Enhancing Polaroid photos
Author, Fran at Gayhead, Martha's Vineyard, Polaroid SX-70, SX-70 film, 1981
Same photo, scanned, enhanced and color corrected by the author, 2011
Author, 1937 Packard restoration, SX-70 and film, circa 1975
Same photo, enhanced and color corrected in Photoshop by the author, 2011
The cars were being restored by my good friend of more than 60 years, graphic designer and former studio mate, Albin Webber. Al's Packard phaeton subsequently won first prize at Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The point of this exercise is to show what had been necessary to adequately reproduce SX-70 photos for print. It was a challenge to art directors and pre-press technicians alike as we were always compelled to adjust each of the four-color process separations for print production.
Adobe Photoshop now allows us to do in minutes what it usually took hours for film separations produced in million-dollar installations. It's just too fascinating for me to resist attempts at improvement.
Author, Lily and lobster, Polaroid Model 100, Type 108 film, 1963
In comparison, this old Type 108 print needed much less color correction.