INSTANT FILMS // A COMPARISON

Now that you've dug out that old Polaroid camera or begged Uncle John to give you his Land Camera that's just sitting in the garage let's look at some examples of the different films that are available to use.

jen gotch, mine, mine

adam goldberg, kim oberski, patrick tobin

heather champ, emily hunt, kelly knaga

brooke castro, jeff hutton, mine

dave tuttle, jessica hibbard, juli werner

whitney johnson, anne bowerman, mia moreno

mine, mine, mine

mine, ryan marshall, mine

If you're wondering which film can be used with which camera, please take a look back on this helpful lil post.

These are just some of the many pretty pretty instant film pictures on the internet! Here are a few of my favorite Flickr groups you might want to have a peek at:

The Impossible Project
Instant Flowers
Impossible PX Color
Bonjour Pola
Pola Pajaros
'Roid Week 2011

The Impossible Project also has some awesome user populated galleries- go look and be inspired!

The Impossible Project films are gorgeous aren't they?! Did you notice that you can get the PX 600 UV and PZ 600 UV films with black borders in addition to the traditional white borders? I am currently obsessed with the PX 600 UV Ace Hotel edition of this film. It comes in a really neat little box that can be used for storing your precious pictures. I want a hundred of them.

These films are really fun to use, but there are a few tricks you'll want to keep in mind when shooting with them. The most important thing to do is to shield your film from light immediately..as in..as it comes out of the camera. There are a few different ways to do this, I use a dark slide, which is the black thing that dispenses out of your camera when you put a brand new pack of film in. Take it, hold it up near where the film comes out of the camera making sure it is going to cover the film as it ejects and sneak the image away into your pocket with the dark slide over the image as soon as you take a shot and your almost guaranteed a pretty picture.

darkslide illustrations by the insanely creative amanda mason.

The Impossible Project recently came out with an easier method of shielding your film, an accessory you add to your camera called a frog tongue. You just add this little guy to the lip of your camera and a piece of magic black goodness will shield your image from light! Easy peasy. Get your hands on one if you can!

One of my favorite parts of shooting instant film is the community that has been built around it. I have made some wonderful and inspirational pals through this community! A great big thank you to all the lovely folks who let me use their photographs for this post! Please click on the names of each contributor below each set of images - you can thank me later.

What's next? A give-away!!! Stay tuned!

XO