Tag Archives: expired film

Vintage Polaroid Cameras And Film In The Days Of The iPhone

I am a collector of vintage cameras. No particular year or style, the cameras in my collection are only limited by my interest in the particular tech. When it is possible to locate film that will work, I actually take some out of the collection to shoot with. The fun of film is the planning and non-instant-gratification. For those times that I want to mix vintage with a instant view of my shots, I break out one of my Polaroids. Initially, this meant using expired film, then Impossible Project started producing Polaroid style film, but it had exposure issues (well, I had problems, others where happier). Recently, Impossible Project has added a coating to their film making the final results much better.

A few of my shooters –

01 Polaroid

02 Polaroid

Results vary, but when Luna will sit still long enough, she loves when the camera comes out –

03 PolaroidOf course, there is an app for that too. Not just one Instant Polaroid effect iPhone app, but many many… many. Most are just ‘frames’ apps to wrap a photo in a Polaroid trademarked paper frame. Instant – The Polaroid Instant Camera is an app that I tend to play with when I want to add the realistic vintage effect when shooting with my iPhone.

04 Instant Polaroid

Along with the exposure/film type, Instant lets you add all of the particulars that make the photo deliver the message your looking for. Color the frame ‘paper’, and add wear via blotches, wrinkles and even finger prints. Then a bit of handwriting text for a final touch.

05 Instant Polaroid

If the fun of vintage film photography is something you enjoy, narrowed down to Polaroid particularly, you may enjoy Polanoid.net . A site that has Polaroid camera users all over the world submitting their snapshots for you to enjoy.

06 Polaroid dot net

The Polanoid.net site has what seems like an endless list of Polaroid film captures. The images are grouped by camera type as well as photographer. Fun to see new and old photos and the creative work people do with instant photography.

07 Polaroid dot net

KitCam on the iPhone enhances photography and photo editing in one app

Generally, there are two types of photography apps for the iPhone. There are Camera apps that alter the way photos are taken with the iPhone. Then, there are apps for enhancing images. The second of the two are more popular, tuning images for sharing on social sites with family and friends. Apps that alter how photos are taken from the beginning have a strong following amongst the retro and film camera fans.

The folks that created the PhotoForge2 editing app has now released KitCam. An app that has film and lens options for how a photo is taken to start with, then editing tool for enhancing more. Amongst the enhancements is even the ability to change the film and lens used when the photo was initial taken.

01 KitCam iPhone

Tap the KitCam lens to slide out the options. Swipe left/right to choose and see the impact of each. Some allow fine tuning their enhancement impacts beyond just applying.

02 KitCam iPhone

KitCam comes with a very nice selection of lenses, films and frames. If you want to go for an extra special effect, there are in-app purchasable groups of each. The built in options have kept me plenty busy, but I can imagine a few shots that would enjoy the upgraded bundle.

03 KitCam iPhone

Sliders for fine tuning contrast and white balance in real time.

04 KitCam iPhone

Popular photography camera are on the view finder screen through the settings icon. KitCam works with single photos and video too.

05 KitCam iPhone

Photos directly after taking or after enhancing, can be shared out in a wide variety of ways. KitCam provides for saving to popular Social Services, cloud storage or open in other apps that you may prefer using to more adjustments.

06 KitCam iPhone

Basic adjustments can be made to the photos like crop, ‘enhance’, and contrast/white balance.

07b KitCam iPhone

There are advanced ‘Pro’ photo editing options within KitCam. Even these tools are included without an extra charge.

08 KitCam iPhone

Choose the film icon in the upper right corner of the photo editing area to have access to the KitCam film/lens options that where available when first taking the photos. This feature works on imported photos that you have taken via the iPhone camera without KitCam.

09 KitCam iPhone

This is the photo as it was taken with the film/lens selections above.

10 KitCam iPhone

Where other apps that offer film/lens combinations to take the photo with initially then export the photo. KitCam lets you change your mind about the film/lens/frame later so nothing is ever stuck with a bad decision.

11 KitCam iPhone

PhotoForge2 taking Retro Film and Flash for iPhone photos to the next level

Some people complain about using Hipstamatic because it takes the photo in a retro fashion which is set via choosing lens/film/flash combinations before the photo is taken. They would prefer taking a regular photo then editing it. While Hipstamatic takes the photography experience back to the days of choosing a physical camera/film/lens, I can understand where the ‘modern’ iPhone photographer may want to use the many options they have rather than the limitations of yesteryear.

With the snap-and-edit-later photographer in mind, PhotoForge2 offers the usual filters/editing tools, but a large selection of retro film/flash/gels/papers to mix and match per the need of a particular photo. PhotoForge2 is a universal app so purchasing it will allow you to one the single copy on both devices. The interface is the same between the two, below I used screen shots from my iPad to see the options spread out more, making them easier to see.

The user interface for PhotoForge2 has all of the tools (except share and apply) across the bottom of the screen. Choose one of the icons to bring up the tools in that area. Then swipe from side to side to choose which to use.

Some PhotoForge2 tools offer the ability to fine tune their impact. When in the edit mode, a check (accept/apply) and ‘X’ (do not apply changes) in the upper left corner takes you back to the tools overview screen. This allows as many adjustments to a photo to be applied as you need. Layers are also supported so you can separate the adjustments for easier editing as you go.

One of the choices in the ‘FX’ area is a camera icon for ‘Pop!Cam’. This selection changes the PhotoForge2 tools along the bottom to Film, Lens, Gels, Flash, Chemicals, Paper and Frames. The ‘Pop!Cam’ area will let you use the tools but in order to save the image with the effects applied they have an upgrade fee (currently $1.99). Since this is not a free app, it is nice that a person gets to play a bit to see if there is any value in the Retro options.

Saving and sharing your creations is done via cloud icon in the upper right corner. The usual Cloud storage services are supported, as are the photo sharing sites. If you know someone else with PhotoForge2 installed, there is even the option to ‘bump’ to transfer images between the two units.