Polaroid slide film
It’s the emulsion stupid. Polaroid made instant slide film for a short while. Thank goodness I only used it a few times. Scanning it on a film scanner is hell. The developer/author of Vuescan told me it was grain and “user error.” Nice. Indeed, no one seemed to remember the film nor how to scan it. ICE – it’s software to remove dust magically during the scan process. It uses an infrared scan simultaneously to “map” dust and mark it for removal. Aha! Turn off ICE. You can do it. And the result is remarkable. Second, reduce grain. Problem improved. It ain’t great. The Polaroid film itself was not a good film. Thankfully, I only shot a few rolls. Probably, it’s why the film never took hold. I solved the problem by letting the solution percolate slowly in the background of my mind as I did other tasks. Ha ha! Brilliant! I’ve solved other problems that way. It’s remarkable what the background processor in my head will come up with. The great and wonderful internet did not have an answer for my problem. So, as a public service to you few who care, here’s the solution. Ha! An original answer.
Action
Look. This is what you need to notice: The hand is (motion) blurred. The blocks are in motion falling down. The child has a wonderful expression – joy!
Can you guess where we’ve been recently? Yes! We cautiously made a field trip and did a visit in the midst of corona. Everyone’s been intelligently quarantined – for us, it’s been months. The auto everything camera of today has made me lazy. I press the shutter and magic occurs and a perfect image appears on my memory card. Not so fast, there’s a lot of factors in play – lighting, shutter speed, ISO, F-stop, zoom, composition, timing… Hey! That makes me scramble, I’m always seeking the perfect moment. I’m not sure you ever get there. But some moments are better than others. I am very thankful to have captured “moments” more than “almost.”
photobackstory 