Do sunglasses affect exposure, color, or polarization when taking photos?
Asked 5/28/2017
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If I’m shooting on a bright sunny day while wearing sunglasses, does that affect how I should judge exposure or color? Does it make any difference whether I’m using an optical viewfinder, electronic viewfinder, or the rear LCD? Also, if my sunglasses are polarized or strongly tinted, can that interfere with what I see through the camera or with a polarizing filter on the lens?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Note: I don't wear corrective glasses. When I read the question, corrective lenses didn't occur to me. This answer was written only with sunglasses in mind.
It doesn't affect the taking of photos, if you're using your camera's autoexposure. The camera will decide what correct exposure is. And really, your eyes aren't very good light meters anyway. You wouldn't trust your unaided eye to determine exposure. Rather, you have a mental model of what a scene will probably expose at, based on your experience and knowledge of photography. For instance, you'll probably know that a typical outdoor scene at midday under the bright sun, without lots of shadows and complications, will probably meter according to the Sunny 16 rule.
If you're wearing tinted glasses, you might see certain colors more prominently than others, literally coloring your perception. Those colors won't come out the same in camera as you expected.
Similarly, with polarized glasses, you might see something that camera won't, such as deeper blue skies, or perhaps clearer water in a stream or lake.
When it comes to reviewing your shots on your camera's LCD, depending on your glasses, you'll have the following issues:
For polarized glasses, they might interfere with the polarization of the liquid crystals in the screen. This would cause a darkening, or possible complete blackout, of the screen. This is immediately apparent if you rotate the camera 90°, it will either improve the situation, or make it worse.
For tinted glasses, they will alter the apparent colors on the LCD screen. Depending on the amount of tint, this could make certain colors really pop out, or make some colors darker.
For neutral tint glasses that just make everything a darker without imposing a color cast, the LCD won't appear any different from the rest of your vision. These glasses are exactly the same as adding a neutral density filter to your eyes. If you're trying to look at the LCD screen under bright sunlight, it will be washed out and lack contrast, whether or not you are wearing these glasses.
But luckily, for all of the issues described above, there's a very simple solution: take the glasses off.
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
9y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Wearing sunglasses does not change what the camera records; it only changes what you see while composing and reviewing images.
For exposure, don’t rely on how bright the scene looks to your eyes. Use the camera’s light meter before the shot, and use the histogram after the shot rather than judging exposure from the LCD brightness alone. Autoexposure is unaffected by your sunglasses.
With an optical viewfinder, sunglasses simply make the view look darker. With an EVF or rear LCD, you’re still viewing a screen, so sunglasses may affect your perception of brightness or color, but not the captured image.
Tinted or colored sunglasses can make the scene appear warmer, cooler, or otherwise shifted in color to your eyes, but that does not alter the camera’s actual color capture.
Polarized sunglasses can change how reflections and screen displays appear to you, depending on the angle, and may interact visually with a polarizing filter in the sense that your view changes. But again, this affects your perception, not the camera’s metering or recorded image directly.
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