The Instant Film Society

Drying Peel-Apart Prints

Posted on February 11, 2013 by The Instant Film Society Posted in FujiFilm Leave a comment

Many of you know that I really enjoy shooting instant film. I first got hooked on Fuji’s FP-100C a few years ago when I picked up a Polaroid back for the Mamiya RB67. I was in heaven! I had never shot the stuff before and I was really enthralled with the beauty of the images. Since then, I’ve really gotten into Impossible Project‘s films which are another beast in itself (great film).

The cool thing about Fuji’s instant film is that it is peel-apart film and it works on all 100 series Polaroid cameras & film backs. The not-so-cool thing about this type of film in general, is that when you peel it apart, you remove the print from the negative & the developing solution. That in turn leaves you with a somewhat vulnerable print that has to dry first before it can be touched & stored. It’s not really a problem if you’re only shooting a few and can hand hold the print a few minutes until it’s dry. It does turn into a bit of an issue however when you’re shooting a pack or more of prints fairly quickly and need to store them to dry. I run into this issue …

A while back, I started to brainstorm on how I could keep the exposed prints & negatives in a safe place when I was out and about shooting. One day, I was walking around an arts & crafts store and I stumbled upon a paper mache box that looked to be about the size of FP-100C’s prints. Voila! It was perfect!

WOULD YOU LIKE ONE OF YOUR OWN? CLICK HERE

: Prints held in place by springs without touching the actual image

Once it was complete I finally had a safe place to dry and store the prints/negatives. I just put it in the camera bag when I’m out and about.

-Justin

Fuji FP-100C Emulsion/Image Transfer

Posted on February 11, 2013 by The Instant Film Society Posted in FujiFilm Leave a comment

: Fuji FP-100C – Polaroid Land Camera 100 – Polaroid Emulsion/Image Transfer Kit

The wonderful Sandy Hibbard, of Lyric Marketing & Design, hired me again this past week to take photos for a client of hers, Stephanie McAndrew. Stephanie is a writer/activist who promotes the empowerment of women & children in the states & abroad. When Sandy first approached me, she mentioned that along with the some of the more traditional headshot images, she also wanted something out of the box for Stephanie’s portrait. I racked my brain for a ideas and came up with a couple decent ones but never had “it” figured out.

About a week later, I went to The Film Depot (no longer in business as of 2013) in Richardson to pick up some film sleeves for the 120 & FP-100C I’d been shooting. Now, I’ve been to this place a kajillion times and I always browse through almost everything when I’m there. For some reason or another, I had never seen the brand-new-in-box Polaroid Emulsion/Image Transfer Kit that was sitting waaaay up high on the shelf. I asked the owner if I could pull it down to look at it .. she nodded her head. I grabbed the box and white flakes came floating down all over me. I took a deep breath, blew the top of the box and a cloud of dust flew through the store. The owner laughed, smiled and told me that she’d be willing to make a deal with me. The box said $25 but she’d take $15. I opened it up, saw that the deal was good and paid the kind lady. Score!

The week of the Stephanie’s shoot came up and I had been toying around with emulsion lifts/transfers. It didn’t quite dawn on me until a day or so before the shoot, but I knew that a collage of emulsion transfers would be a really cool fit for Stephanie’s portrait (out of the box? √ ). We discussed possible locations the day before and decided on using The Heard Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney.

The shoot was a blast! Stephanie & Sandy were in great spirits the whole time as I took them on a wild goose chase of a photoshoot. I had been to the Heard before with Synthia and remembered where some of the nicer ‘available light’ locations were. The only issue was we had to walk about 2-3 miles total to get to all of them (sorry again ladies ..). About 1/2 way through the shoot, we came to the spot I had planned on using for the collage of emulsion transfers. I had Stephanie sit on a bench and started snapping away with a Polaroid 100 Land Camera. I took 6 images in the style of David Hockney and tucked them away in my homemade box to dry.

A day later, once the prints had fully dried, I pulled the materials out of the Polaroid Emulsion/Image Transfer Kit and gathered anything else I needed ..

2 trays (8×10 or larger) to hold water

Thermometer

Timer

Rubber Tongs

Contact Paper

Rubber Brayer (a roller)

Wax Paper & Scissors (not included in kit)

Along with the kit I purchased, I received a step-by-step guide to emulsion transfers. If you’d like to view a PDF of it CLICK HERE.

The process was pretty simple ..

: I trimmed off the edges of the photos …

: Then figured out how much contact paper was needed to cover the back

: Cut my contact paper so it was about the same size as the print ….

: Peeled it apart …

: And pressed it firmly it onto the back of the print to shield it from the water …

Once all of the images were trimmed and set up with contact paper, I started heating up some water on the stove. When the water was 160 degrees I poured it into the one of the trays and filled the other tray of water with tap water.

: Set a timer for four minutes …

: Placed the print into HOT water …

: Used tongs to keep the print submerged under water for 4 minutes …

: After four minutes, I moved the print into the COLD water …

: Pushed the edges of the emulsion towards the center with my thumbs and it eventually slid off ….

: I repeated the process …

: Moved the prints to the COLD water …

: Slid the emulsions off the prints …

At this point, I cut an 8×10 piece of watercolor paper that I had lying around and submerged it in water for a few seconds. I pulled it out and layed it on an 8×10 piece of glass. I used the rubber roller to “mount it” to the glass. Almost time for the transfer …

: Put wax paper underneath the emulsion (reverse side should be up)

: Pressed it against the watercolor paper ..

: Then used a rubber brayer on top of the wax paper to firmly press the emulsion down …

: Gently pealed away the wax paper …

: Repeated the process …

: *

: I set it out to dry …

When the piece dried, the watercolor paper wrinkled a bit and little portions of the transferred emulsions were rising up from the paper. I placed the piece in an 8×10 frame to flatten it but was bothered by the negative space that was surrounding the transferred images. I’m a stickler. I went back to the Heard a few days later and took 9 more photos at approximately the same time of day as the first shoot. The images dried and I transferred them to finish out the piece.

: Fuji FP-100 Emulsion / Image Transfer

NOTE: If you’re experienced in transfers and have any suggestions/comments to share, I would love to hear from you!

-Justin

BUY Fuji FP-100C HERE!

Bleaching Fuji FP-100C – Salvaging Negatives

Posted on February 11, 2013 by The Instant Film Society Posted in FujiFilm Leave a comment

Salvage a negative from FP-100C shot on your Polaroid

For those of you unaware, FujiFilm’s FP-100C is peel apart film used in Polaroid cameras and other cameras equipped with a Polaroid back. I’ve been shooting the stuff for a few years on a Mamiya RB-67 and Polaroid pack film cameras (seen above). Other than Impossible Project films, Fuji’s peel-apart films are the only other dominate option for instant analogue photography.

I just recently found out how to salvage the negatives from FP-100C. For years I’ve just peeled off the exposed prints and disposed of the “other part”. I have been missing out! Not any more however ;-)

My wife and I took a trip to our friend’s ranch a few weeks ago and she shot a lot of FP-100C while we were there. We saved all of her negatives and stored them in a box once they had all dried. Side note: I’ve found if you stash the negative away in a dark dry place, you can still salvage it. If it’s left out in the open sun to dry, exposure will run its course and the negative will be overexposed/washed out. Anyhow, she took an image of me plinking away with a bb gun on their back porch. It’s a little dark on the print but I’ll be able to pull out some shadow detail once the negative has been scanned (that’s one of the cool things about this).

FP-100C Print

To salvage the negative it’s quite simple actually. You’ll need:

- 8×10-ish piece of glass

- small paint brush

- container to hold bleach

- rubber gloves

- clips to dry the negative

All you have to do is …

Peel paper off around edges of negative

Prop the glass up in the sink and run some cold water over it

Turn water off and immediately place the negative face down (black side up). Press down on it so it seals itself to the glass.

Pour a little bit of bleach onto the back of the negative

Without getting bleach underneath the negative, brush off the black backing of the negative. Frequently dip the brush back into the container of bleach.

Run cold water over the negative to wash away backing. Be careful not to get water underneath the negative at this time.

Pull the negative off of the glass using rubber gloves.

Wash the developer goop off of the negative. Be careful to not apply a lot of pressure otherwise you might rub off part of the emulsion.

Clip the negative up to dry and you’re all set!

Scanned negative from FP-100C – white blotches are from where the black backing was not bleached off.

Here are a few other examples:

Bleached Fuji FP-100C Negative Scan

Bleached Fuji FP-100C Negative Scan – Green discoloration is from bleach leaking onto the front during the wash. The left corner area is an undeveloped patch.