The Polaroid Diaries: Part III - The Exposure Compensation Dial

If you've shot even just a few Polaroids, you've probably got a few under or over exposed images. Polaroid meters are not that smart, so it's just going to happen. What can be done about this? Every Polaroid camera should have an exposure compensation dial or slider. What's it for? Basically, it tells your camera to adjust exposure for the final image. It's up to you to tell it how much and in which direction (over or underexposure). I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure that on cameras with a built-in flash, it also adjusts the intensity of the flash.

So, how do you use this to get better images? First, you'll want to be able to read a scene like your camera will. Do you have a high-contrast or backlit scene? Better over-expose so your subject will (hopefully) have a decent exposure. Are you using a flash but your subject is more than a few feet away? Over-expose that image! Actually, I rarely ever under-expose an image unless I shoot one and find it's over-exposed and needs adjustment. The only time I start out with an under-exposed setting is when I'm shooting Impossible Project film that recommends less exposure.

One thing that you'll need to be careful of is assuming that you need to adjust the exposure of an image. For example, I was out shooting in full sun one day and stepped into the shade. I assumed I'd need to overexpose a bit due to the shade. I was wrong and ended up with an overexposed image. Why? The entire dynamic range of the scene was very flat, so the camera got a very accurate reading and would have probably given me a perfect exposure without any compensation.

I assumed I needed to overexpose this image because I was in the shade. I didn't.

As with anything Polaroid, there is no precise formula to follow, but with a little experimentation and trial and error you'll start to get more consistent and usable results. Have fun turning those knobs and sliding those sliders!

Here's a photo taken with flash that I overexposed by about 1 stop so it wouldn't be too dark.

I didn't adjust the exposure at all for this image. You can see that it exposed for the light sky in the background and not for Tess.

Since the brightest part of this photo was the subject, it came out perfectly exposed without any adjustments.