A few weeks ago, Polaroid put out a new experimental film — Reclaimed Blue. According to their website, Reclaimed Blue is a film that one of their lab scientists, Brian, accidentally created while trying to improve their existing color film formula. At the time of launch, Polaroid put out this hilarious video to introduce the film:
Polaroid’s video introduction to the Reclaimed Blue film, to which I own 0 rights — I am linking it for educational purposes only
Needless to say, I think Brian is a pretty cool guy, and I was immediately taken with this film and the story behind it. Upon its release, I ordered several boxes, and while I was on vacation last week, I shot a pack on my Polaroid 660AF.
My first impression is that it is quite different from their duochrome film, which is a comparison one might be tempted to draw upon first look. I find that it is closer to their black-and-white film in how it handles various tones (which makes sense because part of the film’s chemical makeup is the TBHQ chemical from their black-and-white film). It worked best for me when underexposed, as does their black-and-white film; that method gave me the most detail and the most contrast. This will likely vary from camera to camera and from photographer to photographer, depending on personal preference — I myself prefer the darker, contrast-ier look, and underexposing is how I achieved it. It developed in 10-15 minutes, which is also like their black-and-white film, so you will see the results of your experiment fairly quickly. As their website says, it’s not monochrome, it’s not duochrome, and they didn’t add blue dye to the chemistry — this film just happened, and it isn’t all that definable, and that’s what makes it great.
Here are a couple of images from my trip (to see the rest, follow me at kelseycollierphotography on Instagram, or click the Polaroid III gallery link at the top of this page):
Taken at Dauphin Island, AL
Taken at Dauphin Island, AL
I had a lot of fun playing with this film, and I am super excited to shoot my other boxes and see what I can create, especially as the weather warms up (we all know Polaroids react differently in different circumstances!).
I hope Polaroid continues to make more experimental film, and I hope they consider bringing back some of the older duochromes and maybe adding colors to the range. The first ones I shot were red, orange, yellow (which all came in a package together back in the Impossible Project days), and pink; I think it would be cool to see them bring those colors back. Last fall, they made a limited green duochrome, and I’d be interested to see what other colors we could get in the future (purple, anyone!?).
Another hope for the future is that they bring back some of the cool frame editions for the 600 cameras. I know this is a stretch because they’re trying to upsell their i-Types and have largely transitioned away from creating new frames for the 600s, which I totally get. But, a photographer can dream, can’t they?
As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post, and I will see you all next time! I have a new-old camera on the way that I can’t wait to share with you all and several rolls of film that are about to be dropped off at a new film lab in town, so stay tuned for posts about those over the next couple of weeks!
It feels great to be back!
—Kelsey