Plastic objects in polarized light

Very exiting to experiment with plastic in front of polarized light sources. This is a simple foil from a cracker box put in front of a TFT(!) Monitor. Somehow not every foil or plastic object produces these colours. I tried a cup from the hospital I brought home, the top of a little box for keeping minerals and this foil with success. Best results can be reached by switching the monitor in a single white surface, then put the item in front, darken the room and use a pole filter with the camera. Turning the objects slightly produces different ranges of colour. Once I observed this effect even in the daylight on a plastic windshield of a motor-cycle with a pole filter on my camera.

Here still a further picture of Windshield of a motorcycle 90 degrees away from the sun, viewed through a polfilter on a Canon Reflex Camera.

More pictures: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

Author: Rolf Kohl