I've recently fallen in love with a book I checked out from the library called: The Photographer's Guide to Filters by Lee Frost. Truly an eye opening experience. Dozens of ideas were sparked from this book. I can't wait to see them come to fruition.
One of the techniques mentioned in the book is called Cross Polarization. Here's a quick how-to: You'll need 2 polarizing filters. One on your lens and one over a light source. Put any piece of clear plastic in between the two, rotate your polarizer, and you'll begin to see the stress marks in the plastic take on a rainbow effect.
As luck would have it, when I read about this, I just happened to have 2 polarizers in my possession (Thanks, Jennifer!). For this shot, I actually used the light source as the subject itself. In between the 2 polarizers, I used a clear plastic lid from a CD case to achieve the rainbow colours. By underexposing a little, I was able to isolate the fluorescent bulb and make the colours appear to come from the light bulb and not the plastic CD lid just above it. I hope that makes sense. I'm a little confused myself. But it works!
Jeffry B, samgrover, mojeecat, S.C. Asher, and 38 other people added this photo to their favorites.
View 11 more comments
Gemini~Girl 38 months ago | reply
So cool!
Very neat technique!
moose malloy 31 months ago | reply
This is a clever take on the cross-polarisation technique. Nicely done.
Pixel-Pusher 6 months ago | reply
I'm glad you explained about the lid from the CD case. When I first spotted your thumbnail of this shot it really threw me for a twist. I have been using crossed polarizers since the early 1960s and have never seen the likes of this shot.
Well done.
Immortal Thrill-Seeker 6 months ago | reply
Thanks, Pixel-Pusher! It was mainly beginner's luck : )