Does a circular polarizer change starburst effects from streetlights at night?
Asked 2/22/2013
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When shooting night scenes at small apertures, bright point light sources like streetlights often produce starburst patterns that depend on the lens aperture blades. If I add a circular polarizer and rotate it for maximum effect, will it change the shape or intensity of those stars, or only affect other parts of the scene?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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Unless you put a polarizing sheet on the lamps, no effect (other than the global ND effect inherent in these filters), except if there is a reflection on the ground from them, then the reflection will be attenuated.
The polarizer removes the reflections from non-metallic surfaces and the stars are direct light from emitting sources.
Since the stars appear due to diffraction caused by narrow aperture slits and they have a discrete amount of angles, causing double that amount star lines (even number of blades overlap), I don't see how the polariser could affect it.
One thing is theory, another is practice. I set up an ikea lamp in my vision lab to make the star effect and then took an image with and without polariser:

Indeed, theory is shown to be true. We only get an ND effect. Rotating the polarizer had no effect at all.
If we put a polarizer behind the aperture, like this:

Then we get this (1. without filter 0.5x exposure, 2. with pol, 3. with pol rotated 90d):

The small differences I will blame the fingerprints on the filter that I tried to wipe off, but there is still some left :)
Originally by user11455. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11455
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
In general, a circular polarizer will not change the starburst pattern from direct light sources like streetlights. Those stars are caused by diffraction at the lens aperture blades, not by reflected polarized light.
What a CPL can do:
- reduce reflected glare from non-metallic surfaces
- darken or suppress reflections on wet pavement, glass, or water
- cut overall light transmission, acting like a mild neutral-density filter
So the star shape and blade-defined rays should stay essentially the same, while the whole image may get darker and reflections around the lights may be reduced. If the light you’re seeing is mainly a reflection rather than the lamp itself, that reflected brightness can be attenuated by rotating the polarizer.
For direct emitting light sources, though, the practical effect is basically just light loss, not a change in the starburst itself.
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