Film

vandecarr

Hello,

I'm going back to film.....sort of.

I have, for a while now, been blown away by Holgas and finally decided to get one with a 35mm adapter.

I have tryed to duplicate the effects in photoshop with pretty good results and some examples are below.

Anyway, I don't know what the response to these artsy, kind of images are going to be for the general public who hire me to do portrait work.

I'm in a good position to find out since I recently moved and have to start the business up from scratch again. I guess what I'm getting at is this, is there anyone with mainstream success using holgas?

I'm looking forward to your input.








Thanks,
Mike

P.S. I'm also going to be messing around with my SLR and try to get it set up like a Holga as well. With the exception of light leaks it may be possible. If anyone has done anything along these lines and don't mind sharing, please let me know.

jeffreaux2

You might try asking this same series of questions in the finishing school forum.

I personally like the look of the old cheaply made russian medium format cameras. In fact I did some pretty heavy research last week on the availability of some of the cameras. It seems there are a number of them that are being copied and re manufactured these days. I am hoping to pick one up (maybe a diana) next year to experiment and play around with. My personal opinion is that it will not be a good tool for my portrait business, but will be a blast to knock around with. I would think that the images will not be sharp enough for what most of us have come to expect even from today's PAS digital cameras. My best guess at achieving the look would be to use the vignettes available in LR and a lensbaby lens. There are several tutorials out there for photoshop as well, but most do not address the fact that the cameras used plastic lenses, with horrible edge sharpness. This is where ....in my opinion....the lensbaby would bring it full circle. Good luck on your quest.

jeffreaux2

Here are a few of mine

jeffreaux2

Ahhh it took awhile to dig up this version, but it is a cross process attemt at the one above that is in BW

vandecarr

Jeff,
yours look good. Mine were just a few quick snapshots to try out some post processing to see how close I could get it.

I like how you hold the sharpness in yours while I tryed to keep it more rough looking.

Both ways work but it still seems like something is missing.

I found out they make a plastic lens from the holga for the Rebel xt so I will probably pick that up and give it a try.

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.


Mike

gregneil

I have a friend who does weddings, and always brings his holga out. A number of clients have booked him specifically because of his holga shots.

http://jonathancanlasphotography.com/

He purchases all of his holga stuff through here:

http://www.holgamods.com

I've been wanting to get one for a while. I started with digital, and now I'm starting to want to play around with film.

urbanaries

gregneil wrote:

I have a friend who does weddings, and always brings his holga out. A number of clients have booked him specifically because of his holga shots.

http://jonathancanlasphotography.com/

What a fantastic talent your friend is. Thanks for sharing the link to his work! Very inspiring.

ChatKat

Instructor
I took a workship from a photographer named Carlan Tapp several years ago called Finding your photographic voice (style) who used a Holga for a number of his fine art works He was an assistant to Ansel Adams as well. He teaches Photography at the college level too. His website is www.carlantapp.com and he has work on the site.

urbanaries wrote:

What a fantastic talent your friend is. Thanks for sharing the link to his work! Very inspiring.

System

enjoyed all these photos-

please, keep 'em coming-

saurora

gregneil wrote:

I have a friend who does weddings, and always brings his holga out. A number of clients have booked him specifically because of his holga shots.

http://jonathancanlasphotography.com/

I really enjoyed your friend's site. He has a very unique perspective that goes along well with (or without!) using the Holga. I have tagged his site for inspiration!!! Thanks for sharing.

jeffreaux2

gregneil wrote:

I have a friend who does weddings, and always brings his holga out. A number of clients have booked him specifically because of his holga shots.

http://jonathancanlasphotography.com/

He purchases all of his holga stuff through here:

http://www.holgamods.com

I've been wanting to get one for a while. I started with digital, and now I'm starting to want to play around with film.

What your friend REALLY has .....well it has nothing to do with the Holga. I would bet that with his eye for color and composition he could use a disposable 35mm and put many in this forum to shame. Thanks for the link and inspiration. Awesome photos.

vandecarr

Helo again,

I am really happy where this thread is going. Thanks to all of you. Below are a few images that are more then just the quick snap shots I started this thing with.

Here they are:







Mike

jeffreaux2

OK I had an Einstein moment today.

Trying to dupe this look with a 10 megapixel XTi with decent high ISO performance doesn't really pull the look off so well.
The problems:
1. If you try to blur the edges of the frame it also blurs the little bit of noise you might get so the "grain" is inconsistant. Just doesn't work.
2. It also handles exposures pretty well, and USUALLY doesn't blow the highlights.

But.......

I have a Fuji finepix S5100 that is about 4 years old. It has horrible high ISO performance. Very noisy. And high ISO on it is like 400....even some noise at 200. So.

I am going to extend it's lens hood to cause it to vignette. smear vasoline around the edges of an old uv filter, and shoot at ISO 400 and see how it does. I know it is very prone to blowing highlights, but that may also work in my favor. The color nuiances can be gleened in PS or LR.

I will post some samples when I get it done and will put photos of the mods on my blog. So.....get your crappy old P&S cameras ready they might be useful if we can get them to take bad enough images!!!

Oh and 4mp is fine for 8x10's....or better yet 8x8 prints.

-stay tuned!!!-

swintonphoto

Holgas are great. However, there is an easier way to create the same look digitally without doing all the post-processing. Lensbabies lenes can create a very similar look to Holgas, Dianas, Seagulls, and other classic plastic cameras. They make lenses that fit most mounts, and are quite affordable.
Check out their site:
www.lensbabies.com

kp-pix

I love this thread. The holga look is one of my faves and how talented are these people with the sites far out!!

I really want a lensbaby one day - maybe next year - thanks for everything in this thread - awesome look-see!