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Description
Finally, here it is: the unexpected 4th update of the good old Polaroid Generator. Tadaa.

If you love this action, be kind and spare a dime with PAYPAL

What’s in the Pack:
There are of course the primary, or main actions with the 4 types of instant film. Impossible Project’s PX600 black and white, and PX680 color film, as well as the legendary original Polaroid films Type 600, Time Zero and Time Zero Artistic.

Main Actions
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade FRESH
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade BROWN
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade FADED
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade RUST
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade DRY
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade GRAINY

Impossible PX680 Color Shade FRESH
Impossible PX680 Color Shade BLUE
impossible PX680 color shade EMBER
impossible PX680 color shade FADED

Polaroid Type 600
Polaroid Type 600 TUNGSTEN
Polaroid Type 600 EXPIRED
Polaroid Type 600 UNDEEREXPOSED

Polaroid Time Zero
Polaroid Time Zero EXPIRED
Polaroid Time Zero Artistic
Polaroid Time Zero Artistic EXPIRED

The following are additional actions that are called inside the main actions. You can try to run them independently, but the outcome is uncertain. The first two actions for instance are conditional actions right at the beginning of each main action that resize the image wether it’s in portrait or landscape format.

Conditional Actions
DO NOT EXECUTE (LS)
DO NOT EXECUTE (PT)
Frame IMPOSSIBLE
Frame POLAROID

Extra Emulsion Texture 1
Extra Emulsion Texture 2
Extra Emulsion Texture 3
Extra Emulsion Texture 4
Extra Emulsion Texture 5
Extra Emulsion Streaks 1
Extra Emulsion Streaks 2
Flames
Blooming
Image Edge
Emulsion Void (S)
Emulsion Void (M)
Emulsion Void (L)

TL;DR

Actually, I had terminated this project a long time ago (Jesus, the last update was almost 9 years ago), but if the current situation with Covid-19 has a good side, it's that many people are again increasingly concerned with things that have been a little too short in the last years. And so I sat down, opened the window for actions in Photoshop and got to work. Actually I only wanted to make a few small changes, but in the end it turned out to be 40 working hours.

What's new:

Conditional Actions
The processing of the images has been redesigned from scratch. Since Photoshop CS 6.1 there are so-called "conditional actions". This means that in an action another action can be triggered if a certain attribute is fulfilled. An image in portrait mode triggers Action A, an image in landscape mode, Action B. So it is finally possible to scale an image in portrait and landscape mode to a uniform size, which is essential for some work steps like masks and filters.

Smart Objects (and filters)
Not that it didn't already exist in 2011, but apparently I wasn't aware of the power of smart objects and filters back then. Even if not used 100% consistently, many of the used filters can now be adjusted afterwards. But the biggest advantage is that despite the fixed image size of 3150 x 3800 px, the original image is still available in its original size, thanks to Smart Object. A 36 MP photo of a Sony alpha 7r, can now theoretically be enlarged again without loss, after the action has run through.

More realistic results
Once again I adjusted all "filters" and paid special attention to the specific imperfections of the respective film material. The results now look much more realistic, in my opinion. The big difficulty here is to weigh up which effect comes from the film material and which comes from the conditions under which the image was created. So the web is full of beautiful Polas, but what is missing is the digital reference image.

Generated textures
From the beginning (my goodness, that was 2006) I was toying with the idea of simply using textures for elements like the frame or the streaks, but then I had much more fun thinking of solutions to get to the goal using only filters and effects from Photoshop. So also in the 4th version all textures are generated. My apologies to those with slow computers.

More order
The actions as well as the layers are now structured more clearly. I hope this motivates some of you to modify the actions to your own taste. A tip at this point: The easiest way is to run the action once, then go to the end of the action, press the record button and make the changes. This may not be the most efficient method in terms of CPU time, but, as I said, it is the easiest.

Description
Finally, here it is: the unexpected 4th update of the good old Polaroid Generator. Tadaa.

If you love this action, be kind and spare a dime with PAYPAL

What’s in the Pack:
There are of course the primary, or main actions with the 4 types of instant film. Impossible Project’s PX600 black and white, and PX680 color film, as well as the legendary original Polaroid films Type 600, Time Zero and Time Zero Artistic.

Main Actions
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade FRESH
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade BROWN
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade FADED
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade RUST
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade DRY
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade GRAINY

Impossible PX680 Color Shade FRESH
Impossible PX680 Color Shade BLUE
impossible PX680 color shade EMBER
impossible PX680 color shade FADED

Polaroid Type 600
Polaroid Type 600 TUNGSTEN
Polaroid Type 600 EXPIRED
Polaroid Type 600 UNDEEREXPOSED

Polaroid Time Zero
Polaroid Time Zero EXPIRED
Polaroid Time Zero Artistic
Polaroid Time Zero Artistic EXPIRED

The following are additional actions that are called inside the main actions. You can try to run them independently, but the outcome is uncertain. The first two actions for instance are conditional actions right at the beginning of each main action that resize the image wether it’s in portrait or landscape format.

Conditional Actions
DO NOT EXECUTE (LS)
DO NOT EXECUTE (PT)
Frame IMPOSSIBLE
Frame POLAROID

Extra Emulsion Texture 1
Extra Emulsion Texture 2
Extra Emulsion Texture 3
Extra Emulsion Texture 4
Extra Emulsion Texture 5
Extra Emulsion Streaks 1
Extra Emulsion Streaks 2
Flames
Blooming
Image Edge
Emulsion Void (S)
Emulsion Void (M)
Emulsion Void (L)

TL;DR

Actually, I had terminated this project a long time ago (Jesus, the last update was almost 9 years ago), but if the current situation with Covid-19 has a good side, it's that many people are again increasingly concerned with things that have been a little too short in the last years. And so I sat down, opened the window for actions in Photoshop and got to work. Actually I only wanted to make a few small changes, but in the end it turned out to be 40 working hours.

What's new:

Conditional Actions
The processing of the images has been redesigned from scratch. Since Photoshop CS 6.1 there are so-called "conditional actions". This means that in an action another action can be triggered if a certain attribute is fulfilled. An image in portrait mode triggers Action A, an image in landscape mode, Action B. So it is finally possible to scale an image in portrait and landscape mode to a uniform size, which is essential for some work steps like masks and filters.

Smart Objects (and filters)
Not that it didn't already exist in 2011, but apparently I wasn't aware of the power of smart objects and filters back then. Even if not used 100% consistently, many of the used filters can now be adjusted afterwards. But the biggest advantage is that despite the fixed image size of 3150 x 3800 px, the original image is still available in its original size, thanks to Smart Object. A 36 MP photo of a Sony alpha 7r, can now theoretically be enlarged again without loss, after the action has run through.

More realistic results
Once again I adjusted all "filters" and paid special attention to the specific imperfections of the respective film material. The results now look much more realistic, in my opinion. The big difficulty here is to weigh up which effect comes from the film material and which comes from the conditions under which the image was created. So the web is full of beautiful Polas, but what is missing is the digital reference image.

Generated textures
From the beginning (my goodness, that was 2006) I was toying with the idea of simply using textures for elements like the frame or the streaks, but then I had much more fun thinking of solutions to get to the goal using only filters and effects from Photoshop. So also in the 4th version all textures are generated. My apologies to those with slow computers.

More order
The actions as well as the layers are now structured more clearly. I hope this motivates some of you to modify the actions to your own taste. A tip at this point: The easiest way is to run the action once, then go to the end of the action, press the record button and make the changes. This may not be the most efficient method in terms of CPU time, but, as I said, it is the easiest.