Vermillion Cliffs

[terri]

Couple of Polaroid image transfers. Northern Arizona.

 

[carlita]

ugh... and you call yourself a beginner. :? compared to what i've gotten when i've tried this, yours are superb!

the best i've done so far is this:

i could have used more interesting subject matter too, but i was really just trying to see if i could get the image to transfer decently at the time. it's not the best exposure to begin with either. i think i soaked the paper in alcohol when i made this one though. it wasn't working too well with water, so my mom and i started to wonder what might happen if we used some other things so we tried alcohol and it actually worked pretty well. it seemed to take the dye a lot better, although it did bleed just a little which made the image less sharp in the end.

i want mine to look more like yours. *sniffle* :cry:

 

[terri]

Just pick another image - you did GREAT! The point is, you got a transfer, and a darn good one at that. There is very little liftoff and your colors are all there.

What more do ya want??

I am surprised this worked using alcohol. All I've read and been shown is water, about 100 degrees. The warmth helps the inks transfer better. Supposedly it's best to use distilled water, but I haven't bothered yet.

Suggestion: have you given that image the vinegar bath? About one part distilled vingar to four parts water in an 8x10 tray. Slip your image into it and agitate for up to 2 minutes. Watch those colors brighten and your contrast improve.

Thanks for the kind words - these images looked a bit dead until I did the vinegar bath. I swear by it now!

 

[carlita]

i had totally forgotten about the vinegar bath! i shouldn't have because i was just reading over that again in one of my polaroid manipulation books last week. duh. thanks for reminding me!

i just think it's funny that this technique was originally discovered by accident and i find it so hard to recreate the "mistake."

 

[terri]

And I love reading about how Edwin Land found it all so disgusting.... like the SX-70 manipulations just pointed to a flaw in his formula, as far as he was concerned..... hee hee....

I'll bet he was a royal PITA to be around - but hey, he's still one of my heros. :LOL: