troubles with first polaroid transfers

I just did my first set of polaroid transfers. I did 5, none of them came out.

I followed the instructions on

http://www.alternativephotography.com/process_imagetransfers.html

 

and

 

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1125086&lastnode_id=0

 

heres my problems as best I can describe. When I life the negative off of the

watercolor paper, alot of the dye gets stuck either on the paper or on the

negative. I have alot of extremely thick, green areas (my back ground is white)

while other areas are blank. Because of this, the image isn't really showing

up. On one of them, which is the first one I did with the boiling water

(everything2) I got a little area that was perfect, the rest was bad. What am I

doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

Well, that's not the way I've done them. I follow the methods along the lines of this book: http://www.amazon.com/Polaroid-Transfers-Complete-Creating-Emulsion/dp/081745554X

 

and don't have problems with the dye sticking. I also don't use boiling water. Get this book and you should do fine. What kind of film are you using?

I second that book recommendation - it's well worth the cost. I use a rubber brayer about 3" wide to press the Polaroid film onto the paper and use warm, but not too hot for fingers, water. I also peel under the water to increase the amount of adhesion to the paper. How long are you waiting to peel the film off the paper?

 

- Randy

god I love this forum. two intellegent answers in an hour. Anyway, I'm using 669 at the moment. I'm also using a 3 inch rubber brayer. Heres a rundown of the whole process.

 

Soak paper for 1 minute, then leave out. I tried to leave it out for about 5 min and then for about 15 min, the 15 minute one was the one with the best results.

 

Expose film. I know I'm doing this properly, as I test shot one shot and got a pretty good image. not absolutely perfect, but not bad by any means.

 

peel the two pieces (positive/negative?) apart after about 10 seconds. Lay the wet part down on the watercolor paper, brayer it constantly for about 30 seconds. then once every 30 seconds for about two minutes, peel apart.

 

the variation to this that I did that got the best results was after it being stuck to the watercolor paper for about 2-3 minutes, pour nearly boiling water (like it had been boiling 10 seconds earlier when it was still on the stove) over it for about 3 minutes. then peel apart.

John, I think your process must be different with 669 than what I use for the 4x5 material. I'll try to see what "the book" says about 669 and get back an answer, but I don't have it in front of me (it's at home).

Soak you paper in HOT water for at least ten minutes. Arches 140lb. Hot press works very well. I then take a squeegie and wipe off the paper and SLIGHTLY dry it with a hair dryer. Peel the film apart after 10-15 seconds (the more color you see on your positive, the less you will have on your transfer). Place the Polaroid material on the paper and brayer in one direction for only thirty seconds, with moderate to light pressure. Lightly peel back the paper after about 1 to 2 minutes. Want it lighter, expose more in the camera. Remember that dark backgrounds, black especially, tend to lift off. The book that has been recommended is a piece of stellar advice. Good luck and enjoy.

http://home.comcast.net/~kec51

I never could get transfers perfect, but decided to give it a try again after getting a great

deal on a polaroid 180 camera. Here's what I did and got almost perfect results every time.

 

place warm water in a tray (I used an 8x10 one from my darkroom stuff) place tray on top

of heating pad to keep water warm, dissolve half a package of knox gelatin in the water.

soak watercolor paper in water for about 5 minutes. Remove from water and pat dry with

paper towel. Shoot Polaroid, peel apart after 10 seconds, place neg side down on paper,

with a rubber roller, roll the neg flat maybe 5 or 6 times always in the same direction.

 

Place paper towel on top of polaroid/water color paper sandwich and place the entire

thing under the tray of warm water (between the tray and the heating pad)

Peel apart after 2 minutes.

let dry and then soak in a bath of 1:4 vinegar/water to "fix" the images (60 seconds in the

vinegar bath, then rinse 4 minutes in running water) it will lighten a bit and make the

colors more vibrant.

 

The only issue I had was I used cheap watercolor paper I had laying around and it was way

too textured for my taste.<div></div>

Did you try the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3982ao"> Polaroid site? </a> They have detailed instructions. I used their transfer kit with 669, and never had any of the problems that you described. IIRC, the water was warm, but nowhere near boiling.