Faux Polaroid Fun

...or just chop their heads off.

I love the look of photos that look like they were an accident. This is the kind of art I used to see in our photo albums growing up. Not a throw-away, dang-it, we paid to have it developed so it's going in the album. Even if it was done with a Polaroid camera, you only get 12 pictures per pack of film, so if it comes out wrong, so be it. That film wasn't cheap, so we kept every single picture, even if their heads were chopped off.

I did this entirely on my iPhone using the Camera Bag app.

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Look Away From The Camera

Something about the look of an old, faded polaroid that is just so cool. 

This picture reminded me of another method I sometimes use to get good pics of kids who don't want to be cooperative. Tell them not to look at you. Where is it written that a portrait MUST be of someones face?  

To get that retro, faded look, I use a Photoshop action I downloaded from somewhere. There are literally tons of Photoshop actions out there you can download for free. Here is one good source.

The Polaroid frame came from PhotoFrame.

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Old = New (Polaroids Too)

This rings true for lot's of things...fashion, architecture, cars and photography.

I've noticed a couple of trends. First, because the majority of photography is digital, people are starting to miss the look of their old, grainy photos that they're used to seeing. Now there are programs like Photoshop that can run plugins that will give you that old, faded look with one click. One that I especially like is called Color Efex Pro. There are many filters to choose from to alter how your photo looks and many of them will give you an aged look...just like those 30 year old photos in your photo album

For the pic above, I used a filter called "bleach bypass" and then lowered the contrast a bit to get this kind of look. Still very contrasty and desaturated. It sort of looks like an old faded photo.  

Another trend I've noticed is in advertising. Lot's of ads that use photography go for that "old photo" look as opposed to a crisp, sharp image that's so common in the digital world. To top it off, they are also starting to look like they came from a camera phone.  So much photography you see these days comes from mobile devices and it seems like advertisers have really recognized it's potential in selling products.

And Polaroid cameras are making a comeback next year. It appears people actually miss the look of those old instant prints. 

So now I'm guessing we'll start to see more and more software that can give digital photos that old look. Personally, I love the old look and it's one of the reasons I shoot so much black and white.

I wonder what people would think if I showed up at a job with one of these: