Polaroid Materials: Analog Input/Digital Output

Creative Photoshop with John Reuter

In this episode of Creative Photoshop we go into a different direction. For several years I have taught a class called Polaroid Creativity: Analog Input/Digital Output. Most recently I offered this class at Grossmont College in El Cajon, CA in conjunction with the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. It begins by making Polaroid Image Transfers and Emulsion Lifts with DayLab Printers and Copy System units. Students experiment with a variety of images and test the process. In classes in bygone years that would be the extent of our experiments. But now with scanners, printers, and most of all Photoshop these Polaroid materials can be enhanced, retouched, and enlarged, greatly expanding the artist’s expression. In this podcast we explore the Epson driver for scanning, discuss scanner settings and bring an Image transfer and Emulsion Lift into Photoshop for enhancement. We cover techniques for retouching; cleaning up borders, adding noise to enhance enlargement and adjustment layers to fine tune and correct our input. In our next episode we will explore some creative techniques combining these images with other sources and discuss output options. I hope you enjoy this episode. Creative Photoshop has now passed the 300,000 download plateau. I thank all of you who have been listeners. As always, I would love to hear from you with comments or suggestions.