Polaroid / Fuji FP-100c Negatives

I had pretty much given up on shooting any more Fuji FP-100c peel apart film after that company’s announcement last year that they would cease production of the film. The price spiked from $9/box on Amazon to $50 overnight. Things finally settled back down to a more acceptable level ($20 or so) a month or so later, but that was still rich for my blood. Recently the prices have spiked again, presumably because the stores of what’s left of their stock are being depleted rapidly.

I lucked into buying ~20 boxes at a very good price in the last 3-4 months, and have resumed shooting again until it’s gone.

As I’ve moved away from the straight portrait work I had been doing several years ago to more artsy-fartsy work, it’s only natural that my Polaroid work has changed (improved) as well.

And part of the fun of shooting Fuji’s Polaroid film is the goopy negative that so many people throw away. The process of recovering the usable negative is well documented across the web, but in practice I know very few folks who are actually doing it. It’s become so much fun for me recently that I’m finding myself shooting for the negative more than for the actual photo!

Several recent shoots have produced some amazing Polaroid shots. Here are a few, first showing the actual photograph, then showing the results of scanning the recovered negative.

 

The clarity of the negative in some cases is what makes it so appealing. And the darker the photograph, usually the better / more usable the negative.

 

Being able to take these negatives and essentially make a whole new photo out of it is another appeal – with the photo itself, what’s done is done. But being able to take the negative, clean it, scan it, and manipulate it… pure joy.

 

Colors change, becoming darker, richer, or lighter and washed out. Sometimes I can tell which way it’s going to go, other times it’s a crap-shoot.

 

 

 

 

Do you actively recover and use your FP-100c negatives? Have you been happy with the results? Leave a comment below and tell me what you do with your negatives once they’ve been scanned.