Rob. Works + Thoughts

These are the first two shots I took of Lauren using our 4x5 camera, shooting Polaroid 55. On a whim last year we bought 2 boxes of Polaroid 55, and one box of Polaroid 57. We were also given an additional box of Polaroid 55 as a supremely kick-ass gift by a good friend. 

The reason 4x5 Polaroid film is so special is that it’s no longer in production, and likely will never be made again. Fuji does make a similar product (which we used to take some of our wedding photos in Greece) but the results it produces aren’t nearly as beautiful as Polaroid.

What I learned from these first two shots. 

1. Make sure that I hold the release lever down when removing exposed film. The first sheet I failed to do so and thus exposed  the top portion of the film.

2. Make sure that when I’m processing the sheet, that I pull it out of the holder at a consistent speed to avoid any sort of banding (as shown in these photos)

3. Don’t apply the supplied coating (or at least wait until after I’ve scanned them) so that they don’t collect as much dust.

The really cool thing about Polaroid 55 is that it provides an instant print as well as a negative. I used a sodium sulphite solution to rinse the negative from all its gooey emulsion. The negative is shown below the instant print.

Each box contains 20 sheets, so I’m lucky enough to have about 80 sheets to work with. I plan to use them to photograph family and friends, and will be posting the images on this blog!