Here, again, is proof that Albert procrastinates the wrong things. He breaks program schedule to show you this cool trick, brought to you with the power of two polarizers in front of a digital camera. In order – a linear polarizer (must be linear), circular polarizer, digital camera. Yep, my circular-linear-wannabe-neutral-density filter.

The setting? A traditionally scorching bright sunny day, with the absolute EVs scorching at around 15. Perfect, they say, for outdoor action photography, as every shot will be scorchingly lit with shutter speeds of about 1/250 seconds at most. The subject? A lion dance performance.

Of course, I wanted a different effect than to see the lions being immobilized in mid air. I wanted to convey motion, something you would not be able to do even at F8.0. Cue the crossed polarizers!

Settings? ISO 50, aperture priority (anywhere between F2.6 to F8.0) and EV -1. Pardon the composition of the pictures, I was focusing on getting motion in cool ways.

But first, a peek into the mind of a lion:

This is a regular shot, no movement, no filters:

I then attach the filters, and turn the linear polarizer (the outer ring) to reduce the light coming to the lens, letting the camera to choose a slower shutter speed:

Motion looks better in wide shots.

By chance, I got this; one still, the other two moving.

So that’s how it’s done!

Big drums and heavy beats. How could you not headbang to this?

Nod your head yo.

Another way to make use of shutter speed is to pan with the subject, like so: (Note the Queen T-shirt!)

A faster-moving panned subject.

Show’s over, boys.

Happy Chinese New Year to all of you! (Yes, this is still valid till the day oranges are thrown into rivers.)