Today I took the SX-70 out for an afternoon walk to do a few more test shots. However at more than US$2.00 per shot (and that’s even with the more economical Polaroid 600 film!) I was a little stingy with my exposures and only took four pictures.
“Tree”
As with one of the images in yesterday’s post this is another shot of a tree against the sky and again there is something funny happening to the colour across the sky.
“Palm Frond”
In this shot I used the ‘Lighten/Darken’ exposure control and darkened the exposure with about one stop as I was shooting a fairly dark green, so I figured the camera would try to overexpose the scene without the correction applied. I really like how the colour has come out ‘Polaroid like’.
“Orange Flower”
In this third shot I decided to try my hand at a motion exposure with the SX-70. Here I set the exposure control to darken with about two and half stops to make sure I got a good long exposure time. I simply moved the camera in circular motions around the orange flower. I would have liked a little bit more of a hint of definition, but I still like the image and the placement of the flower within the frame. The colours also work quite nicely together. This is probably my personal favourite of the four test shots from today.
“Palm Frond Impression”
In the final shot I re-visited the Palm Frond and made another motion exposure. There is a little of that hint of definition that I was missing in the orange flower shot and I quite like how this image turned out as well.
I must say I’m really falling in love with the Polaroid SX-70. I absolutely love the design of this camera, although if you are considering getting one of these prepare yourself that it takes a little while to get comfortable shooting with it. It’s quite ackward to handle the camera at first as it is so different from the cameras we are used to today, but after a while you start to figure out how to hold it and where to place your fingers, so you don’t prevent the Polaroid picture from ejecting from the front of the camera!
All of the images above are scanned using the Epson Perfection V700 scanner and I have made no post processing adjustments to any of the images at all.
You can check out the V700 scanner and the latest prices at B&H Photo, Adorama or Amazon.com. It looks like there are some really good discounts on this scanner at the moment and it was already quite reasonably priced scanner in the first instance. It’s the only film scanner I have left – and intend to keep – after I sold my dedicated Minolta film scanner a few months ago. The V700 scans 35mm, medium format and large format with excellent results.
I hope you have enjoyed the Polaroid test shots above and yesterday.
Now I will spend some time thinking about what type of subjects I would like to shoot with this camera. Ultimately I would like to create a co-herent and significant body of work with the SX-70.
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Tue, Sep 22, 2009
Polaroids