Friday, February 18, 2011

There's nothing like a Polaroid ...

   ... when you first peel away the negative, and see the print:


   The picture curls in your hand, and you have to set it down and let it dry fully before it'll lay flat. It really is a pretty little artifact.

   The first camera I ever owned was a Polaroid zip, which I got for Christmas in 1973:

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Shakies Buddy


   It used the same rigmarole as this "new" Polaroid 420: you took the picture, then pulled on a white tab to get the bigger yellow/black tab, then pulled on that to pull out the picture. Then you waited 30 seconds, and peeled away the paper cover from the front of the print.



   The 420, however, takes bigger film: the so-called Type 100 pack film. All pictures in this post taken on Fujifilm FP 100B black & white. Very nice stuff.

   This picture was taken with a red filter over the lens to darken the sky.















   Each print is 3 1/4" x 4 1/4".  Easy to scan on a flatbed.  I scan them in colour, to get more bits to play with when tampering (slightly) with the levels or curves to get a better web picture; then I convert to black and white.

   The picture at right has an orange filter; not as dramatic as the red, but it shows the sky better while also brightening up the dingy dark yellow brick.

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