Polaroid Image Transfer process 2 - Making the Transfer

Once the chromes are processed and reviewed, I make decisions on which ones are good candidates for transfers and which may be better suited for other final media. The following sections deal with the general procedure for doing transfers and then the specific techniques I am using now which have provided good results.
When I began doing image transfers I used the Vivitar slide printer unit which is widely available. It accepts the pack of Polaroid 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ inch materials and uses a strobe unit to make the exposure. The Vivitar printer I had did not have very sophisticated filtering or exposure control capabilites so some of the transfers would come out too light or dark, but it WAS very simple to operate. Also, no darkroom is required, which is a major advantage for those without a dedicated darkroom studio. After inserting the slide into the upper unit and positioning the Polaroid material by pulling a tab on the pack, you press the button and make the exposure. Processing rollers are built into the Vivitar unit, so pulling out the tab activates the chemistry in the pods, to spread across the surface of the film.

Timing is crucial for this process. Too little time before separating the film and receiver and the emulsion is still sensitive to light. Too much time and the transfer becomes weaker and the color is less saturated. Polaroid recommends about 10-15 seconds at a temperature of around 70 degrees. Polaroid materials are rather sensitive to temperature, with lower temperatures retarding the development process.
After separating the two sides of the Polaroid sandwich, the negative with the dye layers is placed in contact with a warm, premoistened sheet of fairly smooth watercolor paper. Pressure is applied for a variable amount of time (anywhere from 60 seconds to 6 minutes has been used) and then the negative is very slowly peeled away to reveal the transferred image.

These days I use a 4x5 Polaroid holder (until I can acquire the 8x10 format) and use an enlarger to transfer the image. The enlarger gives me much more control over the process, but it does require a darkroom. Another definite advantage of the enlarger transfer is the ability to crop the 35 mm slide image to the best fit within the 4x5 proportions. It is even possible to do more advanced image control with dodge and burn during the exposure to help even out high contrast images. Compose the image on the Polaroid film holder and then insert the film (I use mostly Type 59). Polaroid materials are of course panchromatic so all lights must be turned off, including safelights, as with any color process. Pull back the holder to bare the film and then make the exposure. My exposures are standardized to 5 seconds with an easel light meter reading an averaged light level for the slide using a diffuser. I use aperture and also rheostat control to compensate for image brightness differences.

Polaroid Image Transfer process 3 - Post Exposure Processing