A Cross-polarization as a Possible Cause for Color Shift in Illumination

Despite that a cross-polarization is a very efficient way to remove undesired reflections and specularities while imaging and digitizing certain type of materials. It does not come, however, with no risk when color fidelity and accuracy are of importance. This paper shows that a cross-polarization could alter and shift the Chroma component of a light source (D50) by different factors, undoubtedly, depending on the polarization filters’ quality in-use. Statistics show a color difference, DE00, of at least 3.59 and at worst 7.34 when a cross-polarization is in-place compared to non-polarized settings. That corresponds to a shift in color correlated temperature ranging from 50K to 360K consequently.