Emulsion Lift

On New Years Day, Horace and I finally had some time with nothing to do. We finally picked up a project we had been wanting to work on together for quite some time. An emulsion lift is just a fun way to use an instant photo and have it framed outside of the the normal plastic frame. When you take a Polaroid photo, the actual picture goes on to the emulsion which is a flimsy piece of film between all the plastic you see. Here, we are just removing the emulsion from the frame and mounting it on a piece of matte board type paper. 

I won The Impossible Projects Emulsion Lift Kit through a group on Flickr celebrating Roid Week 2013, a week full of contests and prizes for Polaroid photos. The kit has all the tools you need to do the lift, but the instructions were really hard to follow. So here we have our own instructions. We think we did it right :P You need a Polaroid camera, fresh film, some nice heavy mounting paper, a few trays and something to hold you emulsion in the bath. The Impossible kit makes it really easy to have all this in one place:) So here we go!

We use an SX-70 for most of our shots and Impossible Project film. The color film turned out so dreamy, but I bet black and white would look great too. we also have a frog tongue because it can be pretty hard to shade the picture quickly enough to not overexpose. Once you get your fresh photo, you're ready to go!

1. All your tools: trays, paper, metal clip and a little water spout 2. Pour room temperature water in the left tray 3. Pour hot water (enough to be steamy) in the other tray 4. Cut off the frame (It looks like other people let the photo develop, but ours turned out fine letting it develop for about 5 minutes and then getting to work.)

5. Peel the backing off of the cut square 6. Prepare the metal clip and 7. place the square in the clip 8. Place the clip in the hot water. You will see the white specks start to fall off.

9. Leave it in the water for a good 10 minutes.

10. You will start to see the emulsion pull away from the plastic. At this point, put a piece of mounting paper in the cold water tray and submerge 11. take your clip and carefully line it up on the matte paper 12. Place the photo on the matte paper and carefully remove the clip 13. OH SO CAREFULLY, peel off the plastic from the emulsion. 

14. You can use the water spout (or your fingertip) to move the photo around until it is where you want it. Its such a flimsy piece, so you really have to play with it until you get it where you want it. 

And there you go! There may be some bumps or white spots still left, but the imperfection is part of the beauty of instant film. 

We love how these turned out. When we told O we were taking a picture of him, he turned on the modeling charm. He sat right down and looked at the camera and gave us a little smirk.


I hope you enjoyed seeing the process. We love instant film and find the imperfection and hand-made nature of the film so endearing and special. Be sure to check out The Impossible Project, the guys who are keeping Polaroid cameras moving. Their film is great and we can't get enough of it.
Have a great week!



Horace & Mae Photography
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