I forgot to mention in my previous blog that I had also taken a couple of instant cameras with me for my sail back from Plymouth to Brighton.
I decided to take both my Leica Sofort and Polaroid SX-70 camera.
I took some great instant photos on this trip, especially on my SX-70 camera but unfortunately during the sailing, I stored the instant photos in the outside cockpit table……huge mistake!!!
There was a lot of water that got inside this table during our sail after I put the photos in there, which damaged most of the photos (most annoying!). At least it’s a mistake I certainly won’t repeat and again, thinking about it, I should have known this table would get damp when exposed to the elements so completely my fault!
Anyway, here are some photos I managed to salvage that were taken on the Leica Sofort (some are a bit damaged as you’ll see):
I took 8 photos on my Polaroid SX-70 using the SX-70 film but there were only two photos I was able to salvage from them as most of them stuck together when they were wet and completely ruined the photo when pulled apart (sigh…):
Unfortunately I’ve not been out sailing since we got the boat back to Brighton but am hoping as the weather improves and if I can tolerate the cold temperatures, I may get out again for a sail around Brighton soon.
I know I’ve not been regularly writing on my blog like I used to and I just wanted to let you all know that I’m ok.
At the beginning of 2020 I was hoping to have lots of film photography content for my blog this year, including getting to grips with using a large format camera and building my own darkroom but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be….
My photo content all looked promising at the beginning of the year when I visited Madrid and I was really happy with the black and white photos I had taken and blogged about at the time. Then COVID-19 struck in the UK around mid March.
I was fortunate enough to still find myself in full time employment and busier than ever with work which ended up taking up most of my time this year.
I’m also currently in the process of setting up a new online craft business which has taken up a lot of my spare time.
The darkroom space I had planned to kit out that my husband had at his work ended up being converted into a staff canteen as he had to review his work space to keep within the COVID-19 regulations, so I now need to look at a new space. I may even consider joining the Brighton Community Darkroom again next year because even if I only get there once a month, it’s still better than not developing any of my photos at all. I have really missed not using a darkroom this year!
I certainly haven’t taken as many photos this year like I would normally do and I’ve really missed going on photo walks and meeting up with other photographers.
I had originally planned pre-Covid to host an instant photo walk in Brighton in September but I’ve now postponed this for next year to review when hopefully the whole COVID situation would have improved and it’s safer for groups of people to meet up.
I was hoping to get some fun new photos for my photo blog when I went on holiday to Albufeira, Portugal back at the beginning of September.
My husband and I had originally planned to go to Greece but then saw the Islands being shut down and Portugal being put on the safe list so thought it would be better to go there.
We flew from Luton airport as we could easily park our car there. I was apprehensive about the airport and flight in view of the current COVID situation. However, it was nice and quiet at the airport and flying was actually quite relaxing and prompt with no delays.
When we arrived in Portugal, it was really hot! I had brought both my SX-70 Polaroid Camera and also my Leica M6 TTL, all loaded and ready to take some photos of my trip!
I was quite excited about finally getting somewhere new to take some photos, which wasn’t in my local area.
The locals were lovely and really happy to have the tourists back. They had only re-opened the beach about two weeks prior to us arriving.
They actually had more stricter rules than the UK in relation to COVID-19 and wearing masks, using hand sanitisers etc so it felt very safe out there.
During the first couple of days I didn’t take my camera’s out with me as I knew we’d be out in the sun most of the day and I was worried about the heat effecting them and their mechanics since they’re vintage cameras so I kept them inside the cool hotel room.
On Day 3 of our trip, we decided to go on a sunset jeep safari. It was a Thursday and the day that Boris Johnson would be announcing the countries that would no longer be classed as a safe zone which included Portugal being put back on the list. We were completely oblivious of this information whilst on the safari until we received a phone call from a friend who was meant to be coming to Portugal the following week.
If we had stayed in Portugal for the remainder of our holiday, it would have meant self-isolating for 14 days when back in the UK and due to both mine and my husband’s work commitments, we couldn’t do this.
We had a deadline of early hours Saturday to be back in the UK before we’d have to self-isolate.
On Thursday evening once we got back to our hotel, we booked a flight back to the UK for Friday afternoon. Thankfully, British Airways had put on some extra flights so we were able to get on one of those.
It was always going to be a risk going abroad, but all I can say is the three days we had there in the hot, glorious sunshine, were really lovely and just getting away after the best part of a year of hard slog with work, we really felt like we had been there much longer! We had some amazing fresh, local seafood meals alfresco, a nice walk around the local marina and loved seeing the old village in Albufeira.
I did manage to take one photo on my SX-70 with some SX-70 colour film from my hotel room balcony before we left:
Here are a couple I managed to take during the jeep safari on my Leica M6 TTL using Kodak Ektachrome E100 film:
The morning before we flew back to the UK, I managed to visit the local cemetery around the corner from where we were staying and take some photos with the same camera and film:
Here is the last photo taken at the end of our brief trip to Portugal (taken on my husband’s iPhone) coming out of Luton Airport with added face mask!
There is another reason this year why I have not had as much time for my photography as I would have liked and it’s quite exciting and hopefully going forward, there will be much more photos!
I’ll be blogging about my other exciting adventure I’ve managed to have around COVID-19 recently over the next few weeks!
Before COVID-19 struck, the original plan for my birthday was to be away in France with my husband and some friends for a music festival that my husband was DJing at. I was especially pleased that my birthday had fallen on a Saturday this year which made it perfect to celebrate over a weekend of great music and friends.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be and I was to remain in England. We are still adhering to social distancing measures in the UK so I just spent my birthday in the end with my husband.
I was grateful on my birthday that it was lovely and sunny in Brighton which meant we could go out for the day.
We initially spent a lovely sunny morning in the garden with our animals. I took this photo of my husband holding our cat Saffy on my Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1 camera with some expired Polaroid 600 film which I needed to use up. Using expired film is always a risk but thankfully they came out in the main part of the photo, aside from the black streak along the side. Also, if you look close enough, you can see my other cat, Lil Saf sitting on the wall in the background:
We decided for the afternoon we would drive to the countryside and visit some secluded woods for a picnic.
We have a lovely italian restaurant opposite where we live which has currently adapted itself in these times to a lovely italian takeaway delicatessen and we were able to purchase some lovely fresh bread, stuffed peppers and aubergines and also some Burrata and cold meats for our picnic.
We took our dog Daisy who absolutely loved wandering around in the woodland area. We came across a lake where I took this photo:
My husband took this photo of me whilst we were eating our picnic which came out blurry but I quite like the dreamy feel of it:
Here is a random, blurry shot I took which was of Daisy but she moved too fast out of where I had originally focused her as she was running around so much sniffing the woodland area so it’s a very abstract photo. I almost think it looks like I’ve put some kind of Kaleidoscope filter on the lens:
After our lovely afternoon picnic we headed to Brighton Marina and spent the remainder of the day on our boat.
Whilst my birthday wasn’t what I had originally planned, I still had a lovely day and it was nice to connect with nature and relax away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Plus I have some Polaroid photos to keep as a reminder of my birthday.
First of all, I would like to wish everyone a happy new year!
December has been an extremely busy month for me socially (as I’m sure it has been for a lot of people) so I’ve not had chance to blog as regularly as I normally would.
This means that December was a perfect opportunity for me to take some instant photos over the festive break.
I spent Christmas day with my husband’s family and took along my Leica Sofort to take some instant photos.
We had great fun playing about with this camera and taking various photos. The photos were also a nice keepsake on christmas day for the family to take home with them.
Here are a couple I managed to keep from Christmas day:
On boxing day I met up with my family. I have a couple of nephews who are 4 and 7 years old so I thought it would be perfect to use up a few packs of the Disney Polaroid film that I had in my film stash.
I also decided to use my Polaroid 600 camera rather than my SX-70. The main reason for this was so that my nephews could have a play and take some photos too.
The Polaroid 600 camera is a lot more robust for children and there is no risk of accidentally putting fingers through the bellows like on the SX-70.
My nephews had great fun trying out the camera and were so excited to see a photo come out instantly and watch it develop in front of their eyes.
The Disney film is expired so I wasn’t sure if it would be any good but thankfully the photos came out fine and they had the old 70s/80s retro feel about them which reminded me so much of my childhood:
On New Years Eve my Japanese friend stayed with me. In the daytime we managed a quick visit to the Photomatic shop in Brighton where we had these instant photos taken:
In the evening, we ate out with a few other friends at a Japanese restaurant in Brighton. We then went onto a local pub with some friends (and my dog) as my husband was DJing there.
This again, was the perfect opportunity to take my Leica Sofort with me and whilst I gave a lot of the photos away, I managed to keep a couple:
Also at Christmas, my Intrepid 4×5 Camera and Enlarger Kit arrived which was very exciting to receive!
I’m very much looking forward to trying out this new camera and also creating a darkroom for my new enlarger.
2020 is going to be another exciting year for my film photography and I look forward to blogging about all my new adventures!
Recently, I decided to book a last minute holiday to Tenerife to get some winter sun before Christmas.
I had never taken my SX-70 camera abroad with me before, and since discovering the use of the ND (Neutral Density) filters that I can add to the Polaroid 600 film instead of having the extra bulk of adding the mint flash to the camera, I decided it would be good to take it with me on this trip.
For anybody not familiar with the ND filters, here is a picture of them and they can be purchased direct from Polaroid:
The reason I use the ND Filters is because I prefer using the Polaroid 600 film in my SX-70 camera. This is because I like the different variety of frames you get from that film. The SX-70 film tends to have only white frames which I personally find quite dull.
These were the three Polaroid film packs I took with me:
I took the camera and film in my hand luggage and asked at Gatwick airport if the film needed to be handed over rather than go through the x-ray machine.
I was fortunate enough to speak to a young male employee at Gatwick Security who was a keen film photographer himself and he explained that any film up to ISO 1000 was fine to go through their x-ray machines. Although on this occasion, the film was carried through for me without going through their machines.
I made the mistake of not taking the SX-70 camera out of my bag and somebody different was checking the x-ray machine so they had to do a search through my bag as they thought the camera was an electrical device.
I also had the same issue with the camera through Tenerife security so my advice would be to take your polaroid camera out of your bag (like you would your laptop etc) when going through x-ray at security.
These particular polaroid films had been sitting in my film stash for sometime (since last year!) as I had planned to use them at some point in the summertime but for whatever reason, this never happened either last year or this year.
I had written in a previous blog post about using up my current film stash when I had recently done a film inventory and I knew this was the perfect time to start using up my polaroid film which I’d accumulated over the past two years.
When I got to Tenerife, I realised that all the films I had taken with me had either expired last year or earlier this year.
They had all been stored in the Fridge but I know how temperamental polaroid film can be so prepared myself that I may not get great results with these films.
I decided to first use the Tropical film since that had the most summertime feel to me and it certainly was nice and sunny in Tenerife:
The photos came out fairly well considering the film expired last year. I had to do an initial test shot which I found takes a good 10-15mins to properly develop (oh how I miss the original polaroid film!). This was frustrating when wanting to take further photos because I had to wait since I didn’t want to waste film if exposure wasn’t quite correct.
Thankfully, I found that the film worked fine with normal exposure and and I didn’t need to amend the exposure dial on the camera.
There were streaks on some of the photos but I expected this since it was an expired film.
On the next day of my holiday, I visited a little fishing port close to where I was staying in San Blas and decided to use the summer type coloured frames:
The photos exposed again quite nicely without having to amend the exposure dial on the camera. However, some of the photos were streaky and there was even a ‘lightning bolt’ effect across one of the photos of the fishing boats which looked quite cool but I can imagine some people would be annoyed by this and view it as ruining their photo.
On the following day I decided to use up the primary coloured frame film but the battery that is built into the film pack didn’t work to eject the actual photos so I couldn’t use them at all!
If the film had been in date, I could have returned it back to Polaroid and got a refund or a replacement. However, since it had expired several months ago, I was unable to do this.
One lesson I have learnt from this is that I’ve realised I need to use the Polaroid film within the expiry date if I want to try and get the best image possible.
I’ve got some more expired Polaroid film in my film stash so I plan to use this asap before purchasing anymore.
Lastly, I just wanted to mention that I have an instagram page @natalie_smart_photography where I had posted photos of my trip before writing this post, for anybody that doesn’t currently follow me who may want to.
Back in 2018 I upgraded my instant camera to a Leica Sofort camera.
Prior to this purchase I had been using a Polaroid Snap camera for a couple of years.
I had used the Polaroid Snap camera quite a lot, especially when out at parties but I’d always been disappointed with the photo quality because it was printed on zinc paper.
I had always preferred the quality of the fuji instax mini film which I had seen from friends who had taken photos using this film.
However, I really didn’t like the design of the fuji instant cameras so never got round to buying one.
This all changed when Leica released their line of Sofort instant cameras which also uses the fuji mini instax film.
I really felt they had got the design perfect for what I wanted in a modern instant camera.
I instantly fell in love with the Orange design and knew that this was the time to upgrade.
Having the ‘Leica’ branding on it meant that this came at a higher price compared to the other fuji instant cameras on the market.
I decided for me, it would be a worthwhile purchase and I can say over a year on since owning the camera, I still absolutely love it and use it lots!
I’ve found it’s actually become one of my every day camera’s.
There are several reasons for this.
First of all, I love the fact the the photo is instant and I especially love it at parties when I take photos and give the instant photo to that person I took the photo of.
I also love using it during the day when I’m out and about, on walks to work etc as I can instantly take a photo and put it in my photo journal.
I tend to keep a daily photo journal for creative inspiration and I love writing/sketching in it everyday and adding photos:
The Leica Sofort is perfect for this. It also has a built in flash so it doesn’t matter whether I’m indoors or outdoors, I can take pretty decent photos regardless.
I love how fuji film also have different colour borders on their films they now sell rather than just plain white and I regularly purchase these film packs which can be picked up quite cheaply on places like eBay.
Whilst I appreciate the photo quality isn’t the best in comparison to the size of fuji square/wide or Polaroids, for me it is the perfect size for my photo journal and for giving to people at parties so they can just pop it in their bag or pocket.
I also have fuji instax albums to put other photos in such as when I go away on holiday and take photos. The ones below are from a botanical garden I visited in a trip to Singapore last year:
I’ve also used these albums as gifts for people at their parties when I’ve taken a load of photos then put them all into an album for them at the end of the night.
Whilst I love Polaroid film and my Polaroid camera’s, the downside is the cost of the Polaroid film. I’m paying over a pound more for each photo and Polaroid film in my experience can be a bit temperamental so I’m not guaranteed a great quality photo every time I use it.
With fuji film, the consistency of the film is very good so I’m pretty much guaranteed a decent photo every time.
I also love the long battery life on my Leica Sofort. It can be weeks before I need to charge it up again which is great so I can just leave it in my bag regularly ready for the next days photography inspiration.
It’s also a great ice breaker at parties as people are always fascinated by the look of the camera and I’m always surprised to find the amount of people I speak to who don’t realise that instant cameras and instant film still exist.
I do still use my Polaroid camera’s but I tend to use them more when I know I want a bigger instant photo than what I will get from the mini instax film.
Now I use this camera regularly, I find I tend to buy the fuji instax film weekly rather than monthly.
I really enjoy looking back through my journal to see what photos I’ve taken and what my daily scribbles/sketches have been.
It’s also great for jotting down potential photo ideas/projects in case I promptly forget them again.
In fact, I read an interesting article called ‘The art of the notebook’ by Tracy Calder in this month’s issue of Black and White Photography magazine (published by GMC publications).
It is about creating a photo journal with some inspiration and pictures of photo journals that other people have created.
Does anybody else do a daily photo journal with their photography? I would love to hear what other people’s thoughts/views are on keeping a photo journal.
On Friday evening I went to the opening of the Andy Warhol Polaroid Pictures exhibition at the Bastian Gallery in London.
Since I’m a huge fan of Polaroid photography, I was really looking forward to seeing this exhibition and after a chat with the staff running the exhibition, I was really happy that I was allowed to go to the private viewing on 1st February before it officially opened to the public on Saturday 2nd February.
There were over 60 portrait and self portrait Polaroid photographs on display that had been taken by Andy Warhol. Some of these photos had never been shown before so that was quite exciting.
The photos were taken in New York in the 1970s and 80s. There were a variety of people in the photos from artists, actors, politicians and friends of the Factory group.
I was hoping to see some photos that Andy may have taken on a Polaroid SX-70 (my personal favourite Polaroid Camera) but judging by the size of the photos, I think they were mainly taken on a Big Shot camera which was created by Polaroid for portrait use only. For anybody not familiar with this camera, it’s quite a simple design with an integrated flash, viewfinder and fixed focusing. These types of Polaroid cameras use the peel-apart style film, which was certainly more widely available back then.
What I also loved was the fact there was a huge Self-Portrait of Andy Warhol from 1979 which measured 81.3 x 55.9 cm so I think this must have been taken on one of those large instant polaroid cameras. I had watched a documentary about these large cameras on Netflix which was about Elsa Dorfman who used them a lot in her work so it was great to see one of these photos up close.
The opening night was extremely busy and had a great buzz which I really enjoyed.
I also managed to speak to the owner of the gallery, Aeneas Bastian and asked him about some Polaroid photos I could see on display downstairs (this area was closed off from the official exhibition). He explained to me that Andy Warhol was a family friend and had taken some personal polaroid photos of his family and that was what was on display downstairs but since they were private to him, he didn’t feel the need to have them officially shown in the public display which I completely understood. I think these photos may have caused some confusion in the exhibition if they had been shown alongside the the other photos of well known people.
There were a lot of great photos but here are some of my personal favourites….I apologise for the bad quality but the opening night was extremely busy and it’s quite a small gallery so I had to try and take photos around many people. I also didn’t manage to get a photo of the large polaroid of Andy Warhol since there were too many people constantly standing in front of it and admiring it which was nice to see.
I would highly recommend visiting the exhibition if you’re around in London over the next few months. Below are details of the exhibition dates and the address of where the gallery is in London:
Since I wrote my blog about the Polaroid 600 camera, I have been completely obsessed with taking photos on a Polaroid camera.
The main reason is because I love the size of polaroid film. I feel the detail that comes from the photo is much greater than what I ever got on a mini instax film.
I was using my Polaroid 600 box camera quite a bit but quickly found myself getting frustrated with it. This was due to it being quite boxy which I struggled with taking out and about everyday with me unless I took a larger bag. I also quickly realised that I didn’t have much control on the focusing, which is fine if I’m taking a picture from a long distance but on shorter distances the photos were hit and miss.
I really love the design of the SX-70 folding camera and particularly loved the chrome and tan detail of some of the models so I knew that this was ultimately the Polaroid camera I would really love to have.
There are different types of the SX-70 folding camera but thanks to the Polaroid book by Rhiannon Adam I was able to decide that I would like to own the SX-70 Alpha 1 which came out around 1977.
The key differences that the Alpha 1 model has to the earlier SX-70s is that they have a built-in tripod socket, a guaranteed split-focus viewfinder, neck strap lugs and a fill flash capability where the flash isn’t limited to just being fired in low light conditions.
I had already decided if I was going to purchase one of these then I would need to pay a fairly high price for one if I wanted it in great condition. On eBay they are extremely popular and can go for quite a bit of money if several people get into a bidding war. There are some that come up cheap on eBay but they are often untested which I feel personally, you could end up paying even more to then get it refurbished. Also, I found that the Alpha 1 models don’t seem to come up as often for sale as the earlier models.
After much research I ended up purchasing my camera from a company called Revival Studio who are based on London. They sell refurbished polaroid cameras and they also come with a 6 month warranty.
The camera was immaculate and beautifully restored. Since the Alpha 1 model has the neck strap lugs, I was able to attach an original strap to the camera which makes it great for carrying around over my shoulder.
I’ve not been disappointed by this camera. I absolutely love it. The folding option makes it quite compact so I can also put it in an everyday handbag.
What’s also great is that I can use 600 Polaroid film in the camera if I use the Mint Flash Bar. I do tend to use the 600 film more than the SX-70 film because of the wider range of editions Polaroid Originals do. The cheapest place I’ve found the flash bar for sale is at Mr Porter where it costs £60 instead of around £80 which seems to be the usual price. You can also use the flash bar for the SX-70 film if taking photos indoors.
Another great accessory for this camera is the Mint SX-70 Lens set which can also be purchased from Mr Porter for £60 so again is cheaper than other websites that sell it for around £85.99. I was pleased to buy mine from there and delivery in the UK was really quick.
I purchased the camera back in September but wanted to experiment with it for a while before I blogged about it.
Since the camera is very transportable I do use it several times a week and I’m beginning to get a real feel for how it works and the best ways to take photos and when to use the light and darken switch depending on the film I’m using in the camera.
I’m at the early stages of experimenting with this camera and currently have tried both the Blue and Pink 600 Duochrome film, SX70 Colour film, 600 colour and black and white films and also expired films which have produced some interesting results!
I’m going to be blogging about the different film types and filters I’ve currently been using with the camera and some of the actual photos over the next week.
On a recent trip back from Singapore I watched a couple of documentaries on the flight.
The first one was called ‘Instant Dreams’ which was all about Polaroid Photography so I was in my absolute element watching this.
The second documentary I was drawn to watching was ‘California Typewriter’ which is about a Typewriter shop in California and people whose lives are connected by typewriters (including Tom Hanks who I discovered through this documentary that he is an avid typewriter collector).
I began to think how I would love to own a typewriter again. Being a child of the 1980s, I inevitably did own a typewriter back then which I remember being beige and brown that my parents had bought me at a car boot fair but I stopped using it once the ribbon ran out and my parents never bought a new one for it.
My mum also briefly owned an electronic typewriter when she did a typewriting course and I remember I used to practice her homework which helped me learn to touch-type. She eventually sold the typewriter onto a friend.
The documentary had re-ignited a love for typewriters and I knew I really wanted to get one but I kept thinking what would I use it for and could I really justify buying one?
Then I started to think about all the Polaroid photos I had been recently taking and how it would be quite nice to label the dull white frame ones.
Unfortunately for me, my hand writing is terrible and I just feel that it would really let the actual photo down if I just wrote on them.
I think at some point I must have subconsciously seen some polaroid photos that had been typewritten and thought about how I’d much prefer to do that.
I also like writing fiction and although it’s very easy to write it on a laptop, I do tend to get distracted by misspelling and re-reading, re-writing etc so like the thought of having a typewriter to be able to bash out the story (errors and all) without the distractions, then refine it on my laptop.
At this point I therefore felt I could justify getting a typewriter but I would be patient and wait until the right one came along rather than go out of my way to really look for one.
I don’t really have a lot of time to visit boot fairs etc and I also didn’t like the thought of buying a typewriter online as I wanted to try it first as I really do believe that you need to get a feel for it to see if you’ll work well with it.
Every now and again I like to visit a shop in Brighton called Snoopers Paradise as they are well known for selling second hand items and it’s not far from Zoing Image where I buy a lot of my camera film.
After popping to Zoing Image to get some film, I decided to pop in there and as luck would have it, Stall number 52, owned by a gentleman called Lexi, specialises in servicing and selling typewriters.
There were two typewriters I was interested in on his stall. The first one was a Triumph Tippa from the 1960s which was cream in colour. However, when I tried it out I quickly realised the keyboard was a ‘QWERTZ’ one which meant it was a German model so was no good to me. The standard British keyboard is ‘QWERTY’.
I also liked a blue Brother Model 200 typewriter from the 1970s which he also had for sale. I was particularly drawn to the font of this model which I think is a Pinta Typewriting Font and thought would look great on the Polaroid photos.
I tried out the Brother machine and really liked the feel of how it typed and it was in such an amazing condition, almost like it had never been used.
I really liked the colour of it and it was great that it had been serviced with a new ribbon so I could get typing on it straight away.
The typewriter cost me £30 and I personally feel I got a real bargain in view of the fantastic condition it is in.
Lexi was really helpful and also provided me with the original case which was immaculate and an original typewriter manual for the machine so I could easily learn how to use it without having to spend time looking online trying to find one.
If anybody is in the Brighton area and are looking for a typewriter, then I’d highly recommend visiting his stall.
I can honestly say I’ve not been disappointed by my purchase. I’ve been using the typewriter every day since I got it.
Here are a couple of Polaroid photos I’ve typewritten on so far. The first two were taken with Polaroid colour film:
The next three were taken with Polaroid 600 colour film which expired in 2009:
For the past week I’ve been trying out my recently purchased Polaroid Filter Kit for my Polaroid 600 camera and the Polaroid Originals 600 colour film.
I found this kit for sale on the Polaroid Originals website and since I like experimental colour photography, I knew this would be a great addition to my camera.
The filters come in a really nicely packaged box so I can continue to store them in there when they’re not in use. They also come with a velvet drawstring bag which I can put them in when I’m out and about:
The filter set contains the following:
Blue
Yellow
Red
Orange
Starburst
Multi-image 3
Multi-image 2
Here are some photos I took using the Blue filter:
I wasn’t particularly impressed by the blue filter but I think in hindsight I had used the wrong things to photograph for this filter.
In the first picture I took a coastline photo where most of it is blue anyway (the sea and sky) so it looks like a pretty normal photo. As with the usual quirks of polaroid pictures, there are blemishes at the bottom of the photo which I actually think livens the photo up a bit otherwise it would have been extremely dull. The bottom part of the blemish almost looks sand like.
The next photo I attempted with the blue filter was of a green tree. Again, I didn’t feel particularly excited by this photo and thought it was rather dull. By this point I had got bored of trying out the blue filter. I’ll perhaps try it again when I find a subject with colours that have no elements of blue in them already.
Here is a photo I took with the Yellow filter:
This colour is ok and I think it works well with the coastline but when I decide to use this filter again, I think I will need a particular idea in mind that I think will also work well with the yellow.
Here are some photos I took using the Red filter:
As you can probably tell from the amount of photos I’ve taken, this was by far my most favourite filter to use. I initially thought the photos would come out red so didn’t think I’d like them, but when I discovered they actually come out as this cool pink colour I was over the moon with the results.
As you can see, I used a variety of different settings for my photos and I think the colour works well in all of them. You’ll also see there are again, some classic polaroid quirks (blemishes) at the bottom of some of the photos.
Here are a couple of photos I took using the orange filter:
The orange is quite similar to the yellow filter although the colour is slightly darker and richer so I actually prefer the orange filter for this reason, hence why more photos were taken using it.
Here are some photos using the Mulit-Image 3 filter:
Both images are of the coastline divided into three of the same image which I think looks quite cool and I’ll definitely be using this filter again.
I haven’t yet used the Multi-Image 2 or Starburst filters. The reason being that I haven’t yet found any particular subjects where I felt the need to use either of these but I’m sure I will at some point.
Overall, I’m really happy I purchased this filter set from Polaroid Originals. It gives a different style of photo to a bulk standard setting and since the limited edition colour photos such as the duo chrome from Polaroid Originals are few and far between, I think this is a good way of getting that colour fix I’m after if I’m unable to get hold of the duo chrome style films again which at some point will run out or get more expensive when there are less of them about.
I recently purchased some ‘Gold Frame’ polaroid 600 colour film so I’m keen to see how the filters may work with that as a contrast.
Natalie Smart Film Photography 