I say cross-polarization and people ask me about bees and plants, its polarization not pollination! Yet, I do miss those bees and the flowers shots, I must go hunting soon!
This week’s experiment is in cross-polarization. If you’ve even wore polarized sunglasses (and I haven’t because I wear spectacles already), you might have seen strange patterns on car windshields, the polarised sunglasses are revealing areas of the glass that was put under stress during the manufacturing process, the patterns resulting when using the polarised sunglasses are a phenomenon known as “birefringence”.
The important part of all this is that the results have a very cool effect when combining a polarised filter on the camera with a polarised light source through a transparent material that has gone through a stress-related manufacturing process.
Just for experimentation, I’ve used a transparent plastic ruler.
The Michael Lam Collection's Blog 
I always love looking at the interesting patterns which show up in some windshields through my polarized sunglasses, I never knew there was a name for it. There really is something interesting to learn every day, thanks for that.
The experimentation is pretty cool too. I used to do a lot more of this type of thing. You are encouraging me to get experimenting again.
Cool…. I like this… I wonder where else you can take it though… Eagerly awaiting the next instalment!
Thanks James, not sure what else I’ll do with that particular technique, but I continue to experiment 🙂
That is very, very cool!
Thanks Nigel, I know this is something you would love to try and even better it!
Cool colors. If my daughter were to see this, she’s going to ask for a similar ruler for her 😉
I know what you mean Sasi! I haven’t shown my daughter as yet 🙂
How cool is this, I never heard or seen of this in photography. It’s so neat to see your experiment and learn from it. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Martina, I think I omitted the actual process, so I might have to do a follow-up post with the details 🙂
Very cool!
Thanks JP! I find experimentation to be cool, and sometimes the results are cool too 🙂 I don’t expect all my photographic experiments for this project to come out anywhere as good as this 🙂
This is a nice project Mike and thank you for the info about birefringence. I do not wear polarized sunglasses but I would like to take a look at my “new” windshield through some and see what I see. Keep up the experiment and I look forward to more photos.
Thanks David, I hope at least some of the other ideas will come to fruition as well as these last two 🙂
really neat Michael! always wondered if that had a name… you certainly are a visual explorer!
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Thanks Sheila! that’s a nice phrase, I have to remember it 🙂