Photo transfer to Polaroid

Do you have more than a few failed Polaroids lying around in your drawer? Did you ever look at these Polaroids and thought to yourself “hmmmm, what can I do with these nogoodniks?
Well, if you ever did, have no fear; there IS something you can do with this unsuccessful bunch, so don’t trash them yet. You are going to transfer an image onto the Polaroid, so the Polaroid acts as the receiving surface. Brilliant or what?

What you need:
Laser or inkjet print (black & white or color)
Used Polaroid 600, Spectra or SX-70
Mod Podge
Water spray bottle
UV-resistant gloss finish

1. Prepare the Polaroid to receive the image by lightly sanding the surface in order to de-gloss it.
2. Coat the image area of the Polaroid with Gesso so the surface is unified.
3. After choosing the image to transfer trim it to the size of the Polaroid’s image.
4. Brush Mod Podge or any other gel medium over your photo, place it face down and press onto the Polaroid.
5. Let the transfer thoroughly dry.
6. Spray the back of the photo with water and rub off the paper back to reveal the transfer.
7 Spray the final transfer with clear protective spray that has a gloss finish to restore the appearance of the Polaroid’s original shine.

And here is the final transfer to Polaroid:

The really nice thing about this transfer technique is that after it is done you end up holding an actual Polaroid in your hand.

PHOTO TRANSFER TUTORIAL – $5 DOWNLOAD NOW
Inkjet transfer, packing tape transfer, transferring with transparencies, mixed media photo transfers, Transfer to mirror and ceramic tile, gel transfer, transferring with mod podge, etc

Polaroid Manipulation

This is Canter’s, a Jewish deli-restaurant on Fairfax in Los Angeles, one of my favorite places to get my Jewish food fix.
It’s quite a weird thing; when I was little, I would run out the door as quickly as possible, every time my mom made her famous Gefiltefish or whichever other one of these strange foods rooted in her distant Eastern European Jewish origins.
But now, with the distance of years and oceans, strangely enough, I can’t get enough of that just-like-mom-used-to-make kinda food.
What is it about mom’s food that makes it the best food in the world?
Canter's, Los Angeles. Polaroid SX-70 (Time-Zero)

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Photo transfer to Polaroid

If you are like me you have more than a few failed Polaroids lying around in your drawer.
Did you ever look at these Polaroids and thought to yourself “hmmmm, what can I do with these nogoodniks?”
Well, if you ever did, have no fear; there IS something you can with this unsuccessful bunch, so don’t trash them yet.
You are going to transfer one of your lovely photos onto the Polaroid, so the Polaroid acts as the receiving surface.
Brilliant or what?

Here’s what you need:

• Laser photocopy or inkjet photo printed on standard paper
• Used Polaroid 600, Spectra or SX-70
• Mod Podge
• Water spray bottle
• UV-resistant gloss finish

1) Prepare the Polaroid to receive the image by lightly sanding the surface in order to degloss it.
2) Coat the image area of the Polaroid with Gesso so the surface is unified.
3) After choosing the image to transfer it is important to trim it to the size of the Polaroid’s image.
4) Brush Mod Podge or any other gel medium over your photocopy, place it face down and press onto the Polaroid.
5) If you are using an inkjet photo you will have to wait only about 15-30 minutes for the Mod Podge to dry and for the transfer to complete. If you are using a photocopy let it set for a few hours, preferably over night.
6) Spray the back of the photocopy with water and rub off the paper back to reveal the transfer.
7) Spray the final transfer Polaroid with clear protective spray that has a gloss finish to restore the appearance of the Polaroid’s original shine.

The really nice thing about this transfer technique is that after it is done you end up holding an actual Polaroid in your hand.

If you feel a bit more adventurous try painting your Polaroid’s surface with acrylic paints and transfer your photo while the paint is still wet (i.e. immidiatly). You will end up with a colorful Polaroid such as this one:

You can find this process and many other photo processes in my new book:
So Much More than Photography
eBook edition Price: $10
Kindle edition Price: $10
Print edition Price: $35 (Now on sale for $25.20)
Black & White print edition Price: $20

one page of polaroids

Metallic pens and bright permanent markers were used to outline, color, and add the text. To finalize some of the images, I peeled off the familiar Polaroid border in order to reveal the colorful edges

The last of the Polaroids

Now that I have about 3 or 4 packs of Polaroid 600 film left (I think one of them is actually the manipulative SX-70 Time Zero film – though I can only wonder if it still holds its manipulative characteristics when it is so long expired), and just in case the Impossible Project turns out to be in fact impossible, then when I shoot a Polaroid, I feel like I have to make each picture count.
Yesterday, as another winter storm approached Southern California I decided to take a few rainy Polaroid pictures. I took these Polaroids using my Sun660 camera –
I like this camera because unlike the standard 600 camera it lets you shoot without firing the stupid flash.
[Most of the pictures were taken in beautiful downtown Culver City.]

Color image transfer (Polaroid)

The only difference between color and black & white image transfer is that the color Xerox is printed on a higher quality paper than the black & white Xerox copy.
Therefore it needs more time to dry and also it requires a bit more effort to remove the left-over paper (step 5). But otherwise it is the same basic process.

Transfer to Polaroid

Everybody knows what a Polaroid transfer is but what is a Transfer to Polaroid?
Ok, so this is what it’s all about:
A few days ago I realized I kept around a few Polaroids that didn’t turn out good; some of them didn’t even develop. Why I kept them is a whole different issue, but the fact is that I did and now I was looking at these Polaroids thinking “hmmmm.. there must be Something I can do with these nogoodniks… but what?”
And then, as it often happens, I had a marvelous idea; how about transferring an image onto the hopeless Polaroid, so the Polaroid acts as the receiving surface. What a brilliant idea! I thought to myself.
(As you see, I was quite impressed with myself.)
But anyway, now to the technical details:
1. In order to prepare the Polaroid to receive the image it is necessary to de-gloss the surface by lightly sanding it.
2. The next step in preparation is to coat the image area of the Polaroid with Gesso so the surface is unified.
3. After choosing the image to transfer it is important to trim it to the size of the Polaroid.
4. After covering the image with Mod Podge or any other gel medium it is placed face down and pressed onto the Polaroid.
5. The transfer must be completely dry before spraying the back of the transfer with water and removing the access paper to reveal the transfer.
6. When spraying the final transfer Polaroid with clear protective spray it’s a good idea to use a gloss finish to restore the appearance of the Polaroid’s original shine.

The really cool thing about this transfer technique is that after it is done you end up holding an actual Polaroid in your hand.

{Let me know if anything is unclear as I don’t think you’ll find any information about this process anywhere else }

Do you miss your Polaroid?

The other day, I came across this free little program that takes your digital pictures and turns them into cool Polaroid-like images. And even though I thought this is somewhat pointless, non-the-less I had to admit; this program was just too cute to pass up.
So this is how you use it: you download and install the program to your pc, you drag the photo of your choice and drop it on the Polaroid camera icon, you then wait for the picture to “develop” and you’ve got yourself a high res. digital Polaroid-like image.
Now go figure out what to do with it…

why should you use a polaroid?

Last week I was reminded again (I’ll explain another time) that some people just forgot how to have fun with photography.
They are very serious about the camera they must use, and often they are concerned with different technical issues they’ve heard so much about. It varies from the type of film they need, to how much post processing is acceptable, to how photography SHOULD BE DONE. Occasionally it seems to me that their focus is on making their viewers happy…. (This is always a major mistake!)
Now, that’s not to say that it is wrong to take yourself seriously, but just make sure you don’t forget along the way why you went into photography in the first place (hint: fun).

My immediate cure to such an illness is to prescribe one session of Polaroid photography.
Why? Because Polaroid can instantly(!) free you from the rules of the conventional, humorless, and tired world of photography.

Today in L.A. #3

Today in L.A #2

Today in L.A

no sunrise

We had a great sunrise this morning, and so when leaving the house I decided to grab one of my cameras to capture this rare treat.
But yes, then came the age old question: which camera?
I quickly conducted a search among my cameras for the ones that already had film inserted in them. And so I came across one of my Polaroid cameras which had 3 pictures left. “Perfect!” I thought and left home with my chosen camera. One thing I wasn’t sure about was what type of Polaroid film I had in the camera but anyway what can go wrong? A Polaroid is a Polaroid and I quickly used up the 3 pictures left, thinking I’m going to get some pretty gorgeous late sunrise images. Well, obviously I was wrong. It turned out the 3 images were the precious manipulative Time-Zero film which expired in November of 2005.
The images turned out pretty bad… dark, gloomy, no distinctive colors…
in fact, so bad that I just love them!
Obviously as I love these pictures just the way they are, I decided not to try manipulating them in any way. Besides, it is best to manipulate Time-Zero Polaroid when the image is made of bright vivid colors.
You can see a few examples here:
www.nonphotography.com/blog1/index.php?showimage=388
www.nonphotography.com/blog1/index.php?showimage=76
www.nonphotography.com/blog1/index.php?showimage=66
(links point to my old blog).

Meanwhile, talking about Polaroid, I’m stocking some Polaroid 600 film, and don’t worry I’m not going to go overboard, but I’m not sure yet what to shoot… I mean I want to do something special with them… but I don’t know what.

Activities for hot days

A hot weekend here in L.A. , always raises the same debate: should I drive and get stuck in traffic on the way to one of the crowded beaches, or should I stay home, indulge on popsicles, and wait for the liberator evening to get out and enjoy the cool evening air.
So I stayed home today. And what’s a better opportunity than this to get creative with photography, i.e. image transfers, mixed media collages, distressing prints or manipulating an extinct time-zero film.

post processing

I took this picture a few months ago and it was sitting in my freezer since then. Today, while I had some free time on my hands, which is an unusual luxury for me lately, I thought it would be great manipulating a time-zero picture.
I think I forgot how much fun it can be… its like therapy for me. As it is, one of my favorite steps in photography, other than figuring out an old classic camera and being out there, and taking pictures, well, I also enjoy very much what people call the “post processing” (I don’t know why but this term sounds so mechanical and emotionless to me). I sure enjoy spending time with my photos on the PC, working with textures and layers, but nothing compares to directly engaging with a photo.
Just thought I’d share.

Sad News

This is probably the saddest news I’ve heard in a while: Polaroid is ceasing production of its instant film!
I’m not even sure how I feel about it though I think I’m a little angry…

And by the way, in case you didn’t know Polaroid had secretly stopped making their famous instant cameras about a year ago.

Now, before you know it, there will be a Fake Polaroid Photoshop effect.
Just wait and see.

No more Holgaroid (for me)

I read that back in August 2006 Polaroid discontinued yet another film type; this time the casualty is the peal-apart 80 series. This is quite devastating (old) news to anybody who likes the Holgaroid (which is basically a Holga with a Polaroid back).
Type 80 peel-apart which is a medium format instant film was the only film that works with the Holgaroid so now the Polaroid back, which I believe was sold around a $100 is pretty much a useless entity.
The semi-good news is that in 2007 a new Polaroid back was made and it works with type 660 film, which, at least for now, is still available.
So I dug out my Holgaroid, I found out I still had one pack of 88 type film (ISO 80, color) and so I took the camera along for it’s last photo shoot.

Don’t leave home without your camera

Today while driving in the rain, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for myself as I didn’t take any of my cameras when I left home. Silly me! I should know better!
And then suddenly (and cheerfully) I remembered I left my Polaroid in the car a couple of weeks ago. So I took these pictures. And then I scanned them in black and white (the originals didn’t have much color anyway)

Hollywood walk of fame

I think out of the latest polaroid sx70
I’ve been taking (and manipulating) recently,
this one is my very favorite one.
maybe because of the vintage point. maybe the mute colors.
or the framing.
but it doesn’t really matter.

Time’s up

As I have the last couple of packs of time-zero sx-70 Polaroid film (I’m sure you already heard this film had been discontinued since March 2006) I find myself choosing my subjects extra carefully.

It’s kinda like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet while being on a restricted diet.
And as I take the whole practice of shooting a dying breed very seriously I began carrying around a small cooler container where I keep the pictures cold. This method prevents the emulation from fully developing and so I don’t have to work on the image right away.
Of course to avoid looking like a total loser walking around with this stupid container I make sure to keep it in my car while I take the pictures; it’s weird enough to be out there taking pictures with a bulky Polaroid camera. But I always pretend I don’t notice the puzzled stares.