~The Cross Polarisation Effect~

I had a go at using cross polarised flash today on a Common Darter. Basically you have a circular polariser on the front of your lens and infront of the flash you have a piece of polarised film, you have to orientate the circular polariser to enable the effect, if you hold the film in front of the filter and turn the polariser it should go dark, fortunately my circular polariser already had an arrow for correct orientation. The effect on the image is virtually no specular highlights or reflections. It also seems to saturate the colours quite a lot, an interesting effect.

 

It was very tricky to try this technique, the circular polariser would accidentally move every so often. Also it looks like flash fall off is going to be an issue, I tried a few shots and struggled to get any colour in the background even at higher ISO settings.

 

I'd like to thank Murray Clarke for sending me some polarising film, he has been taking superb shots of Damselflies that can be seen here :-

 

www.flickr.com/photos/muzby1801/

 

This Common Darter seemed very pleased with its latest trophy, a Chrysolina sp. Beetle I think, I've never seen one with a Beetle before.

 

 

VIEW ON BLACK

Done