly Bright Photos With a CPL

Some photographers often don’t want to overcomplicate their setup any further than what is necessary. However, for those wanting to excel their expectations and forward their hobby into an actual profession, CPL filters have the potential to turn otherwise standard photographs into something much more mesmerizing and dynamic. It’s the casted tool for perfection. Many famous outdoor photographers, like Tiffany Ngyuen, swear by the use and overall benefit from CPL’s, marking it as a necessary device in her camera bag.

What Is The Purpose of a CPL Filter?

A CPL filter, also known as a circular polarizing filter, is an extremely useful tool to refract reflections, darken over-bright skies and suppress glare from water surfaces. This is, essentially, a super-duper useful device for any and all outdoor photographer enthusiasts. The filter is known to saturate colors, as well, adhering to a rich vibrant scene with bright foliage and deeper, more clear skies. The removal of reflection and obscene filtering leads to this desired effect by additionally removing any incandescent white glow seen on fluttering leaves.

Polarized light comes from light that has been reflected off of something. Like what might be reflecting off an alpine lake, from a coffee shop window, or even light reflecting off moisture and pollution in the atmosphere. Polarized light is made up of scattered light rays and is something you don’t want in your shot. The CPL Filter filters out polarized light, leaving you with an awesome image that you can’t quite replicate post production. Bluer skies, greener trees, and super sharp clarity in your final image.

When To Use CPL Filters

There are a multitude of scenarios when one might want to use a CPL, as it excels in different areas of expertise. To reiterate my point above, let’s narrow down to a handful of opportunities that you’re most likely to encounter during your day-to-day.

Removing Glass Reflections: A common first mistake people might notice when starting out in photography is how difficult it can be to take a photo from inside of a window or car door. A polarized filter hones in on the ability to reduce any unwanted streak of light or milky blurs that get in the way of your shot. It can also do the same for reflected light on water surfaces.

Make the Blues More Blue: Nothing ruins your landscape shots more than an overexposed sky. Forebode a sense of tension and mood by darkening the sky using a CPL filter, you’ll notice just how much more of a dynamic range you’ll produce.

Remove the Haze: If you’re hoping to make a specific color more vibrant in its detail and hue, then a CPL filter is an excellent choice to do so. See every detail of the leaves on a tree without the unwanted haze coming from the sun.

Features and Compatibility for Moment’s Camera CPL Filter:

• Premium fused silica optical glass for supreme clarity
• Advanced 16 layer optical coatings for true cinematic color and rugged durability
• Body machined from aerospace grade metal to withstand use, drops, and adventure
• Works with any standard center pinch lens cap (like the one you already have for your camera lens)
• Knurled grip texture for more control and easy removal from lenses
• Smooth rotation ring for precise filter adjustment
• Includes a foam lined, metal carrying tin for protection on the go and a microfiber cleaning cloth
• Available for standard camera lens sizes 37-82mm
• Covered by our lifetime warranty

My General Thoughts

Of course I work for Moment and believe we make top-quality products. I’m constantly astounded by the perfectionistic tendencies our gear team commits to, and the many hours of hard earned beers it takes to get there. However, I’m a very non-technical photographer; I tend to steer away from unnecessary gadgets and gizmos, filters included. When I was asked to create photographs with our new CPL, I sighed in disbelief. “Me, really?”, I pondered. Nonetheless, I accepted the challenge and bribed my best friend, Eunice Beck, to gander around Arizona’s famous Canyon Lake for sunset. We packed our to-go coffees and tea, strapped our beloved cameras around our neck, and drove an hour East to a place where reflective surfaces and sunny skies cover the atmosphere.

Upon initial reaction, I didn’t quite understand the point of such a tool. I threaded the filter on my lens before looking at the LED screen, and noticed crisp detail in the water and skies (DUH, Natalie, where you’re supposed to!), but wasn’t taken back. However, I immediately gasped once I took off the filter, kept the same camera settings, and truly saw the difference it made having it on versus not at all. The skies without the CPL were vastly overexposed, had little to no detail, I could barely make out the true color of the sky, and the foreground’s shadows were muddier than desired. The AntiGlare CPL filter made it so that the image’s dynamic range was much crisper and clearer than what your eyes can see; almost like having the classic, juicy dynamic range of an iPhone. See below for a side by side difference.

In Detail

Although it can make the overall image fairly darker than not having it on, this film filters out light coming into the lens based on the direction the light is traveling. This is why circular polarizers need to rotate, so that the direction of light that will be cut out can be altered based on the shooting situation. The name‘circular’ doesn’t refer to the shape of the filter but actually the type of polarizing film used. Circular polarizers cover a larger spectrum of reflected light where a linear polarizer is less broad in the amount of light it’s able to deflect.