PLASTIC FANTASTIC
PROJECT 1
James Paterson shows you how to create striking and vibrant abstracts
Many of us are now accustomed to using circular polarizing filters on our lenses. They’re useful for enriching colours in landscapes – especially blue skies and foliage – and invaluable for cutting through reflections or atmospheric haze.
But polarizers aren’t just for lenses. Something magical happens if we polarize our light source too. This is called cross polarization, and the technique is simple. We need both the light entering our camera and the light emitting from our source to be polarized light. It’s a classic technique that has many uses, both practical and creative.
Cross polarization can result in photos with zero reflections and glare, which makes the technique useful for practical things such as dental photography, because eliminating the glare allows for clearer pictures of teeth.
But if you want to get creative, it also allows you to capture otherworldly colour spectrums. Captured under cross-polarized conditions, any hard, clear plastic objects like the plastic champagne flutes here are transformed into vivid, rainbow displays of colour. You probably have everything you need to get started at home. As well as a polarizing filter for your lens, you’ll also need a polarized light source.
Most LCD screens emit polarized light, so it’s fairly easy to get set up in front of a laptop or a large TV. The only other thing you need is an array of hard, clear plastic objects and a surface to place them on, like Perspex or glass. It takes minutes to set up and is great fun.
THE SET-UP CROSS POLARIZATION
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.
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.
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.
