Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
Check out Film Photography section of our forum.
Nude Photography, Boudoir Photography, NSFW, Discussions and Pictures
One A Day, 024.
Jul 18, 2019 23:04:41   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
Sorry in advance, this will be on the long side.

Years ago Polaroid existed and I was a Creative Use Consultant (CUC) with that company. This will NOT be a history story, rather it will be my essential story about the Ins N Outs of my work with what became known as Polaroid Transfer. I became regarded as a go to guy for Polaroid Transfer.

In typical cooperate buffoonery that organization hired as there 'experts' simple common everyday photographers as their 'guys'. I tried to steer them in the correct direction, alas like IBM they did not know what they were as a company. IBM though it was a machine company, IBM, International Business Machines. About the time that IBM was about to go under they were saved by a business expert who restructured IBM into a paper company. Yes, they sold punch cards, the machines were just an excuse to have a machine that read the punch cards, their punch cards.

Polaroid's failure was that too late they did get that they sold film, and so were not a photography company. So what was Polaroid? They were a unique company that was in fact a print making company. In fact a fine art print making company. The unique product that they sold was of course film but like IBM and it's punch card it was what you do with the that punch card and in the case of Polaroid it is what you do with the main product of Polaroid, the film.

So, here goes. There is a replacement company, The New Polaroid, just as dumb and just as set in their ways as the old Polaroid. They too don't understand that they are a print making company.

As any one about Polaroid Transfer, they will tell you it was Voodoo. Mysterious, mercurial, impossible to predict a night mare, and OLD SCHOOL! Man it was deep in the dark ages of photography. This was true for their experience because they were thinking about Polaroid like a photographer and NOT a print maker.

You will also many 'truth sayers' that Polaroid was wiped out as a technology by the arrival of the digital camera. True if you think like Polaroid and think typical business model. Remember the story of Billy Gates and the smart guys with Xerox, and how the computer was handed to Gates in a single afternoon? Same deal with Polaroid and big business think.

So, why rehash all this? Because that Polaroid technology is back. Fuji is making the print film, never stopped. Also, the New Polaroid is filled with the same idiocy that the original Polaroid had/was. This will be a basic introduction to the Polaroid ER (Extended Range) film that Fuji makes. If you have a Polaroid Pack Camera or a Pack Film Holder and a camera that takes Pack Size film then you can still do Polaroid Transfers AND more importantly you can create what I coined, the name Polaroid Matrix.

When doing a Polaroid Transfer you generate a thin ghost like Polaroid Print. Everyone discards this as worthless. They have no vision. That thin Polaroid Print IS the Polaroid Matrix. Using a basic/simple bed scanner with your computer you can 'recover' the image. Running it through different enhancements and/or manipulations you can create a saturated clear sharp image of the original moment that the image was captured.

For now, here is a finished digital image that was generated from an 8X10 Polacolor (809 FILM) print that had as it's immediate goal as a Polaroid Transfer. The unique and original Polaroid Transfer exists, this is an image created from the ghost like Polaroid Print, and it was scanned into a computer by way of a flat bed scanner and then manipulated with the computer and finally printed of archival material as a print that is just smaller than a 16X20 print by an ink get printer.

I will follow up on this the digital Polaroid Matrix in a few more posts. For now, the digital Polaroid Matrix.

Angela sets the f stop to 22 on the 121 Super Angulon Lens of the 11X14 view camera directly in front of her.


(Download)


(Download)

Reply
Jul 19, 2019 08:22:16   #
dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida
 
Timmers, Thank you for bringing back long-forgotten memories. I recall the magic of the first B&W Polaroid Cameras, holding them the image appeared... magic indeed. They for people and were also for technical work in the Lab; we were able to paste them onto a typewritten report and the Xerox them for distribution.

One Christmas I got my mother one of the "color" Polaroids, she was thrilled. Certainly better than getting her a new pot or iron! She loved it and never questioned the magic, just enjoyed.

A friend had an old faded B&W Polaroid photo and asked me to resurrect it. The Epson scanner picked up things that I did not see with my eye and with the primitive edit programs at that time I was able to enhance detail. The childhood B&W print came out with clarity pleasing her a great deal.

Your story long, sure, but well written and very interesting. The lens reminds me of a coffee grinder, I thought for a moment it may grind photons to smaller particles, much as a ND Filter strains photos like a fine mesh screen only allowing some thru while the rest collect on the surface and evaporate. [Sorry technical fantasy humor]

I did find this statement about the lens " long-time professional's favorite for use as a wide-angle lens for the 4x5 format. It provides an angle of view on 4x5 which is similar to a 19mm lens in the 35mm format, but with a very large image circle to allow creative control for the photographer-in fact, it has the largest image circle of any 72mm large format lens.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/801368444-USE/schneider_02_025587_72mm_f_5_6_super_angulon_xl.html

Reply
Jul 19, 2019 09:06:54   #
Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana
 
I get a chilling feeling from this image, but the hand in the foreground is a distraction.

Reply
Check out AI Artistry and Creation section of our forum.
Jul 19, 2019 09:52:52   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
Rab-Eye wrote:
I get a chilling feeling from this image, but the hand in the foreground is a distraction.


I'm delighted with your comment! My friend and photographer Angela is a social photographer to San Antonio's elect and rich. When I did this image she had just completed a series of pinhole images of herself and her many girl friends all in bathing costumes. The women loved the images. I had helped her to convert an old plastic lens Polaroid Pack Camera to a pinhole, so she began shooting using Polaroid 669 film which generated a excellent B&W negative.

One of her self images was extremely low angle, it had distorted feet half buried in the beach sand. She showed that print to me and asked for a critique. I went and got out a book and showed her an image of Lilith from Sumer, a stone carving (I added the image to the post). Angela was stunned at how her feet looked a lot like the feet of the image of Lilith.

So I explained who Lilith was. Angela went back into the darkroom and pulled a full area 16X20 of the image. She framed it and for the longest time it was above her bed. It was one of her best selling prints.

I know the feet are not precisely like Lilith feet, but close enough. When Angela saw the 8X10 Polaroid Transfer she went nuts! We worked to get the distortion in her feet going through several editions. This was the best and I got that look from Angela. "Yes!" I told her, "I wouldn't want Lilith after me some night, you take it, it's yours." Big hugs and she stood with the hair dryer because she wanted to take it home. She was usually quick to robe up between takes but there was Angela hot Latina from Columbia necked, except she had put her ankle length socks on, so I guess she was dressed!

Angela is still one of my best buddies and yes I had a 16X20 print pulled from the Polaroid Matrix file for her to frame and hang in her office!



Reply
Jul 19, 2019 10:20:45   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
dpullum wrote:
Timmers, Thank you for bringing back long-forgotten memories. I recall the magic of the first B&W Polaroid Cameras, holding them the image appeared... magic indeed. They for people and were also for technical work in the Lab; we were able to paste them onto a typewritten report and the Xerox them for distribution.

One Christmas I got my mother one of the "color" Polaroids, she was thrilled. Certainly better than getting her a new pot or iron! She loved it and never questioned the magic, just enjoyed.

A friend had an old faded B&W Polaroid photo and asked me to resurrect it. The Epson scanner picked up things that I did not see with my eye and with the primitive edit programs at that time I was able to enhance detail. The childhood B&W print came out with clarity pleasing her a great deal.

Your story long, sure, but well written and very interesting. The lens reminds me of a coffee grinder, I thought for a moment it may grind photons to smaller particles, much as a ND Filter strains photos like a fine mesh screen only allowing some thru while the rest collect on the surface and evaporate. [Sorry technical fantasy humor]

I did find this statement about the lens " long-time professional's favorite for use as a wide-angle lens for the 4x5 format. It provides an angle of view on 4x5 which is similar to a 19mm lens in the 35mm format, but with a very large image circle to allow creative control for the photographer-in fact, it has the largest image circle of any 72mm large format lens.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/801368444-USE/schneider_02_025587_72mm_f_5_6_super_angulon_xl.html
Timmers, Thank you for bringing back long-forgotte... (show quote)


Many do not know the details about this extremely fine optic. Ansel Adams sang it praise all the time. He used it on his 4X5 but loved it even more on his 8X10. On the 8X10 the lens could handle extreme movements because the angle of view had a circle covering of 100 degrees.

All of the Angulon series from Schneider have a circle of 100 degrees, and all preform best at f22. I never liked the images from the Symmar lenses, too contrast to brittle. The Angulon are softer and the color rendering is like the old symmetrical Zeiss Tessar lenses.

When I worked at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston we had the old Polaroid folding camera adaptors for the Polaroid MP3 Copy Camera. I worked with Pathology and had to tell them the good and bad news, that Polaroid was doing away with the Polaroid Roll Film. You would have though that we had killed their favorite child! One of the big guys came down and wanted to know what they could do! I showed him an agar gel immunodiffusion that was set up for imaging. I shot one with the old roll print film then a did one with the pack back on the MP3 Camera. He was delighted! Then I went to the sink and washed off the negative and showed it to him. Man he hit the roof! From then on they had as many high quality prints as was needed. The real benefit was that Pathology paid for several new backs and several Pack Size film negative carriers from Medical Communications darkrooms! Pathology ALWAYS got what ever they needed. One time they order a 100mm UV Hasselblad lens (New always) to do UV photography with all the attachments, a mere $15,000. They did wonder why the UV filter for the front, but we explained that it was a see trough lens cap because the lens was so susceptible to scratching because it was made of quarts glass.

Yes, fond memories indeed!

agar gel immunodiffusion
agar gel immunodiffusion...
(Download)

Reply
Jul 19, 2019 13:11:33   #
dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida
 
Your comment: They did wonder why the UV filter for the front, but we explained that it was a see trough lens cap because the lens was so susceptible to scratching because it was made of quarts glass.

"see through lens cap" I like that, good reply.
A student in chemistry asked, "what is a constant" ... reply, "a variable that does not change."

It may sound confusing that photographing UV and you had a UV filter in front, but UV filters we use to prevent scratches on our normal lenses do not really filter out much in the way of UV radiation, perhaps honest would be to call them Dust Antiscratch filters. [ UV filters block a small percentage (between 0.1 and 5%)]

Reply
Jul 19, 2019 14:31:41   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
dpullum wrote:
Your comment: They did wonder why the UV filter for the front, but we explained that it was a see trough lens cap because the lens was so susceptible to scratching because it was made of quarts glass.

"see through lens cap" I like that, good reply.
A student in chemistry asked, "what is a constant" ... reply, "a variable that does not change."

It may sound confusing that photographing UV and you had a UV filter in front, but UV filters we use to prevent scratches on our normal lenses do not really filter out much in the way of UV radiation, perhaps honest would be to call them Dust Antiscratch filters. [ UV filters block a small percentage (between 0.1 and 5%)]
Your comment: They did wonder why the UV filter fo... (show quote)


It is an interesting notion the use of a UV filter on a UV lens. Using the Zeiss Ultaphot, an extream high end camera that looks and acts like a microscope is capable of UV macro/micro photography. Knowing that humans are prone to doing stupid mistakes, the Ultaphot will do UV images, but when it is time to make an exposure the unit blacks out, with a barrier the entire view, and only exposes the film to the UV view. If this were not true, the person would most likely become blind from the UV illumination.

So, just to cover our asses, when we responded to the question about the UV lens needing a UV filter, we explained that the Zeiss UV filter would have added to that filter a Kodak Wratten 2EF to guarantee that not just UV radiation be obstructed, but the low blue end of the spectrum. The Wratten 2EF will block the blue in most blue flowers rendering them gray in color. Blind photographers don't stay photographers vary long! LOL!!!

Reply
Check out Commercial and Industrial Photography section of our forum.
Jul 19, 2019 14:34:04   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
I love this: "what is a constant" ...
reply, "a variable that does not change."

"a variable that does not change." you, I bet, have an excellent stair case wit!

Reply
Jul 19, 2019 18:47:49   #
Todd G
 
That is some long toes.

Reply
Jul 19, 2019 23:06:00   #
JD750 Loc: SoCal
 
Several of your OAD I have not personally cared for, that is me. Others I have liked. This one I like. Good composition, and lighting and very abstract and also interesting.

Reply
Jul 20, 2019 02:37:58   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
Hi, I'm dyslexic and have no idea what "OAD" stands for.

Reply
Check out Smartphone Photography section of our forum.
Jul 20, 2019 06:02:59   #
dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida
 
Timmers wrote:
I love this: "what is a constant" ...
reply, "a variable that does not change."

"a variable that does not change." you, I bet, have an excellent stair case wit!


I will confess to staircase wit... perhaps at times safer to think of a smart-ass reply after the target has left the room

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/staircase_wit

"staircase wit (uncountable) (rare, idiomatic) Thinking of an idea or course of action too late to use it effectively, or the tendency to do so. Synonyms: afterwit, l'esprit de l'escalier, (neologism) retrotort."

Reply
Jul 20, 2019 07:41:03   #
f8lee Loc: New Mexico
 
Interesting story and concept with the matrix as you call it - one minor correction... when you wrote Remember the story of Billy Gates and the smart guys with Xerox, and how the computer was handed to Gates in a single afternoon? I believe you are referring to Steve Jobs; he's the one to visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and was shown the GUI and mouse concepts that led to the first Macintosh

But now I am going to search for my old Polaroid film back!

Reply
Jul 20, 2019 10:44:59   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
f8lee wrote:
Interesting story and concept with the matrix as you call it - one minor correction... when you wrote Remember the story of Billy Gates and the smart guys with Xerox, and how the computer was handed to Gates in a single afternoon? I believe you are referring to Steve Jobs; he's the one to visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and was shown the GUI and mouse concepts that led to the first Macintosh

But now I am going to search for my old Polaroid film back!


You are right on! It was Gates. I'm terrible with that detail about names, the stories I remember. Thanks for the correction, it is important to get that detail correct.

For anyone looking for their Polaroid Pack Cameras, the light plastic models in the lower series numbers of '100s', these were good cameras, but the heavier cameras with tripod mounts in the base, that is a Carl Zeiss glass lens in both the lens and the view finder. These were top of the line high quality cameras.

All the cameras are designed to handle flash, the hole on the camera front standard is equipped with a standard PC port. The f stop was f8 with a shutter speed of about 1/100. That flash works with electronic flash or flash bulbs. To make long exposures in low light, cover the electronic eye with anything (finger) and estimate exposure (1/ISO at f8 where ISO is 80 for most color materials). To 'test' exposure times, cover the lens with a lens cover and trip the shutter and see how long the shutter stays open. The camera can make multiple exposures on a single sheet of film, it does not 'know' how many exposures are taken.

The battery is no longer made, open the battery terminal space at the right tear of the camera, there you will see the needed battery voltage marked inside the door. Remove the caps for the old battery contacts and strip back about 1/2 inch of wire. Get a battery of the volume need as engraved on the door and attach the replacement battery with the new type of battery, holding the electrical wires in place with sticky high quality heavy tape (like Gaffers or Gorilla Glue type tape. Test the shutter, if it does not work then revers the wire on the battery to get the positive/negative correct. IMPORTANT: When the shutter is cocked the battery is engaged, always cover the lens if film is in the camera, or if not, trip the shutter to disengage the battery so it does not drain the battery.

More as we plod along with this.

Reply
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
Check out Advice from the Pros section of our forum.
Nude Photography, Boudoir Photography, NSFW, Discussions and Pictures
UglyHedgehog.com - Forum
Copyright 2011-2024 Ugly Hedgehog, Inc.