Polaroid is gone, but you can still fake it
Poladroid is an OS X application that accepts a photo and then makes that photo look like it was taken with a Polaroid camera. Since Polaroid stopped making the film for it’s instant cameras this sort of thing will be the only way we will be able to get that Polaroid feeling in the future.
How well does it work? I’m not Polaroid expert but it doesn’t look too bad. There is some vignetting (darkness around the edges) and the colours are very contrasty (not a real word). Poladroid even adds an authentic looking white frame around the edges.
I ran into a couple of problems. First is that the user has no control where photos are cropped. Unless your subjects are in the exact middle of the photo this can result in decapitations or delimbitations (also not a real word).
When editing a photo Poladroid even recreates the “developing” process. You are presented with a grey/brown/purple image that slowly develops into your photo. Kind of a neat idea but it annoyed me after the first two photos. You can speed it up by shaking the photo with your mouse, but still….
It’s a cute little program. It isn’t perfect but hopefully it can help numb the pain and sense of loss some Polaroid fans are feeling.
Andrew Chipman, I’m looking at you.
