I just found this tutorial on how to simulate the look of Polaroid transfers using Photoshop CS2 (or whatever version thereafter, I would imagine). The technique was adapted from the book, Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills,” by Mark Galer and Philip Andrews.
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshop/articles/phscs2mrtransfer.html
Now that Polaroid apparently on its way out, access to Type 669 film will become limited, I would think. I read that Type 669 is the last film they will discontinue. I bought my last batch a few years ago on eBay. While I haven’t tried any digital method for creating transfers, I imagine that it’s a whole lot cheaper and cleaner than doing it the “old-fashioned” way (although I must admit it sure was fun doing it that way). I’ve seen other articles on recreating the transfer look digitally but haven’t tried them. I’ll try it using these steps and report back to you with the results.
Below are samples of my traditional Polaroid transfers that I did over a decade ago. Some have been published in a line of notecards I had professionally printed back then to promote my photography business. I sold a few packages of the cards on eBay back in those days. One buyer was an executive at Polaroid’s Digital Imaging headquarters who inquired about enlargements for their offices. He was looking to showcase work from different artists to show what can be done with Polaroid film and I was one of several artists he contacted. He ended up buying eight 11×14 images (beautifully matted and framed by my father) for the headquarters. That was a pretty neat and unexpected perk from my short venture as a virtual shopkeeper on eBay. If Polaroid is defunct, I wonder what happened to all that artwork he purchased?
I did a posting here on my Polaroid transfers in October 2007 that had links to sites that showed how to make transfers with the traditional method.
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Beautiful!
You have some magnificent photography!