Frikkin' instant films? How do they work? Well, if you had thought to ask the good folks at Phototjojo instead of just shouting your mouth off like that, you would have found the answer in their excellent Photo Science guide. Spoiler: you don't have to shake it.
You may have known that each Polaroid picture contains the chemicals needed to process it. What you probably didn't know were the details. The large bottom border of a Polaroid doesn't just give it its iconic shape. It also contains pouches of chemicals. When the photo is ejected from the camera it is squeezed between two rollers which burst the bags and smear the chemicals onto the photo, developing it.
You can see this for yourself by taking an unused Polaroid and squeezing the juice from these pustules with your fingers. The chemicals can be squidged around like paint inside the photo. I used to do this when I was a wasteful teenager (and photography student), and you can get some cool – but only semi-permanent – effects.
Sure, you may have know this already, but the real reason for posting about this was to use Photojojo's excellent illustrations, above. Head over to the blog post to find out all about the camera obscura, photo paper, pinhole cameras and color filters. Who said learning can't be fun?
Photo Science: How 5 Photo Techniques Work & How You Can Play With Them! [Phototjojo]
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