3.34. Polaroid emulsion lifts

Polaroid emulsion transfer is a fine art technique that produces delicate, uniquely beautiful photographs characterized by flowing patterns of fine wrinkles. It uses the same film as the image transfer method, but under hot water the image layer is peeled away. It can be placed on any surface, not just paper, and stretched and distorted before it cools and dries. Jack Perno and Kathleen Carr are two of the better known exponents of this magical process.

Emulsion lifts have apparent similarities with Polaroid image transfers. There is the same waviness and the underlying paper texture shows through the image. But these effects are much more pronounced, and the wrinkles are the distinguishing feature of the emulsion lift. Imagine the artist trying to maneuver soft, wet film as it dries and contracts onto the paperit's a mixture of skill and accident. Some wrinkles are fine ripples, while others are more like folds where the image color is multiplied. This is the key feature, but don't overlook the clear border around the image and the physical edge of the film which you can see on the surface of the paper.

Choose a picture with lots of lighter-toned areasthe distinctive, flowing wrinkles are less obvious in the shadows.

First, a few preparatory steps. Add the clear film border by choosing Image > Canvas Size. Check Relative and set the Canvas Extension Color to white. Open the paper texture file and drag its image layer onto your photograph. Name the layer "Art Paper" and resize it so it fills the canvasuse Edit > Free Transform or Ctrl/Cmd + T. Copy the photograph layer using Alt/Opt + Ctrl/Cmd + J, name the layer "Lift," and changing its blending mode to Multiply. In the Layers palette, move the Lift layer to the top of the layer stack. Press Q and activate the Quick Mask. Select the whole canvas with Ctrl/Cmd + A and hit the Delete key, so the Quick Mask fills the image with its red overlay. In the Brushes palette, load the Square Brushes set and pick a small, hard-edged brush such as "Hard Square 10 pixels." Set its Opacity and Fill options to 100%. Now the creative part begins! Be sure that the foreground color is white, and draw lots of lines on the mask. Imagine drawing fine wrinkles in soft film. In general, avoid the main subject. Also draw into the clear white border. Notice here how one of my lines roughly echoed the lamp. To simulate a few of the larger, overlapping or folded wrinkles, choose the standard Lasso tool and drag so you create a thin, elongated selection. I made this selection in a single drag operation, criss-crossing randomly. Switch to the Fill tool and click once inside the selection to fill it with white. Next, make another section and repeat this process a few times, so that the mask reveals a mixture of the fine and folded wrinkles. Save your Wrinkles selection as an alpha channel for reuse. It could even become a starting point for adding a similar effect to another image. When you're done, hit the Q key again to switch off the Quick Mask. Use Alt/ Opt + Ctrl/Cmd + J to copy the selection into a new Wrinkles layer. Set the blending mode to Multiply. Be sure that the Wrinkles layer is active, then choose Image > Adjustments > Levels and drag the Output Levels white triangle to the leftjust enough to make the wrinkles visible in the clear white border. The Wrinkles layer should still be active, so merge it into the Lift layer using Ctrl/Cmd + E. From this point onward, the steps are similar to the image transfer technique on page 1045, only a little more radical. Use the Lasso tool to select those areas that you want to distorthere I selected the street lamp and then used Select > Inverse to select the rest of the picture. Next, apply Filter > Distort > Wave, setting the amplitude and other settings to low values, and clicking the Randomize button until it looks like soft, wet film. Now select Filter > Liquify and be roughsoft, wet film is not easy to handle. I prefer the Turbulence tool with a large brush size. Drag so that the wrinkles are twisted, and squeeze them against one another. To create a more realistic physical film edge, I also like to gently drag in all the edges, even where I've not done much other distortion. Notice, too, how the unselected central area has a red overlay and is protected. When you're done, click OK. Finally, double-click the Lift layer's thumbnail and adjust the layer style. Add a thin, dark gray stroke that simulates the film's physical edge. You should also reduce the opacity to 8090%. Simulating emulsion lifts in Photoshop isn't difficult but is largely a manual process, reflecting the way an artist positions and distorts the soft Polaroid emulsion layer onto art paper.