Bringing the Polaroid Magic to Your Photos – a step-by-step guide

Hey there, photo enthusiasts! Ever wondered how to give your digital photos that nostalgic Polaroid charm? You're in luck! Today, we'll dive into transforming your images in Lightroom and Photoshop to look just like those iconic instant prints.

Invented in 1947 by Edwin Land, Polaroid cameras quickly became a cultural sensation, offering the magic of instant photography long before the digital age. Polaroids remain beloved for their vintage appeal, unique color tones, and the tangible, instant gratification they provide. Whether it's the classic white border or the dreamy, slightly faded look, there's something irresistibly charming about Polaroids that keeps them popular even today.

Ready to sprinkle some retro magic on your photos? Let’s jump into Lightroom and start creating those timeless Polaroid vibes!

Lightroom adjustments

Choose the photo you would like to get the Polaroid look and import it into Lightroom. The best results you’ll get if you work on a RAW photo. Once imported make sure you are in the Develop module. For a basic introduction on how to process photos in Lightroom read my beginner’s guide.

As a first step adjust the aspect ratio to make sure it looks good when you use in Photoshop. The aspect ratio should be 1:1. With cropping you can decide which part of the photo will get the desired look. Also, make sure you get the photo straightened with the Transform panel. The easiest is to just let Lightroom make the correction by clicking “Auto”.

The next few steps are basic adjustments on the General panel. To help you a bit with the adjustments below recommendations for the sliders. But don’t take them as fixed rules, you should play around a bit to get your own look and feel:

• Exposure: Increase slightly to brighten the image (+0.2 to +0.5). This really depends on the exposure of the photo. You might need to decrease it a bit if the photo is already overexposed or increase more if it’s underexposed.

• Contrast: Decrease to between -10 and -20 to soften the overall look.

• Highlights: Decrease to between -20 and -30 to recover details in the bright areas.

• Shadows: Increase to between +20 and +30 to bring out details in the dark areas.

• Whites: Slightly decrease to between -10 and -20 to maintain a soft look.

• Blacks: Slightly increase to between +10 and +20 to soften shadows.

• Texture: Increase to between +30 and +40.

• Clarity: Decrease to between -20 and -30

• Dehaze: Decrease to between -20 and -30.

• Vibrance: Increase to between +25 and +35 to bring out colours other than the skin tone.

• Saturation: Decrease to between -15 and -25.

With the basics done, now work on the Tone Curve to add contrast and to mimic the vintage look. Lift the darks and the shadows a bit on the left hand side of the curve. Lower the lights and the highlights on the right hand side of the curve.

With all those adjustments you should already see some changes that gets you closer to the desired look.

Now come the most important changes as they will adjust the colours of the photo and will really make it look like the old Polaroids. For this go to the Colour Mixer panel (set Adjust to HSL) and work your way through the Hue, Saturation and Luminance settings.

Start with adjusting the Hue:

• Red: +10 to +15

• Orange: -2 to -5

• Yellow: -10 to -15

• Green: -5 to -10

• Aqua: -15 to -20

• Blue: -25 to -30

• Purple: 0

• Magenta: 0

Next, reduce the saturation of all colours except yellow and magenta:

• Red: -15

• Orange: -15

• Yellow: 0

• Green: -20

• Aqua: -10

• Blue: -30

• Purple: -45

• Magenta: 0

Last but not least decrease the luminance for all colours except mangenta:

• Red: -20

• Orange: -10

• Yellow: -35

• Green: +40

• Aqua: -5

• Blue: -15

• Purple: +20

• Magenta: 0

Split Toning will make the colour adjustments complete. For the Highlights choose a warmer tone between yellow and orange. For the Shadows choose a cooler one between green and blue. Here is also the area you can experiment a bit and make it your own by choosing different tones.

Before adding the final touch through the effects panel increase sharpening slightly to enhance details. Also, add a subtle distortion effect if desired. On the Lens Corrections panel choose Manual and Distortion. The manual distortion should be between -20 and -30.

And now to the Effect panel. The main items here to modify is the Grain and the Vignette. For the Grain adjust the following sliders:

• Grain: Increase to between +20 and +30 to simulate film texture.

• Size: Adjust to preference. I put it somewhere between +30 and +50.

• Roughness: Adjust to preference. I get it somewhere between +50 and +70.

And now adjust the sliders for the Vignette:

• Vignette Amount: Slightly decrease to between -10 and -20 to darken the edges.

• Midpoint: Adjust towards the centre to enhance the vignette. Put the slider between +20 and +30.

• Roundness: put it between -20 and -30.

• Feather: Increase for a softer edge to between +70 and +80.

With all these adjustments you now should have the desired Polaroid look and the photo is ready to be exported. Choose your standard export settings, the format should be ideally JPEG which should it make it easier to later work with it in Photoshop.

Add the Polaroid frame in Photoshop

Creating your own basic Polaroid frame in Photoshop is easy. I like my Polaroids simple and clean, but if you like to add the wrinkled look for the frame just find the pattern and add it as an additional layer. Again, I don’t like this look so here the basic layers and related settings.

Start with the Canvas itself which will also be the background. The canvas should have a width of 3250 pixels and a height of 4000 pixels. If you like lower resolution you can adjust the pixels, just make sure the ratio remain the same.

Next add a colour layer and select Polaroid white. The Hexa-code for this white is F5F5F5 or if you prefer RGB then it’s (245,245,245).

The third layer is actually for the photo itself. Use the Frame tool to create a rectangle section, the size should be 2900 pixels by 2900 pixels (hence the ratio of the photo being 1:1). Then move the frame to the following position: the X-axis should be 175 pixels and the Y-axis should be 175 pixels.

With those three layers you already have everything you need to create the Polaroid. Now import your photo into the Frame-layer and add some text (use the Text tool for this).

The last step is then to export the photo from Photoshop via the Export-function in the File menu.

By following these steps, you can transform your digital photos into beautiful Polaroid-style images, adding a nostalgic touch to your travel photography collection. Experiment with these settings to find the perfect balance that suits your style and the unique characteristics of each photo.

If you want to see some examples from my trips check my Polaroid gallery.

Happy editing and enjoy creating your Polaroid-style images!