Well gang, we fought the good fight, but it’s official: Polaroid isn’t making any more film after December 31st, 2008.

Sad though we are, we’ve found a few bits of good news scattered amid the wreckage.

1) The New Instant Camera
Fuji’s instant camera, the Instax, is now available in the United States. The photos are rectangular instead of the old familiar square format, but it’s the next-best-thing to our beloved Polaroid cameras.

Have a look at the Flickr Instax pool to see what the photos look like.

2) There’s Still Some Film Left
Unsaleable, our favorite source for Polaroid goodness, has morphed into Polapremium. You can still buy film there, sorted by camera type or film type, along with books, accessories and stuff like that. (The name’s no lie: it’s quite pricey now that supplies are limited.)

Polaroid no longer sells film on its website, but it lists sources including Calumet, Amazon, and B&H.

3) Fuji Makes Substitutes
Fuji makes versions of Type 100 and 4×5 Polaroid film. That means if you use a medium-format Polaroid back, a Polaroid pinhole or Holga camera, or a 4×5 view camera, you can still get film.

4) New Zink Technology
Instead of making film, Polaroid’s branching out with the portable digital PoGo printer. We were a little disappointed when we tried it, because it’s basically just a tiny printer. It doesn’t feel the same as having instant photos magically pop out of your camera. Sigh.

We have higher hopes for the TOMY xiao, which combines the camera and printer in one, but so far that’s only available in Asia.

5) You Can Take Action
If you refuse to go down without a fight, get an action pack from Save Polaroid. It includes pre-printed postcards to send to the powers-that-be at Polaroid. It’s worth a shot, right?

6) There’s Still Time to Play
While you can still scrounge up some film, you can still mess around with it. Try double exposures or manipulating the emulsion, especially if the film’s already expired. What have you got to lose?

7) There’s Always Poladroid
If all else fails and there is no more film, at least there’s Poladroid. It’s a free application that’s as close to real thing as it gets. You can drag & drop your photos into Poladroid to make them look like Polaroids. You can even shake the picture while it develops. Aaaahhh, that’s nice.

Bye Polaroid! We still love you! Please sell the 600 and Type 80 rights to another manufacturer so we can have them back! Pretty pretty please?

Save Polaroid
News, information, and hope for the lovelorn Polaroid fan.

p.s. We’ve teamed up with our superpals at Vimeo for a contest for the best Stop-Motion Video! Three winners get gift certificates to the Photojojo Store, and 1st place gets their video printed in our upcoming book! Go read all the details and enter. (Already on Vimeo? Just tag your video “PhotojojoBook” to enter.)

p.p.s. Check out some fun Photojojo photo projects in December’s issue of Macworld magazine!

Deke McClelland is a full-blown, hardcore geek. The kind of geek we love.

How can you not love a guy who creates a frantic, hand-waving, occasionally obscenity-strewn, rap music video… about Photoshop keyboard shortcuts?

And it’s not just for pros. Anyone who’s ever used a marquee will enjoy this one.

If you haven’t seen his masterpiece, we challenge you to spend the next few minutes watching his video and not learn something new. Really, go. Right now.

Back? Want more? Grab a Photoshop Keyboard Skin, download Deke’s handy iPod/iPhone version and sip it down in a to-go cup! We’re one step closer to Photoshop deification with each play.

Deke’s 101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes

p.s. Yanks may want to give our 11 Tips for Sparkling Fireworks Photos a read in advance of tomorrow’s boom boom show. Cameras and fireworks do mix.

House couldn’t solve it.
CSI would be stumped.
Monk… maybe.

Can you tell this photo is a fake?

Scientific American’s research team have turned fake-photo-spotting into a forensic science.

From eye highlights to shadow direction, they break down the major mistakes fakers make. Watch out photo forgers! We’re on to you!

And now for the real mystery: Why Photoshop a flock of ducks into a riot scene?

How to Spot a Fake Photo
via Boing Boing

p.s. Revel in the absurdity of bad photo alteration at Photoshop Disasters.

The goggling stares. The stiff, tortured stances. The false grins. The symptoms are all there.

You’ve got a bad case of Group Photo.

Fear not! Dr. Jojo, photoologist, at your service. And I’ve got a patent-pending, never-fail, miracle cure that’ll have you taking happy, fun group portraits whenever you want!

Here’s how:

Step 1: Set the timer on your camera. Make it short, like ten seconds.

Step 2: Arrange everybody in your shot, making the sure the camera’s zoomed out enough so you won’t cut off anybody’s head.

Step 3: Here’s the tricky part: have everybody that’s going to be in the photo come around behind the camera.

(Except Great Aunt Lily who don’t move so good. She can stay.)

Step 4: Ready? Press the button! Now everybody has to run to get into the photo before the timer goes off. Yikes! Hurry!

Now wasn’t that fun? And we can almost guarantee you’ve got a picture of smiling people actually enjoying themselves. Maybe even injuring themselves!

Now if you can just convince them all to do it one more time…

SundryBuzz’s Cure for the Group Photo Blues
Thanks for the tip, Nichole!

Photo credit: Steph Goralnick.

You know us, we’re not really the preachy type.

But hey, it’s Earth Day tomorrow, right? So we’ve gathered a few useful pointers on how to keep your photographic habits from smacking the environment around too much. We’re firmly anti-smacking.

If you want some help cleaning up your act, we got ya covered. If not, that’s cool too.

We like you either way.

Ten Green Photography Tips

p.s. It’s Photojojo Photo Month at Instructables. Add your photo-themed Instructable and win awesome stuff from the Photojojo store! Enter here!

eBay: Last bastion of the truly awful product shot.

The fuzzy focus, the baleful tinge of the fluorescent lights, the blinding glare of the flash. It’s almost depressing.

(Except for that one listing where you could see the naked photographer in the reflection of the mirror he was trying to sell. That was hilarious.)

If you sell stuff online, you know that you need attractive pictures to sell your wares. If you’ve ever done a tutorial for sites like Instructables, you’ve run into the same issues.

Don’t sweat it. It’s not really too difficult, you just have to put a little thought into it.

Remember, if you can make somebody want to buy Aunt Tilly’s ceramic owl collection, you can conquer the world.

How to Take Better Photos for eBay, Etsy & Instructables

p.s. On Twitter? Follow photojojo for more cool photo stuff. Including members-only Photojojo store discounts.

p.p.s. We’ve got new episodes of “You Suck at Photoshop” and they’re gooood. But don’t forget some folks might be offended. We’re just saying is all.

Food has an agenda. It wants you to eat it, and it wants you to eat it now.

If you dilly-dally around Food, trying to photograph it instead of eating it, its defense mechanism kicks in. It immediately looks terrible in pictures, forcing you to give up, put down the camera, and eat the Food. Natural selection at work.

The time has come to subvert Food’s Evil Agenda. Read our tips, take up your cameras, and join the glorious food photography revolution!

Ten Tasty Tips for Photographing Your Food

Say you’re out for a photographic stroll, taking pictures of that cool old power plant on the edge of town. Suddenly seventy security guards swarm you and demand you hand over your camera.

“What is this,” you ask yourself, “a Michael Moore movie?”

You’re sure you haven’t done anything wrong, but you don’t know whose side the law is on. Fret no more- we’ve got a list of things you can and can’t do, and it’s a lot more permissive than you might think.

Now grab your camera back from that Rent-A-Cop and let’s hit the books.

The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography*

*Charlton Heston not included

p.s. Thanks to everybody who entered our “Monday Stinks!” contest! Congratulations to Notorious D.A.V., Warren Photography, evaded, mommaozzy 84, biancaprime, berdandy, spade, AnasBananas, trenity00, andreskrey, determinedforce01, ladibug, killbyte, Nellofcourse and Mia!

You’ve decked the halls with miles of tiny bulbs. Your front lawn is a gleaming monument to electric lighting. Even the neighbors have taken to wearing sunglasses 24/7.

It’s the Christmas wonderland of your dreams… now if only you could get a good picture of it.

Photographing holiday lights is no easy task.

Luckily, we’ve had the Photojojo elves round up the best tips and guides to taking successful Holiday photos. Call it our gift to you… now go make Clark W. Griswold proud.

Fall has up and arrived – kamikaze leaves crash down on unsuspecting passersby, leaf peeping is a thing again, and reports of rumbles coming from the Great Pumpkin have spread throughout the nearby towns and villages.

Any time of year is a great time to snap a photograph, but Fall is, of course, at least twenty times more so. (IOHO, of course.)

And since last year we wrote about how to get those perfect Halloween shots, this year we’re tackling Fall. We’ve jam-packed this edition with tips for photographing our leafy friends and fun ideas for fresh-new Fall shots.

Grab your camera and enjoy this Autumnal Equinox to its fullest!