Tip - Polapaddle™

Ok your all going to start thinking that I’m the reincarnation of Macgyver because all of my tips & projects so far seem to revolve around getting your Swiss Army Knife out & using common household objects to save the day. Well this tip is no exception. Many of you may be familiar with photographic practices but were wondering simple ways to transfer them to iPhography. You might want to take your iPhography to the next level by adding a polarizing filter but thought it was to bulky & impractical.

What many of you may not know or have forgotten is that they also make polarizing lenses for video cameras that have a much smaller lense size & are much cheaper. My local photographic shop sold me this 27mm circular polarizing lense for $20 AU (Just look for CPL printed on the lense) & you can even get smaller ones. Polarizing lenses have a few useful features like darkening the sky, deepening colours & removing reflections from glass, water & foliage. What makes polarizing lenses so important is the effects are totally dependent on how it manipulates the light & the effects can’t be added or replicated afterwards with software. Polarizers are great for enhancing black & white images also.

So without further adieu I will show you how to make the extraordinary Polapaddle™ using a mint tin, a ruler, a circular polarizing lense & a drill / Swiss Army Knife

How to assemble - Firstly if for some reason your a child with rich enough parents to buy you an iPhone & you have become an avid iPhography.com reader, then please get adult help before attempting this. This step is a little tricky but first you need to drill a hole in the ruler (Not the hard brittle rulers) then whittle & sand away until you get a hole that is slightly smaller than the screw thread on the lense. You then basically screw & force it into the hole. After completing this I discovered that if you use a black ruler or paint it black, you will be able to prevent light reflections from getting behind the Polapaddle™ a little better. “So what’s the mint tin for?” I hear you ask. Well it’s simply a way for you to carry your Polapaddle™ around in a lint/sand free environment that makes it easy to get to quickly. A good idea is to place a small piece of foam or a cotton ball in the bottom to stop the Polapaddle™ rattling around & it’s much easier to get the Polapaddle™ in & out than with a pouch.

The main reason for using the Polapaddle™ is that it enables you to more easily rotate the lense to get the desired effect your after

The finished Polapaddle™

How to use your Polapaddle™ - if your right handed, hold the iPhone in your left hand & using the first 2 fingers, press & hold the Polapaddle™ to the back of the iPhone. With your right hand you can rotate the Circular Polarising lense until you get the desired effect. You can then click with your left thumb or just tap with your right index finger, depending on how big your hands are. Note that a polarizer works best when you are facing 90º to the sun.

Example 1. The Polapaddle™ has made an overall enhancement of the image with deeper blue skies (not that we have much trouble finding deep blue skies in Australia) also the image is brighter, but I don’t think it’s totally the Polapaddle™ but the effect that the slightly grey lense has on the iPhone’s image sensor, tricking it into making it a bit brighter

Example 2. You’ll notice that not only has the sky deepened but because the reflections have been removed from the leaves, the hedge is also more vibrant.

So get to it & Macgyver yourself a Polapaddle™ to take your iPhography to a new level