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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Photography History

This is How the Polaroid Was First Explained When It Was a New Concept

Chris Gampat
No Comments
06/06/2017
2 Mins read
When Polaroid Was So New

Years ago, the idea of how a Polaroid worked needed to be explained to the general public simply because the public’s understanding how photography worked was so much different from everything else. To that end, Polaroid needed to put out an ad to the public to explain how their image taking process worked. You see, for many years people believed that you needed to shoot a photo, bring it into the darkroom and then get your negative or positive print back.

But the Polaroid promised to deliver an end to the darkroom so to speak.

Of course, we all (that use instant film) know that 60 seconds was an approximation and that that all depends on temperature of the surroundings. And over the years it took more time to explain to people how they worked. Here’s a commercial from the 1950’s below. If you do not need the video below, please visit our desktop or standard mobile website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBzTGv3oqmA

The image was created with a Polaroid Land Camera which for a while took medium format or large format film. Those cameras are still available on eBay and can be converted to use more modern films. But for a photo to be ready to share and view only 60 seconds after it was snapped? That was crazy. These days, the older generations that grew up with that stuff typically can’t wait that long–though there are some exceptions.

These days, most millennial photographers perhaps grew up not really knowing how film photography worked and that’s why so many flock to it.

These days, all the film for the more modern Polaroid Land Cameras is discontinued. Fujifilm 100C and 3000B can still be purchased though for a lot money as the supply really dwindles down. A few folks are trying to revive it, and I hope that they do. Otherwise, the idea of a photographic process that is anything other than digital pixels on a display could be all that anyone knows with the exception of some cunning hackers who know how to use chemicals in a darkroom.

ad camera explain instant film Photography polaroid polaroid land camera
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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