Photography - Instant Photographs

Instant print film, which was introduced by Polaroid in 1948, delivers finished photographs within minutes. The film consists a packet that includes film and processing chemicals, and often photographic paper. After exposure, the packet is pulled from the camera. In the process it gets squeezed between rollers which break open the developing and fixing chemicals, spreading them evenly across the photographic surface. Although popular with amateurs for instant snapshots, instant photographs are often used by professional photographers as well because they can be used to test how lighting and compositions look to a camera before they shoot for later development.