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Picture of the day

A tape head cleaner cassette made of clear hard plastic. The plastic is birefringent and demonstrates internal stress as coloured patterns (photoelasticity) when photographed using cross polarisation. The polarising light source (an LCD monitor) has been rotated such that the polarising filter on the lens is oppositely oriented and so cuts out all the direct light, leaving a black background.

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You can also see some work created by our highly skilled contributors in Meet our photographers and Meet our illustrators. You may also be interested in Picture of the Year.

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