Dec 30
Blue and Gold
Another long, boring weekend ahead. Looks like the only photo ops I can find these days is moving water, so I drove to the Österhocklan creek, armed with a Cokin Blue/Yellow varicolour filter (otherwise known as a Blue/Gold polarizer). I don’t normally like gimmick filters but it felt like a gimmick was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits while I wait for the winter to arrive. I’ve had the B/G filter for years, but I’ve hardly ever used it – seemed like a good idea at the time, but I never really found any application for it. But now I’ve discovered that it can be quite nice with water and ice images which otherwise would be very greyscale.
Here’s a little series to demonstrate the effect of polarizers. Image P is shot with a normal polarizer. N is “naked” – no filters. B is the B/G polarizer with a blue basis, and G is with the same filter rotated 90 degrees for a gold basis.
When I arrived at the creek, I was surprised to find it almost iced over. I guess we’ve had more below zero temperatures than I thought…
I quickly changed my plan to look for interesting ice formations instead of interesting white water formations, and ended up with a very nice photography session. A blue day with a golden lining!
4 comments
Very interesting! Earthbound Light had an article of the same topic a little while ago. It can be found here: http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/gold-n-blue-polarizer.html
Thanks for the tip! Earthbound Light has now been added to my newsreader.
NP, you’ll find much good information there. Hope you don’t mind that I added your blog in my link listing?
Not at all, thanks!