Tag Archives: TIP

August 13, 2011

Kidnapping Elf

By ipdegirl

One of the greatest joys of parenting is finally getting to the moment when you can really mess with your kids. For so, long we’ve encouraged them, told them the truth about most things and treated them like the sweet little things they are but during our vacation, the parents got their revenge (I swear this story is photography related…just wait for it).

All the cousins, girls and boys ages 12 to 5, were playing very nicely together and, much to our surprise, had started playing with some baby toys, including a stuffed elephant they dubbed Elf. They goofed around, pushing him, a doll named Bertha and a dinosaur named Dino Baby in a baby carriage, rolling it down hills at break-neck speed and crashing it into fences, walls and stairs until the contents spilled out at which point they all laughed maniacally. One day Elf went missing and they accused the adults of hiding him so when he turned up the next day, we decided they needed a little mystery to solve. Uncle Harry hid Elf and posted this ransom note for the kids to find:

The look on their faces was pure surprise and delight. They immediately formed teams and went all CSI on us, asking for handwriting samples and alibis. They all swore they would continue to eat their ice cream. Finally, in an effort to try to crack us, they said they had found Elf and that he had a rip in his side. We knew we had to up the ante, so (here’s where photography comes in) I suggested we take a Polaroid of Elf and post it the next morning. Uncle Harry and I staged a kidnapping scene, complete with Elf tied to a pole, electrical tape over his mouth and a saw at his throat (yeah, it was a little macabre, but these are some crazy kids). Here’s what they found the next morning:

The flurry of activity and screams of delight after finding THIS note was CRAZY! They searched the house and found the room in which we staged the photo. Again, alibis were demanded and drawing samples obtained. That night they ate cookies for dessert, as the ransom note suggested, and the next morning, Elf appeared. It was crazy-fun for everyone and when Uncle Harry finally confessed they claimed they knew it all along.

I took some other less ominous Polaroids during my trip as well and tried a little experiment. I recently read on The Impossible Project’s website or Flickr page about warming up the color Push film for more vibrant colors so I decided to try it. This is the control picture in which I just let the film develop normally

The next picture I warmed with a hair dryer for the first minute of developing and this is my result

I’m not really sure which I like better. The lighter color of the first one is nice but the intensity of color and depth of shadows and light in the second shot are much truer to what I was seeing with my eyes. It’s a little over exposed but generally, not a bad picture. The experimenting with this film will continue with the acquisition of a green filter, which is said to cut down on the magenta tones.

My favorite TIP film will remain the Silver Shade. I love the sepia tones, the old-fashioned feeling and the consistency of decent, well-exposed pictures. I feel this film is much more forgiving than the Color Shade. These are my Silver Shade vacation pics:

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July 2, 2011

Philly Lessons

By ipdegirl

Whenever I travel I bring a film camera along and our latest trip to Philadelphia, PA was no exception, but there was one little twist. Usually I bring a 35mm or medium format camera with me but yesterday I brought along my Polaroid Spirit and three packs of The Impossible Project’s instant film. It was a little bit of a risky move for me because it’s tough taking instant shots on the run: My family gets tired of stopping for me and often leave me in the dust so I have to be fast with my composition, focus and button pressing. Also, I’ve not yet mastered TIP’s films and usually get crappy results.

Of course, I also had my iPhone with me and I set a mission for myself. Take some macro shots of anything but flowers. They’re so easy as macro subjects, beautiful too, but I wanted to try to branch out (no pun intended). First thing I needed to do was find out what kind of film was left in my Polaroid–color or black and white. These two shots were the last of that pack.    

Lesson # 1: I got much better results on the second shots because I turned the light/dark slider to the middle, where it should be been in the first place for a bright sunny day, instead of all the way to the light side, as is often recommended for TIP films. So from now on, I’m going to set that slider where I think it should be, not where they recommend it be set.

We got a late start leaving and didn’t arrive in Philly until well after 1:30 pm so the first stop was lunch at Reading Market. I had a VERY yummy Italian Pork sandwich with broccoli rabe and provolone cheese from this shop

Lesson #2: You can actually take a decent Polaroid picture inside a busy market! I was shocked that this one came out as well as it did but I applied the knowledge gleaned from lesson #1 and voila!

Next we visited the Franklin Institute where I tried to take some macro shots but there just wasn’t enough time. We had to move quickly through the museum because we only had an hour and ten minutes before it closed. These are my macro attempts This diamond patterned metal never looks as cool close up as it does far away. I’ve tried a couple of times to do macros of it and haven’t found an interesting way to photograph it close up. I did, however, get some other really cool photos

The entrance to the museum

Pendulum filled with sand that drew a pattern on the table as it traveled

Pola shot of some optical illusion art

Looking down the stairs at the pendulum on the bottom floor

Surgical instruments

Cool, glowing light sconce

Old pocket watch and my eldest daughter in the background

We had a long walk back to Independence Hall and had to plot our course, so we stopped at the giant fountain in Logan Circle where I got one of the best shots of my three kids to date.

First they were goofing around. My son waded up to his knees in the water and then I got….

The Money Shot!

I saw them sitting staggered on the side of the fountain and took two shots, in which my son was giving his best cheese-ball grin, before I got this one. Look for it in this years’ Christmas card.

Lesson #3: The best family portraits are ALWAYS spontaneous!!

Our hike included Chinatown where I got some of these pictures

Loved the red in the lady’s hat and bags that echoed the red ribbons on the Foo Dogs necks

I’ll probably texturize this in Pic Grunger at a later date, but I loved the symmetry

On to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall where I KNOW I got the coolest shot of the day

I was FLOORED that this came out so well!!!!! It’s far and away the coolest Liberty Bell shot of the day. Here’s the picture I took with my iPhone. It’s a bit of a different angle, but you get the idea

No where NEAR the same detail. Which brings me to

Lesson #4: Just because a film has performed poorly in the past doesn’t mean it will perform poorly in the future.

I did NOT expect to get the crazy, detailed results of the Bell in those poor lighting conditions but, once again, I switched the light/dark switch all the way to dark because it wasn’t very well-lit, and I got a fantastic picture.

Other cool stuff from that area…

Granite wall with the names of George Washington’s slaves

Looking for something for dinner we strolled through what must’ve been the young and hip section of the city. All the beautiful people were sitting in tables on the sidewalk eating fancy food at restaurants with one name. That’s not really our style, especially with the kids in tow, so we found an alley with some excellent Irish-style pubs. Dinner was eaten here

Then, it was back on the subway for the trip back to the car. There are TONS of things to photograph in the subway. Here’s my Philly subway collection.

It was a really fun day and I learned some important lessons. The last of which is…

Lesson #5: Go with the flow. You may start out your day expecting to do one thing (taking macro shots of stuff other than flowers) but that thing might not be in the cards for you that day. Something better may be planned for you instead (getting excellent family photos and Polaroids).

Thank you, City of Brotherly Love, for inspiring my photographic journey. My little family and I will be visiting again very soon.

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February 26, 2011

Instant Film Emulsion Lift

By ipdegirl

Here’s a step-by-step of my new favorite technique, the instant film emulsion lift. It’s a lot easier than it looks, so bust out some of your not-so-favorite instant film pictures and practice until you’re proficient. My instructions are modified from eggzalky’s blog No Such Thing as a Wasted Polaroid. Go check it out because it’s really, really cool and filled with creative images and ideas.

This technique doesn’t work with all films. It will NOT work with the new Fuji Instax format (it’s integral film) and I haven’t had any luck with Polaroid 600 film either, although you can do negative transfers with this film (that’s a process I haven’t tried yet). I’ve used TIP’s Color and Monochrome films for my projcets because I’m saving my last packs of Polaroid SX-70 for manipulation.

I have used all kinds of images for this process from pictures with well-defined subjects to abstract, badly-exposed, crystallized shots. I’m waiting to use my best pictures until I get better at doing this.

Gather your supplies. You’ll need a pan to hold some hot water, scissors, watercolor paper and a paintbrush. Pretty simple.

Fill your pan with the hottest water you dare to dip your fingers in to. This is key to getting a good lift. Then prepare your picture for the process by trimming the sides and peeling it apart, like this

Some sites recommend trimming the sides off so that there’s no white left. I prefer to leave a little bit of white on because your emulsion will have a distinct edge to it that makes a nice border. That edge is also tougher and less apt to rip apart during the manipulation process.

Very fresh instant pictures do not peel very well because the layer of chemicals (the white stuff) is still wet so make sure your pictures are dry before peeling. Twenty-four hours usually does the trick. If you’re having trouble getting the layers to part cleanly, it’s probably still wet.

Next, take the piece with the image on the front and the white chemically stuff on the back and submerge it in your hot water.

Gently, using your paintbrush, swish the area above the white layer around so that it begins flaking off.

If your pictures are too old, the white layer will stubbornly refuse to budge. I tried this once with a picture I had taken last year and all I succeeded in doing was getting the picture wet. Bummer. The fresher the picture, the easier these chemicals will release. The water temperature is also very important. It doesn’t matter how fresh your photo, if the water isn’t hot enough, you’re going to run into trouble.

When most of the white stuff is gone you’ll be left with the emulsion stuck to the clear mylar coating that normally separates the outside world from the guts of the Polaroid.

Using your paintbrush, a toothpick or your fingernail, gently coax the edges of the emulsion away from the mylar.

When the two pieces are separated you can remove the mylar from the water and toss it. Now you have an undulating blob of emulsion. It’s fragile but easily manipulated by swirling the water around it. It’s like a photographic jellyfish. Don’t forget to flip the image over before placing your paper in the water because it’s been sitting face down through out the process.

Introduce your watercolor paper to the water by gently sliding it in below the emulsion.

You can see in this shot that I ripped this photo but that’s cool. I’ll work around it and make it part of the image. From this point you can manipulate the shape of your emulsion on the paper underwater. Use your trusty paintbrush or handy-dandy fingers. When you get the lift generally where you want it, slowly slide the paper from the water. It’s going to move around when you take it out so be prepared, but you can hold down the two sides of the emulsion with your thumbs to keep it somewhat in place.

Here it is fresh out of the water. At this point you can continue to manipulate the emulsion with your paintbrush, use your fingers to smooth the surface and create texture by gently tracing circles or lines on top of the image. If at any time you don’t like what’s going on, simply immerse your photo and paper in the water and reposition it.

Here’s the finished product. I decided to pucker the ripped areas. I also smoothed and stretched the image then gently swirled the surface to create a little bit of whirlpool-like texture.

That’s it! Hang it to dry then put it under a big, heavy book to flatten it out afterwards. You can transfer your emulsion onto almost anything, again, check out No Such Thing As A Wasted Polaroid for a look at some beautiful artwork featuring this technique.

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