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Shot with the Cokin Blue/Yellow Varicolor Polarizer.
Article by Immortal Thrill-Seeker
I wanted to write a review about the blue/yellow polarizer, as there's limited
information about this filter circulating on the web or in books. When I thought
about writing a review, I couldn't help but think about regular polarizers and
their origin. Who invented this amazing photographic tool? I use them all the
time, take them for granted, and can't imagine where landscape photography would
be without them. Perish the thought.
Although some of the details are sketchy, I found out that a Harvard dropout
named Edwin Land invented a polarizer in 1929 when he was 19 years old.
Interestingly, he also founded the Polaroid Corporation. And, car manufacturers
were interested in polarizing technology to reduce the glare from car
headlights. I was very amused when I heard about that. But enough about Ed.
Let's move on to Jean Coquin.
Jean Coquin is the French photographer who founded Cokin, the filter company
that created the blue/yellow varicolor polarizer. I can find nothing about the
origin of this filter. If you have any information on this, please let me know.
I'd be interested.
Okay, the history lesson is over. Let's get on with the review.
I first heard about the blue/yellow polarizer in a landscape photography book.
The author explained nothing about how it worked, just that it was used for a
couple shots. I was curious and wanted to know more. Months later, I decided to
buy one. At $40 and some change, I figured it was worth the money to test it
out.
The day the package arrived, I saw glass encased in a plastic square. I thought,
"Okay... how do you get the circle filter out of this plastic case?" Then I
realized, the whole thing IS the filter. I let out a very loud, "Who the hell designed this thing?! What were they thinking?!" If you haven't
figured out why I was upset, you probably don't own a Cokin filter holder. What
this meant was that I couldn't rotate the polarizer independently of the holder
itself. So, if I wanted to use a neutral density graduated filter in tandem with
the polarizer, I'd have to stick it to the polarizer with adhesive putty. It's a
bit of a pain, let me tell you. A sprocket mount would have been preferred
immensely.
After my anger subsided, I took another look at the filter. I even pried it open
just to make sure I wasn't crazy. I wasn't, and I discovered that there were two
pieces of glass in there. I took the filter out on my deck and held it up to my
eye. I live right next to I-5. I was looking around, rotating the filter, and
changing the reflections on peoples' windshields from yellow to blue and back
again. I was starting to have fun and smiled a little. To my left, I changed the
sky from sunset pink to purple. To my right, I turned the sky a subtle peach.
Hmmm...
I soon came to realize that this filter was like being able to play with Kelvins
and a polarizer at the same time. You could warm things up or cool them down.
Sometimes both at the same time. A bit of a mind twister. And where a regular
polarizer reduces or removes reflections, this filter added colour to the
reflections. And you could control the degree of colour, to an extent. In some
ways, it was like having a continuously variable warm up filter that went from
81A to 81D with a twist of the hand. Kind of like Singh-Ray's variable neutral
density filter that goes from 2 stops to 8. This also made me wonder why someone
hadn't invented a variable warm-up filter, or cooling filter for that matter.
This filter can be VERY over the top. Overall, I prefer its subtle uses and like
it most in low light conditions. It was pretty subtle on the
waterfall picture I took with it. You can see the blue on the rocks, but
it's not objectionable, in my opinion. I think it's quite pretty actually.
However, that picture was colour corrected for a purple cast in post-processing.
That brings up another point. The purple cast. In some cases, it works for the
picture. Other times, it's an eyesore. In many photo software programs, you can
pick an area of a picture that should be white, click on it, and voila, purple
be gone. But doing so can also undo part of the magic of the filter. It's hard
to describe, but it's different. The picture you're now looking at was not
colour corrected, yet doesn't have much of a purple cast at all. I honestly
don't know why.
That brings up another interesting point. The filter is kind of unpredictable.
Oh, you'll get the hang of it, but every situation is a little different. I
turned leaves in a forest from green to yellow and saw how this created a
greater contrast between the leaves and their tree trunks that wasn't there a
moment ago. There's still much to discover. It makes you think about light a lot
and just how much polarization is going on all around you everyday. It draws
attention to it by coloring it for you.
A little over $40 buys you a whole lot of fun. And a couple hassles. But it's
worth it to me. FYI, Singh-Ray makes their own version called the Gold-N-Blue
polarizer that sells for around $190, they offer it in sprocket mount, and it's
probably optically sharper than Cokin's. Well, that's my review. You'll see more
pictures I've taken with this filter in the future.
Note: In 2010 the price for the Cokin Varicolor in the A series is $29.06,
the P Series is $47.32 and the X-pro version is $602.25. This filter
measures 130 x 170mm.
See
The Immortal
Thrill Seekers Photostream on Flickr. If you buy photo gear, video products, software,
electronics, etc. and you order by using any
links from this site, I get a small credit no matter what you buy, and you do not pay one cent more, and usually
you pay much less than retail. By clicking the links on this site helps me have the time to keep building this site.
I've been using Adorama,
Amazon or
B&H Photo Video for years and have
nothing but good things to say. I strongly recommend them You'll be glad you use them too.
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