Catching Light; Experimenting with Camera Filters

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One small thing can change a picture entirely. This one small thing is a camera filter. A camera filter is a small round attachment that goes in front of the camera lens. The camera filter was invented by Edwin H. Land. In this experiment, the polarizing filter, neutral density filter, diffusion filter, and star effect Filter will be tested. Photographers everywhere use filters to help enhance their photos. The hypothesis states that if a filter is applied to the camera, then the picture will change.
In the 1930s, Edwin H. Land was walking around New York City. He was a photographer and noticed that there were lots of harsh glares in the “Big Apple”. Land wanted to reduce these glares that were caused by random vibrations of light. Basically, he needed to control those vibrations by polarizing the light. In 1932, Land began breaking into labs late at night when no one was there, and worked until the morning. He designed a plastic sheet containing thousands of crystals. Light would pass through these crystals and would polarize the light making the picture glare free. Without Land’s discovery, photographs would be different today.
There are four different filters that will be tested in this experiment. There is the polarizing filter, neutral density filter, diffusion filter, and star effect filter. Each of these filters affect the photograph differently, but how? The polarizing filter enhances the color and contrast and also saturates the color by removing reflected highlights on surface. This filter controls unwanted reflections, uses optical principles different from other filters, and reduces daytime glare and light scattering. This filter only works at a 90 degree angle from the sun and the light source must be reflect...

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