THE SET-UP CROSS POLARIZATION

Shoot with the polarized light from your TV for striking abstracts

01 POLARIZING FILTER

Attach a polarizing filter to your lens. You can use either a circular or linear polarizer. You might need to use step-up-rings depending on your filter size and the lens thread size (but don’t worry if you can’t screw on the filter, simply hold it in front of the lens). We used a 77mm B+W circular polarizer here.

04 TRIPOD

A tripod isn’t essential for this project but it is very helpful as it allows you to tweak the position of the plastic objects. It also allows you to shoot with a slower shutter speed, which comes in handy if you want to use a low ISO and a narrow aperture to expand the depth of field.

02 TV SCREEN

Most LCD screens emit polarized light. A TV is a good option as it gives you plenty of room to work with. If your TV has the Youtube app, simply search for ‘white screen’ and you’ll find plenty of blank screen videos (or alternatively, display a plain white JPEG). Increase the brightness of the TV for a stronger light.

05 CAMERA SETTINGS

There’s no right or wrong when it comes to exposure, so use whatever settings you’re comfortable with. You might want to use exposure compensation to dial the light up or down to suit the subject. We’re in Manual mode here with aperture f/8, ISO100, and shutter speed 1/10 sec.

03 HARD PLASTICS

Clear hard plastic objects like the plastic champagne flutes here are ideal for this project. The cross polarization shows the residual stresses in action within the plastic as a vivid colour spectrum. Experiment with positioning the objects. You’ll often find that a slight rotation can result in a different array of colours.

06 REFLECTIVE PERSPEX

We’ve used a Perspex sheet placed on top of a black wooden board as a base for our cross polarized still life. This creates an array of colourful reflections that adds to the vivid effect. Turn off any other lights and close the curtains so that the TV is the only light source.