In this Micro-course I’ve got a problem. My shot requires that I use a CPL (circular polarizer) but of course, the one I have is way too small for my lens.

I’m forced to use a 77mm CPL on a lens that doesn’t even have a thread. This filter barely even covers 50% of my front element but I’m not going to let that stop me from capturing a nicely polarized image of this beautiful waterfall at Ricketts Glen.

With this ‘start-to-finish’ tutorial I solve the problem by shooting a patchwork of frames where the filter gets used in different positions. I then carefully composite all of these frames together to magically create the shot I would have gotten if I had a CPL the size of a dinner plate. This tutorial contains both the ‘in-field’ experience of shooting the required frames and the Photoshop processing that goes into piecing it all together.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this micro-course:

How to Use Layer Masks in Photoshop
How to rotate and crop in Photoshop
How to remove unwanted people from your image using Spot Removal
How to remove unwanted people from your image using the Patch Tool
How to enhance your image with selective contrast and dodging