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Getting better Polaroid Reclaimed Blue scans (brighter highlights, Newton rings gone, and sharper image) by removing the transparent plastic layer.
Inspired by the recent In An Instant video (youtube.com/watch?v=DZxk1i…), I was playing around with my Reclaimed Blue (analog.cafe/r/polaroid-rec…) frames, trying to create a transparency.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. I tried making one out of a frame exposed 10 minutes before, which ended up having the emulsion and a lot of the white crumbly stuff stuck to the front of the frame. But the film that I exposed about two hours prior ended up splitting in a way that let me remove just the clear front plastic cleanly (to do this, I followed the technique described here: analog.cafe/r/polaroid-emu…)
I happened to have scanned the frame before opening it up and I made another scan with the clear plastic gone, which I then overlayed digitally to compare the results (attached). On the left is the scan with the plastic gone and on the right is the original frame.
Even on a crappy flatbed, I could see that the highlights were a lot clearer, there were obviously no Newton rings, and the dirt and scratches were gone (with the protective plastic). And I am sure the results would yield even better sharpness/resolution on a decent scanner as well.
YouTube Video