Cross Polarised Art Photography


The Cross Polarisation technique requires two polarising filters: one in front of the lens and one on the on the light source illuminating the plastic objects. A Laptop or Ipad screen makes an excellent background and easy to work with.
  1. (1)  Create a white document on your computer screen (I just opened up a blank WORD Document so that I had a blank screen) but you can use one of the colour programs as well to give you a white screen.
  2. (2)  Lay your CLEAR PLASTIC objects on the screen (I used clear plastic knives & forks and a water bottle cut up), but there are plenty of other objects that can be used.
  3. (3)  Put your Polarizing filter onto your camer
  4. (4)  Now it’s a simple case of rotating the circular polariser on the lens. You will see the
    white screen turn black and a rainbow of colours appear on objects.
  5. (5)  To create more elaborate patterns in the plastic bend the objects in order to create
    stress points.


    Some of our club efforts for this exercise are below.





    All of these images are subject to copyright.