The Cellar - View Single Post - September 6, 2006: Oil spill in Philippines

tulzscha · 09-06-2006, 10:28 PM

I'm skeptical of the rainbow effect. Seeing as the photo was taken from a jetliner (wing and engine in evidence), my argument would be thus: Airliner windows are plexiglass, and any picture shot through plexi with a polarizer will give you a nifty rainbow (it reveals the internal stresses of the window plastic).

Like this guy ( http://cinemazement.com/blog/?p=1028 ) found out...

The dense bits (say, the lower-right-central smear) looks more like i'd expect oil slick to appear -- small swirly rainbows, rippled and wavy like water. The large swathes of even rainbow colors (like the extreme lower-right) I'd argue are not because of the oil, but some other, more benign, influence.

09-06-2006, 10:28 PM	#13
tulzscha Cantankerous Incantonator Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 57	I'm skeptical of the rainbow effect. Seeing as the photo was taken from a jetliner (wing and engine in evidence), my argument would be thus: Airliner windows are plexiglass, and any picture shot through plexi with a polarizer will give you a nifty rainbow (it reveals the internal stresses of the window plastic). Like this guy ( http://cinemazement.com/blog/?p=1028 ) found out... The dense bits (say, the lower-right-central smear) looks more like i'd expect oil slick to appear -- small swirly rainbows, rippled and wavy like water. The large swathes of even rainbow colors (like the extreme lower-right) I'd argue are not because of the oil, but some other, more benign, influence.