One final image from the shoot with Arnika last weekend, and again this is one of the reclaimed negatives from a Fuji FP-100C instant print.
Scanning these negatives is a challenge — they don’t have the orange background mask that conventional C-41 negatives do, and film scanners invariably get confused. It took a couple of tries, but I ended up with this tonality tha I really like, faded in a retro kind of way that reminds me a bit of the Autochrome process from a century ago.
Today’s image is from another bleached/reclaimed Fuij FC-100C instant print, taken at the Broadview subway station in Toronto. I posted it on flickr as I was going out the door this morning, and didn’t have time to add any description. It quickly got a couple of nice comments, but I think one person made the assumption the look was all done in post. Given the plethora of apps and plug-ins available today to make digital images look like grungy lo-fi analog images, it was not an unreasonable assumption; most viewers would have done the same. I just can’t help but notice the irony of the situation.
In a recent post, I showed an example of what could be done with the negative from Fuji’s instant black and white film (FP-3000C), once allowed to dry and then scanned. Today, another example of hacking the process: it is possible to take the negative from Fuji’s colour instant film (FPC-100) and carefully wash the black backing off with bleach, and then wash the developer off with plain water. You are left with a transparent negative that can be scanned as a colour negative (albeit requiring a lot of colour correct in the post work). I love the results, and the messy borders add to the character of the image, in my opinion. I am also struck by the sharpness of this approach, compared to the scan of the original print, which seems soft to me. Expect to see more bleached negatives in the very near future!
(Classic car in Kensington Market, taken with Polaroid Land Camera model 100)
My Third Eye 