Changing digital into real polaroid

[igord]

<p>Just wonder if anybody knows or practice a high quality technique of changing digital file into a polaroid. I imagine that I could project digital photo somehow into the camera with polaroid loaded. Photographing the computer screen is not an issue I hope.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Igor, As I recall, Polaroid made a print lab where you printed from a slide. You could have your image converted to a negative at a lab like dalmatianlab.com. Not cheap, but it would get you there. Actually I think Freestyle Photo (.biz) sells the printer still. I think there was an alternative process that used it.</p>

[igord]

<p>Thanks Michael.</p>

[acedigital]

<p>Check out a free cool application called POLADROID -<br>

http://www.poladroid.com You install the app and drag a digital photo onto the camera and wait for the results. If you right click (I think its not obvious) you can change some basic settings before you edit the photo. Pretty cool little app</p><div></div>

[RobertChura]

<p>http://www.poladroid.net is the correct link Mark is talking about</p>

[igord]

<p>Thanks Mark and Robert. I will check it out in a minute. I am thinking of printing using canon small printer Selphy and reshoot it immediately after the session also.</p>

[john tonai]

<p>Poladroid is fun but the colors aren't anything like the Polaroid films</p>

[igord]

<p>I need this tonality of real instant:<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79529603@N00/5052570224/</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Igor, I don't understand your last message. I think you are trying to say that you would like to reproduce the tonality of your flickr shot immediately when you shoot other models. However, since you apparently shot that image yourself, you, of course, would know exactly how you got that tonality. What am I missing?</p>

<p>Or, are you trying to find an automated way to give images that have already been shot that "look"? If so, what part of the "look" are you referring to: The tinting effect, or did you truly mean the tonality (ie, the distributions of tonal values)?</p>

<p>As you obviously must know (since you did it yourself), the tinting effect is fairly easy to reproduce and apply to other images. OTOH, the tonality of the final image depends on the lighting, camera settings, and other factors which are determined before the image comes into photoshop. Therefore, it's unlikely that any one action or preset in PS will work for all images.</p>

<p>Again, what am I missing?</p>

<p>Cheers,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[igord]

<p>Tom,<br /> The photograph I show here is a fuji instant (actual polaroid/fuji instant print) reshot (copied) with digital camera. So I have to shoot a lot of polaroids to get the one photo I want and later scan it or copy it to make larger print.<br /> The tonality of analog instant print (not the tint) is very unique and you will not get it with digital even if I am good at photoshop converting.<br /> My idea is to shoot a lot of images with a digital camera and project the best shot to the instant somehow to get this polaroid/instant look.<br>

When I shoot with digital camera and the same lighting the final image looks like this linked and as you see is completely different.<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79529603@N00/5036498173/</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Ahh! Now I understand. Thanks for clearing that up.</p>

<p>Let me think about it a bit.</p>

<p>Tom</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Q #1: Do you have two shots that are identical except that one was shot with your digital, and the other with the instant camera? If so, could you post them or send them to me. It's a bit hard to compare the two images you cited because of the different poses.</p>

<p>Question #2, how does the instant cam light the scene? Is it different from how your digital camera lights it, or do you just slave studio strobes to both?</p>

<p>Tom</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>OK ... try this for size ;-) . Here is the shot you cited using your digital camera (which you find too sterile).</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Same shot after I quickly tweaked it in PS.</p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>And finally, here's the look that you want to emulate.</p>

<p>I know that my quick Photoshop tweak isn't quite the same, but with further refinement, I'm sure it could be brought a lot closer to the desired look, and, best of all, it involves vastly less experimentation and time than attempting to project the digital shot and then re-shoot it with your instant camera. I suspect there will be a lot of problems with that process that one can't anticipate.</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>Tom M</p><div></div>

[igord]

<p>Tom, thanks for your effort. It looks close of course but it is not the same ;)<br>

Instant gives me very subtle tonalities.... and I have analog print in my hands, not just invisible information in my computer.<br>

I do have slave strobe to light the scene, I use mamiya with instants.<br>

Thanks one more time for your time and helping me.</p>

 

[tom_mann1]

<p>Hi Igor - No problem. It's obvious that my tweaked version isn't the same, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I enjoy little exercises like this.</p>

<p>That being said, I'm really worried about your plan to use your instant camera to photograph a projected image. I have tried photographing a projected image in the past, and I was never even close to being happy with the results. I found that I could do pretty well with respect to the average color temperature and the average exposure, but I found lots of problems such as huge differences in contrast, vignetting, softness at the edge of the frame, individual colors had saturation or luminance values that were waaay off, the colors varied across the frame, there were some strange halo effects, etc. Obviously, if you have a really high quality digital projector, these problems will be less, but, to be honest, I've never heard of anyone doing technically accurate photography (which is what you need to capture the tonality you seek) who uses such a technique.</p>

<p>You probably will do better with a printed copy, but if neither of these approaches work as well as you need, at least PS might provide you with a fall-back option.</p>

<p>The best of luck!</p>

<p>Cheers,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[igord]

<p>Tom, thanks for the message. I think maybe printing on foil with inkjet and reshooting with instant would work.</p>

[matthew_stott]

<p>Hi Igor,<br>

Have you seen or used the Daylab or Daylab type printers? This sounds like exactly what you are looking for. They usually take a slide, negative or a print and project it onto fuji or polaroid packfilm. They are enclosed devices that should work a whole lot better than taking an instant print of a digital projection with a normal camera.</p>

<p>Lots of them on ebay going fairly cheap these days.</p>

<p>Good Luck,</p>

<p>Matt</p>

<p> </p>

[igord]

<p>Thanks Matthew!</p>