Why Polaroid Photography is Always in Style
Today I talk about one of my obsession which is Polaroid Photography and why it is always in style.
Polaroids frames are simply one of my favourite types of photography. They are immediate and you can recreate and display so many beautiful wall designs with them. The million Polaroid ideas are so inspirational for me because of the vintage look and for those colours that depend on the outside temperature.
In this post, I will tell you how to use at its best your Polaroid cameras and obtain the most beautiful Polaroid pictures in order to create scrapbooks or simply stick them to the wall.
Why Polaroid Photography is Always in Style
Polaroids started their success in the 70s and since then, Polaroid photography has never gone out of style
. Their use in fashion photography has never stopped and blogging is slowly discovering them.
As you can see in this post where I show you my Polaroid Camera and a red and black frame – how cool are these? I am wondering where does my obsession come from?
You know I adore photography – especially film photography – but with Polaroid we had to go back to memory lane! Time to hit the 90s!
The Origin of my Obsession for Polaroid
I am a 90s kid and I vividly remember the time of a 9-years-old Cate singing and dancing all the Spice Girls songs out loud (ignoring the lyrics of course).
One day, they sponsored a bright purple Spice Girls Polaroid and I NEEDED it! I felt it in my veins that all my life depended on it.
Of course, my parents denied me that with the excuse that I wasn’t able to take care or shoot with it. And probably they were right.
But anyway, since then, I have always dreamed of owning a Polaroid camera.
How to Use a Polaroid Camera at its Best
I was finally able to get my hands on an old Polaroid 600 from a very shady guy in Milan who was carrying around a huge sack of old cameras.
Since then, I bought Polaroid Originals films and because they are so expensive (8 photos for 20€) I am very selective of my shots. Therefore, here below are a few tips I learned that will help you take care of your Polaroid pictures.
Plus some false myth revealed!
1.Do not shake them
One of the things I remember of the 90s was: shooting, ejecting the Polaroid picture and start shaking it to make the image appear faster.
DO NOT DO IT!
In reality, shaking makes them worse now. Simply let them be and keep them warm.
2.Keep them in a warm place
Once ejected, Polaroids (not Instax which are much faster and don’t need so much dedication) need to stay in a warm place away from the direct sunlight. I use to keep them in the pocket of my jeans or jacket for half an hour. So that you can have them in nice colours.
3.Don’t keep your Polaroid film inside the camera for too long
Polaroids are very delicate and you don’t want to risk to waste them just as I did. Once it took me several months to finish one roll and the last images were so subtle and almost invisible because I left them inside the camera for too long.
I would say to get a Polaroid film and finish it within a maximum of 3 months.
4.Play with them
Polaroid are super fun, they change overall colours because of the outside temperature. If it is cold you will obtain a blue-green colour for example. Or you can play even more and start opening them to make the ink inside flow in your direction. I did this in a competition dedicated to water and I was nominated for my idea. See the examples below.
To summarize, you have learned some very handy tips on how to use Polaroid cameras and film at their best, such as:
- Don’t shake them
- Keep them in a warm place after ejection
- Don’t keep your Polaroid film inside the camera for too long
- Play with them and experiment!
Overall Polaroid Photography is always on style because it has the vintage look plus like any film photography, it makes you think before you shoot.
It is a slow way of shooting and it is something we need in this era where with our digital cameras or phone, end up with a library full of images we don’t even look at after having snapped them.
Instead with film and Polaroid photography, you have one or two pictures which have taken you time and effort and so they are much much more magical and important to you.
Do you have a Polaroid or Instax camera? Let me know in the comments below.
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