Photographs were usually taken on film, which had to be developed with photosensitive materials in the dark and were finally enlarged on paper.
The Polaroid cameras combine all this by placing both the film and the photosensitive materials in the same paper.
In a conventional camera, the film reacts to the light that is admitted through the aperture and creates a so-called negative, an image in which light from the subject appears in the form of the colors that are missing from it. On color film, red becomes cyan, green becomes magenta, and blue becomes yellow.
In the darkroom, the negative is then exposed over paper with a halogen silver coating, which reacts to the exposure and creates the correct image. The materials in the paper coating are extremely sensitive to light, so this has to happen in total darkness.
A Polaroid camera is a high-speed dark camera where light only enters for a moment after the shutter is clicked.
The light forms a negative on laminated film, but the two rollers that push the image out add chemicals, which fill in the areas of the negative that have not already reacted. This way, the picture is ready in a few seconds.
Six color layers paint the whole picture
Polaroid film is made of three photosensitive layers, each activated by red, green and blue light. The light draws a negative image like a membrane made of silver crystals. Under each of these layers are layers with the printing colors yellow, magenta, and cyan, which release developer fluid as soon as the image is rolled out of the machine.
Since the silver has come off in the top layer, the dyes cannot penetrate. Instead, colors from the other two layers combine to form the color of the photosensitive layer.
A Polaroid camera is a tiny piece of darkness
Photos taken on a Polaroid camera are developed instantly with a compact device that combines all the stages of traditional photography in the camera itself.
A shutter lets in the light
Light is released through the lens when the shutter is clicked. The light is reflected onto the film.
The negative is formed
The light activates the blue, green and red light-sensitive layer in the film and releases substances that create a negative.
Rollers release developer fluid
Once the negative is formed, the film rolls out. Two rollers grind cartridges with developing lubrication on the bottom of the film frame. The substance spreads and activates substances in three other color layers, which create the colors of the image.
Crushed capsules with developer
Inducing agent
A mirror
