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This photographer shot his own wet plate passport photos

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I love seeing the wet plate experiments of Austrian photographer Markus Hofstätter. He’s so prolific with them that when he decides to do something interesting it ends up being very interesting. Lately, he’s been trying to apply wet plate techniques to types of photography you wouldn’t normally associate with the medium.

He has a couple of very cool projects on the go at the moment that he will tell us about in due time, but for now, check out these passport photos shot on wet plate using the Polaroid MiniPortrait 402 camera.

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Here’s how to hack a Polaroid camera to print on thermal paper instead of film

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Building an instant camera that prints images on thermal paper isn’t exactly a new concept. Just a couple of years, ago, we even encountered a Gameboy pocket camera from 1998 that uses the same principle. But hacking a Polaroid camera so it could use receipt paper instead of film? That’s definitely something we haven’t seen before, and Tim Alex Jones shows you exactly how he did it in this Youtube video.

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Instant Dreams is a feature-length documentary on Polaroid cameras & film

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No matter what other instant film formats may follow, Polaroid is the original and arguably the best. When Polaroid announced the end of production in 2008, many feared that it would be gone forever. But Polaroid’s last working factory was bought my a small group of enthusiasts, amongst them, retired scientist Stephen Herchen, now CTO of Polaroid Originals (formerly, Impossible Project).

Herchen had previously collaborated with the inventor of Polaroid, Edwin Land. Today he’s still trying to unravel the mystery of the lost secret chemical formula. Instant Dreams is a documentary illustrating the magic of Polaroids and what it means to the people who shoot them, by filmmaker Willem Baptist.

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Polaroid demands millions in royalties over square format instant film

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At last year’s Photokina, Fujifilm announced their new Instant Square Film. Earlier this year, the hardware to go along with it started to come. First the Instax SQ10 hybrid instant camera,  followed by the Instax Share SP-3 printer. Now, according to a report by World Intellectual Property Review, Fujifilm has filed a complaint against Polaroid over a dispute on square format instant prints.

The report says that Fujifilm have asked for declaratory judgement in US district court to clear the company of any wrongdoing after being accused of trademark infringement by PLR IP (brand licensor and marketer of IP rights for Polaroid instant cameras). The trademark in question is the white border around Fujifilm’s Instax Square images.

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This Stranger Things inspired Polaroid camera movie will keep you up at night

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When I first started watching this short film, I thought it was a promotional piece. After all, Polaroid just announced its new OneStep 2 camera a couple of months ago. It was released a couple of weeks ago, so, thinking it might be a Halloween advert to get the word out is a logical assumption to make.

But no, this is the creation of filmmaker Joey Greene and a wonderfully talented, but small, crew of people. It starts off with what appears to be a guy moving into a new place, unpacking his boxes. When he pulls out a Polaroid OneStep, he opens it up and it goes off in his hand. Out pops a picture. So, he decides to have a play with it.

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Why every photographer should try an instant camera

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When I was a kid, I dreamed of having that “magical camera that makes photos immediately.” Of course, I’m talking about an instant camera. Nowadays, it seems they are being resurrected. You can buy all kinds of these, or even make them yourself. Photographer and vlogger Josh Katz shares his thoughts on why every photographer should experiment with instant cameras. Even if you otherwise shoot digital, you can learn something new and apply the knowledge to your digital photography. And here’s how instant cameras helped Josh improve his work.

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