Skylight Polarization

The sky is blue because of the light scattered from the sky by Rayleigh scattering. That Rayleigh scattering partially polarizes the light. Because of this, you can use a polarizer on your camera to get more dramatic sky colors.

These photos were shot toward the north with the sun toward the south on this winter day. They were both normal exposures, but the one on the left has much less saturated blues. The right photo used a polarizer adjusted for maximum saturation.