Scanning Tips

Scanning:
Just about any scanner that doesn’t have a lot of color shift and doesn’t crash the crap out of your computer when you try to use it should be fine.

Any dpi that gives you a large image onscreen should be fine.  In our experience, scanning at 300 dpi works best if you want to be able to view an enlarged version. Remember, the lower the dpi (i.e. 72 dpi) the less time it takes for the scanner to finish the job.

TIME SAVER TIP: Try scanning 6-8 Polaroids at a time and put a piece of printer paper behind the pictures.

Editing:
Open up Photoshop (or any other image editing tool) and crop your polaroids. Try to get as close as you can to the edge of the Polaroid so that when you upload it on this site it will look like it’s floating on a black background. Go for a clean look here. It might take some extra time but making it look nice will be totally worth it.

Resize to your desired width. Some people around here say 640 px is a nice width for Polaroids. Save image for web as .jpg.

TIP: If you are unhappy with how your Polaroid turned out, keep on editing. Draw on it, cut it up, scan it again and mess with it in Photoshop; sometimes that is all it takes to turn a unsuccessful shot into something amazing. Just remember, it’s almost over for Polaroid film–so make every shot count!