Retro Part I: Poladroid Pictures

What’s the first thing we do when our photo technology is vastly improved and we can take clearer, better photos? We become nostalgic for the crappy old photos we used to take!

Remember how much fun Polaroid cameras were? Click and the photo shoots out, then you wait for the image to develop. First it’s dark, then you see details emerge from the shadows. Some of us would wave them around to speed it up (did that even help?). Then voila! (Almost) instant photos.

Poladroid is software that does it for you. Drag and drop your digital photo onto their cool camera icon, then wait as the photo is processed on your desktop. I highly recommend the sound effects for the full experience. The final photos include the hinky coloring and vignetting (loss of clarity and darkened corners and edges) we all know and love.

Download Poladroid for free (donations are recommended) and try it out. Once installed, launch the program and under the Poladroid menu, select Preferences. Select your Destination Folder (so you know where your files are going); under Image, make sure you’ve selected Sound Effects (cause they’re fun); and in Post processing, choose your blur effects and vignetting (these examples here have the blur effect and strong vignetting).

This is the first in a series of Retro posts I’m working on, so stay tuned for more. If you have any suggestions for taking retro pictures, please share them!