CD cover - Playing with Cross-Polarisation

M had to be somewhere last night and I finally had a chance to play with my camera (a Canon 450D SLR) and my newly acquired polarised lens.

I have been looking at cross-polarisation for a long time now and never had the time to sit down, and try to work it out. As the polarised lens is a gift from M, I thought that the CD cover could show him how I got on with my new gadget. The technique is simple, once you get over step 1 - which took me forever to understand.

You need a computer (I did it with a laptop but I think that next time I will use my TV as a monitor), a tripod or a lot of books, a plastic object and (it is not necessary but useful) a remote control for your camera.

1. I used MS Word, opened the software and removed the blank document - you will get a 'neutral' (grey) background. Be sure to turn the brightness all the way up.

2. Cover all sources of light coming from your computer - a black felt sheet should do the trick.

3. Position the plastic item in front and in the centre of the monitor. I used a couple of plastic boxes I had in my kitchen cupboards and a ruler - I was really running out of plastic things. I saw some people using straws and it looks awesome.

This is not my drawing but really useful


4. Attach the polarising filter to you camera and position the camera in front of the plastic so all you see is an area of the plastic with the grey image totally filling the background, and avoid edges of the monitor showing.

5. Rotate the polarising filter and watch the colours of the plastic become stronger and the grey go darker. If you have it set up correctly the grey monitor will go totally black.

6. Experiment!

Here is the cover (I was supposed to show you options but I cannot find the right file...)





So what do you think? Once I got the hang of it, it was a really interesting project and I was really impressed with the results. Do let me know if you experiment as well!