Strange (Unwanted) Polariser Effects... Normal??

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jodyflorian

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Hiya,

I'm quite new to polarisers - had one about 10 years ago! Getting into photography again now.

I bought a couple of polarisers and they're producing effects which I'm sure aren't meant to be... correct me if I'm wrong!

I thought polarisers only removed reflections - and as a side effect makes water clearer and the sky darker.

However, both polarisers I bought are producing very strange colour effects. Rotating the filter changes the colour of pretty much everything - I've been getting strange purple/blue/green hues. Is this normal?? One is worse than the other.

And for the sake of experimentation, I doubled up the polarisers and everything was blue!

They were cheapo's off ebay, so I'm wondering if this is normal, or if the filters I bought are in some way sub-standard?

Thanks

Jody
 
Thanks - ok will do. I'm not sure what white balance setting I should use - I guess I should configure it before putting on the polarisers to really see what's happening... won't take long...
 
Ok now I'm even more mystified!

I realised that earlier I didn't actually take any photos - I was just trying them out through the viewfinder. This time taking photos, I couldn't get any of the strange hues - both filters seemed to be working as expected, not shifting the hue at all as far as I could see. I'm guessing that this is my eyes playing tricks on me?

The polarisers are:
- LVSHI CPL
- Fujiyama P.L

I don't get it! Ah well, I'm not so fussed since they do seem to do the job! But still curious. I'm heading on an excursion in a few hours so just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting time hastling with the filters.

Is it possible for the eyes to play tricks when using the viewfinder through polarisers? Have you noticed that before? I'm using a Canon 5D with a Canon 50mm EF f/1.8

Thanks Nigel - help much appreciated
 
Uh sorry - one exception - putting both polarisers together (LOL) does give a blue/purple tint to shots!! Very strange!!
 
It could be that the Fujiyama P.L is a 'linear' polariser instead of a 'circular' polariser, so would be no good for DSLR cameras?
 
It's caused by using the two together. If you had 2 x linear polarisers you could rotate one against the other to the point where no light at all came through. Look up cross polarisation or cross polaraization on Google and see how the physics works.
 
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