Digital Edits on Scanned Film Photos: Artistic or Cheating?

I like to scan all my instant and other film photos, and digitally edit a select few.
Depending on your POV , that makes me an artist, a cheater, or a little of both.

Recently, I discussed the idea via Instagram with an artist in France who loves instant and other film photography as much as I do.

I asked him, “Is it cheating?”
He replied, “No it’s NOT.”

So, what’s a Hipstaroid then?

Hipstamatic + Polaroid = Hipstaroid

No need to explain Polaroid — we just use the “roid” bit of their name as a recognizable reference to any brand of instant camera or film — and photos made using them.

Hipstamatic, or “Hipsta” for short, is an award-winning camera and image-editing app for the iPhone, which was launched in 2010, one year before Instagram.

So, a “Hipstaroid” is any instant (or film) photograph, scanned into a digital format, and edited in the Hipstamatic app. Got it?

The Hipstaroid Artistic Process:

• Make a photograph on instant or other film.
• Scan the instant photo, film negative or positive.
• Edit the scanned photo in the Hipstamatic app (iPhone only).
• Make edits over the existing edits repeatedly for softer, less realistic, more painterly and “posterized” results.
• Edits-on-edits are referred to as “double- or triple-baked” etc.
• Stop editing when you are satisfied, having created something completely different from your original instant or film photo!

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My personal Instagram with lots of Hipstamatic, Instant Photos, and of course, Hipstaroids!

// russ murray aka “remages“

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*Please comment below with images or links, if you try making Hipstaroids of your own! We’d love to see the results!*

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TEXOLUX | PHOTO

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