tutorial: turn your digital photos into polaroids!

After loads of comments/emails regarding my photos on Flair to Remember, I thought I'd do a tutorial for you all on how to turn your regular digital photos into Polaroids.

I initially play around with the settings on my camera to take photos using the right light/depth/colouring I like, but at the end of the day I have a love affair with the now endangered Polaroid photo. I should actually say extinct as they are no longer manufacturing the precious film - but I'll stick to endangered as I know I personally have one unopened box of film left + I'm sure alot of Polaroid addicts out there would too! (I'm fairly sure I have a few left in my trusty Polaroid camera as well - which I am longing to use at a special time to treasure forever! Random fact: even a few years ago in Oz, the price of one photo worked out to be $2.50! So crazy! I even had salespeople trying to convince me not to buy the cartridges! Some respect for an amazing turning point in photography people!!)

Anyway, there is an amazing FREE program available to download called Poladroid. It was originally Mac only, but they now have a PC version - so get downloading lovelies! I absolutely love this program and it produces your photos so perfectly! Every time you get a different result as well, which is really intriguing. Random fact: they have been rejected by Apple as an app for the iPhone because of the similarities between the program and actual Polaroid - shows you what an amazing job this free program does.

So onto the details...

Once you download the program and install it - the app looks like this: (so cute!)

As it says on the little polaroid, you just need to drag your photo onto that area, and it starts to develop it! I recommend leaving the sound effects on for the full effect! It even develops around the same speed as an actual Polaroid + it makes all the same sounds - just to make your life that little bit better!

So here's a little demo.. This is a photo straight from my camera:



You could use your photo directly on the app, or (like I do, for a little more control over the final product) you can create a square from the original photo to use:



These are the dialogue box options where you can choose/experiment with different features:


This is the outcome using 'stripes' on the photo:



This is the outcome using 'stripes' on the paper, however this doesn't seem to work on the computer I am on - although it works on my other Mac - who knows! What it's meant to do is put scratches/fingerprints on the white area of the image, like how it does on the actual photo above..



This is the outcome with no stripes ticked:



As you can see, every time I put the same photo through I got a slight variation on the final result. All your photos turn out high resolution as well (400dpi) so they are ready to print! Also, a very cute part of this application: it will only allow 10 photos per session (just like your Polaroid camera) before you have to restart the program - just like how you would have to put your new cartridge in your camera! Serious attention to detail - how I adore this app!

Hope this helps you guys have a little fun with your photos! There is a forum on their site if you have any questions or you're interested in finding out more. If you feel so inclined you can donate to Poladroid in support of their amazing program.