Polaroid and the Faux Po

The "end" of Polaroid: 2008.

The release of the Fujifilm Instax Camera: 2009.

The Polaroid 300 Instant Camera: 2010.

A lot of people freaked out about it a few years ago, but instant film is still alive and well. But there's also another alternative for digital shooters, which is he Poladroid application. Just download, and turn your digi photos into Polaroid-looking digi photos. I found that this app is fun, and could be used for some neat-o graphic design work or scrap booking, but not to be taken too seriously. I decided to run through the options and show a comparison between a real Polaroid photo, and a Poladroid photo.

The Poladroid Project site

Above and below, real Polaroid photos. Yes, I actually had some film left in my closet.

Shot above taken with a D-SLR, which will be used to turn into a Poladroid photo below

My desktop workspace during the process

It takes some time to go through the process. You drag and drop your image onto the camera icon and it takes a minute, and then "spits out" your Poladroid. The funny thing is, it actually takes a few minutes to "develop". Well, it's funny at first, but then if you're doing more than a few, it ends up taking quite some time to sit and wait for them to be fully developed.

I tested the different options, such as: heavy vignetting, no vignetting, stripes on paper, stripes on image, and blur. The results were slightly inconsistent, and didn't show extreme changes.

heavy vignetting + blur (I see no difference in blur here)

no vignetting + no blur
(I see no difference in vignetting, just less overall dark tones and less contrasty than the heavy vignetting)

Stripes on image
(looks like tiny flecks of fiber and dust. Click on image to enlarge)

Stripes on paper

(See little fibers on border and the little black finger print on the left? No idea why this shot is all green and off-colored though...?)

If I remember correctly, the older version also had the "finger print" option and a vintage tinting option which both are not in the newest version.

The application is free to download, so with no money invested it is fun to play with, but I still think nothing beats a real Polaroid, not even the "faux po" (my own term for the Poladroid).


-JAF. Thanks to Boris for being such a good doggie model showing off his new haircut.
images © Jenn Alexander Fletcher