The effects of the polarizing filter

The photo on the left is a shot with the polarizing filter rotated for the best effect. You can see there is far more color and grain detail visible on the top, as compared to the photo on the right, where the top is nearly featureless and washed out. On some pieces it will be a compromise; one area will improve at the expense of the other, so you have to use your judgment.

That compromise can be seen in these photos. The shot at the left, has just a bit of reflection on the rear of the leaf, but it is not visible in the one
at the right.

Both of these photos were only converted from RAW to JPEG with just color correction, sharpening, and saturation altered. I still have to use the burn tool to darken the top, work on the reflection, and remove a spot of dust on the sensor (visible below the leg farthest to the right)