Posts Tagged "poladroid"

Fun Fake Polaroids

Posted by Michelle on Nov 11, 2008 in Crafting | 0 comments

When I was about 10, I told my mom that I wanted to be a photographer and wanted a camera. What I really wanted was another version of my dad’s Minolta SLR — what I got was a hot pink and grey Polaroid camera and a book on beginner photography.  Odd start though it was, my love for photography followed me into my adult years though the Polaroid was lost to time.

Still, I have a soft spot for Polaroids. There’s something about the variated colors and tones of a Polaroid — hardly ever true to life but still kind of neat to look at. But I’m not so fond as to go hunting down a vintage one — oh dear god, I just realized that my first camera would be considered vintage now. ARGH!  — and certainly not enough to shell out the money it would cost to buy the no longer in production film which has become a bit of a commodity in the niche photography world. I’m far too cheap to shell out money for the sake of nostalgia when a perfectly good, off-color Polaroid-esque photo can be manipulated on my computer.

There are various Photoshop actions and techniques you could apply to make a fake Polaroid but you’re missing the best part of the Polaroid experience — waiting and shaking that sucker to make it develop faster. (And I pause now to realize that there are kids out there who will never know the fun of waiting for a Polaroid because they have digital cameras. SPOILED THEY ARE. And channeling Yoda I am.)

But fear not, if you’ve got a Mac, you’ve got a better option — Poladroid! This is an awesome application where you literally drag and drop your digital photo to be made into a Poladroid onto the application. Seconds later in spits out… a brown Polaroid. But wait! Your “film” is developing. Neat! You can even drag and “shake” the Poladroid to speed up the process. In a few minutes (yes, minutes) you have a neat, slightly oddly exposed, perfectly (maybe) fake!Polaroid version of your original photo.

Here’s one of The Little Empress…

Before

Poladroided

Spiffy, eh? I’ve found that the Poladroid works best if you start off with a square photo. I just cropped mine in iPhoto. This is an awesome way to make photos that may not have been that great originally into something a little more interesting.