The 1880

Fruit of Polaroided labors.

Hey kids, I’ve got some bad news. I don’t mean to rain on your kitsch parade, but a few months ago Polaroid stated that they would no longer be producing film for Polaroid cameras. A few individuals to whom I explained this decision were totally dumbfounded, until it was explained that when a company produces a product that no longer returns on investment, it is discontinued. In our lifetimes we’ve seen the end of life for a ton of lower profile, but much nicer film stocks. You can’t buy any Agfa, Fuji Velvia, or GAF stuff anywhere anymore. It really isn’t a surprise that Polaroid has kicked it.

But never fear! With a little perseverance you can make your own pictures look just like those instant ones. Almost every machine on campus has Photoshop, and you might too if you’re some kind of unscrupulous piratical mofo. A little computer magic can give you the same wack colors and square framing you expect from your terminally ill instant camera.

I’m fairly certain this will work in every version after Photoshop 6 or so. I’m going to err on the side of over explanation, so if your experience in Photoshop is limited, you should be able to follow along with great results. Even if you think you’re a Photoshop god, stick around and I swear I’ll teach you at least one new thing.

Load up your image… File>Open or however you would like to do it.

First thing we’re going to do is add some adjustment layers to the image. Rather than edit the layer directly, adjustment layers allow you to work non-destructively on the image, granting far greater flexibility than other methods.

Adjustment layers are accessible in the Layers palette that defaults to the lower right. Click the half black, half white icon at the bottom of the palette, and hit /Color Balance./ Here lies the brunt of the work, where we give the image most of the qualities you would expect from a Polaroid. These are the values I’m using for the test image, but your mileage may vary. There aren’t any universal values, you need to exercise a bit of judgment and creativity.

Anyway, your shot now has the basic look, and your balance layer is now effecting the image. Click on the adjustment icon again, and pick /Curves/. I can’t really explain the entire curves dialogue here, but it’s essentially a input-output chart of pixel values for the image. We’re going to cut out a little contrast in the image by taking the bottom left point and moving it up a little, and the point at the top-right and moving it down. This will bring the dark and light values closer together. Getting roid-ish looking, huh?

The images were aiming to recreate come out of cameras that are pretty lacking from a technical point. They’re endearing because they look like crap, or something. There’s a cool visual trick you can pull off to soften it just enough to make it look Polaroidy. The tab next to Layers, called channels, holds the color information for the image. In the RGB image mode (the one we’re in right now) there are separate channels for the Red, Green, and Blue information. Click on the Green channel.

Head to the top of the screen, hit Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Blur with a radius of four or so, and repeat again on the Blue channel. By blurring two of the three channels, we get a nice faux soft focus in a unorthodox way, but its the best way I’ve found that serves the purpose. Moving on!

We have the color and the blur, now we need the grain. Click the New Layer button in the Layer palette (right next to the one that looks like a trashcan). Fill this layer with black, Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) + Delete will fill with black if its the foreground color. Filter > Noise > Add Noise.

Slide up to about 125%, Gaussian and Monochromatic should be selected. In the layer palette, change the layer mode (where it says “Normal”) to Screen and drop the opacity down to just under 10%. This will lay some fairly natural looking grain on your shot.

This step isn’t necessary, but its a tip I really want to get in here. Ever take an image you wish was a little more level? Not at exactly the angle you want? If you hold down the Eyedropper Tool, one of the options hidden beneath it is the Ruler tool. Drag along an edge you want to be level. Next, the magic part. Go up to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary, and there will be some weird number already there. Hit okay, and your image is now level!

Polaroids are square. Grab hold of the Crop tool, and in the Width/Height values, write in some matching values, be they in pixels, inches, meters, whatever. Pull a square and you’re all set.

If you want your image to have the requisite Polaroid “frame,” just copy and paste into a document with a white rectangle of the right size. Clicking the “fx” icon in the layer palette at that point will get your to the drop shadow option, which will let you get the image looking like it came right out of your camera.

You’re all set! I’d recommend saving all of this as an action if you would ever want to replicate it, then you can have as many Polaroids as you like, without ever having to worry about vanishing film ever again. (Cheaper too!)

We’ve never really had a post like this before, so I would like to hear your thoughts! Let me know if you tried this out, and what your results ended up looking like. Thanks!