using polarizer filter....newbie

okay newbie here, trying to learn. I just got a hoya circular polarizer for my 19-35mm tokina lens. I tried using it this weekend on my n80. I had the sun directly to my left (90 degrees) and was photographing the ocean waves and evening sky. Is this the correct position of the sun to use the polarizer? (I've read up on it and this is what I gathered to be correct.) I turned and turned and didn't see any difference. What am I doing wrong? I thought the polarizing difference would be striking. There is a white line on the hoya filter, what does this indicate? Thanks in advance, julie

This is correct - if the sun is at 90 degrees to the direction the camera is pointed, you'll see the maximum effect of the polarizer. If there were a few clouds in the sky, you'll notice that they really "pop" with a polarizer and also the blue will get darker. You should also have seen the sun's reflection reduced on the water. Only thing I can think is that maybe the sun was behind a cloud when you tried this. That will limit the effect of a polarizer a lot.

The white line is just an index line that you can use for a couple of things. First, if you put the camera on a tripod and want to take a few shots with varying effect of the filter, then that index mark will show where you are and can guess how far to turn it (bracketing, basically). Sometimes too much polarizer doesn't look good. The other thing is that if you're taking a horizontal shot and want to switch to vertical, you will have to rotate the polarizer 90 degrees too. The index might make it easier, but I've never had a filter with one and been just fine without it.