Birefringence photography basically involves the use of two polarizing filters: one between the subject and the light source, to polarize the light, and a second on the lens of the camera.

The first filter should ideally be linear, but the one on the camera can either be circular or linear. Polarized light sources are easy to find, because most LCD television screens and computer monitors already feature linear polarization. If you really would rather not use a screen or don’t want those RGB pixels, just try a light table that has polarizing paper sitting on top instead. If you don’t have a polarizing lens filter, you can use a polarized sun glass instead.

Here are some tips to get the best results from birefringence photography.

Providing back-lighting to the subject gives the photo-elasticity (the liquid look to the colors) the …

The technique involves two methods, moving a light around in the frame during a long exposure, similar to writing with a sparkler, on cracker night, or using a controlled light source, such as a flashlight or speedlight, on or off camera, to light a particular part of a scene.

The latter is more of a contrived and creative technique that can yield spectacular results, especially in a commercial setting. LED torches are the tool of choice here. $6.95 from Kmart, will get you a small pocket sized, but extremely bright and useful LED torch, which is also daylight balanced, so you won’t get any undue yellow shift in colour to whatever you light up. I often use colored gels / filters that go with my Canon speedlight, over the light source to further increase the dynamic feel of the image. …

Lens Changes

A powerful choice in filters allows you to change the way the lens of the camera focuses, or highlights certain elements of the picture. One example of these, is a zoom lens. Smaller subjects, even as far down as ants and bees can be captured in slow motion or with time-lapse photography. Separate color filters in magenta or red let you choose certain light types in your shot, hand highlight certain aspects of the subject. This is great for butterflies, or to help with some harder to see choices. You can even choose between these two options with a Switchblade3 filter.

Microphones

Microphones let you filter out the surrounding noise, and really focus on your subject. Whether it is a creek babbling or the smallest bird call, an external microphone is a must. Depending on what you intend …

Modern digital cameras come with really excellent auto-focus systems built in to try and make this as easy as possible. Remember, however, that your camera is not magic! Just a little bit of help from the photographer can make a world of difference!

Remember it is always a good idea to pause for a split second when you have half pressed the shutter button to give your camera a chance to do its job of focussing properly.

With compact cameras there are really two auto-focus methods that could concern us –

Firstly there is the ‘infra-red bounce’ or ‘Active’ method where your camera emits a red beam to measure the distance to the subject. If you have one of these do not put your finger over the beam light when taking a picture – you will not get any focus!…