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

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.]

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 }