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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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How Do Polaroids Work? A Look at Modern Instant Film

Chris Gampat
No Comments
09/09/2019
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujifilm SP3 Instax Printer review product images (2 of 11)ISO 4001-180 sec at f - 2.0

Polaroids and Instax are films designed to be an easy, all-in-one solution.

Polaroids and Instax are some of the most fun ways to take images these days. Millenials are in love with them, and taking an Instax image to share with someone else is one of the easiest ways to connect with folks. But believe it or not, not many people believe them to actually be film. In the case of the stuff that Polaroid puts out under the ZINK moniker, they’re not. They’re simply just a print of an image. But real Polaroids are closer to what both Polaroid Originals and Instax make. While the former is a flawed medium embraced by artists, the latter is a medium with its own appeal. Generally speaking, it’s impossible to make someone look bad on Instax. But how that happens is an amazing process.

Polaroids Are a Darkroom in a Package

Polaroids and Instax have darkroom chemistry in them. When your camera takes a photo, it exposes the scene onto a film plane. That piece of film comes out with a natural photo frame in the form of the border on the Instax exposure. With the more common images there are a couple of parts: the pod (which contains the chemicals) and the imaging area. This imagine area is really what you care about. With Polaroids, you can take the imaging area out after the photo has been exposed and use it for something like a Polaroid press. But with Instax, you can’t do that: it’s complicated.

The Pods

So how does the development actually happen? Well, the pods contain all the chemicals to produce the image. If you looks at a piece of Instax or Polaroid film, you’ll see a really big part of the border. That is where the pod is located. These pods need to be handled carefully because if the emulsion chemicals spill out they can trigger the development of the image.

The Rolling Process

The most important part of all this is the rolling process. When the photos are rolled through the Instax or Polaroid camera’s rollers, the pod bursts. As the image continues to exit the camera, the rollers distribute the photo chemicals through the image evenly. This causes the development process to happen. Faulty rollers will result in faulty images.

Temperature

For this whole process to work, the film needs to be developed in a warmer climate. Polaroids are best done in the summer. In the winter, the emulsion freezes because it is liquid. Therefore when you shoot the image the chemicals won’t come through in the cold. Instead, you’ll get a dead photo. Sad, right?

 

camera chemicals Development emulsion film instax Photography pods Polaroids
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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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