Saturday, June 8, 2013

How to make Holga panoramas

How to make Holga panoramas

The plastic Holga camera has gained a following among photographers because it is easy to use, lightweight and inexpensive. It's easy to learn how to make square, single-frame images with the Holga. But if you learn a few tricks, you can learn to make mysterious, dream-like panoramic images with this simple camera.

Instructions

Loading and Shooting

    1

    Set the number of exposures on the back of the Holga camera to 16 rather than 12. You do this by sliding the black tab with its arrow upward so that the arrow points at the number 16. While doing this, be careful not to puncture the red plastic underneath the tab.

    2

    Open the back of the camera by sliding down the metal pieces on the sides of the camera. Put the 120 film on the left side of the camera and thread the end of the film roll into the spool on the right side. Turn the knob on top of the camera a few times to make sure the film is secured to the right-hand spool.

    3

    Put the back on the camera again and slide the metal pieces up until you hear a click. Pull a piece off the roll of gaffer tape that will fit the crack along the top of the back of the camera. This prevents light from leaking into the camera and fogging your film. Put another, longer piece of Gaffer tape from the upper-left corner of the back, around the bottom, and back up the left side, covering any cracks where the back meets the body of the camera.

    4

    Turn the knob on the top of the camera until you see a number one appear in the red window on the back of the camera.

    5

    Go outside and find something to photograph that is not in deep shade. Remove the lens cap. Estimate the distance from the camera to the object, and choose an appropriate focal length on the lens of the Holga. The closest focal length is about 3 feet, and the furthest is infinity. Depress the shutter button to take your first exposure.

Making the Panorama

    6

    Find another scene or object that you want to appear in your panorama. On the printed image, this second scene will be to the right of the first image. Advance the film to exposure number two, as seen through the red window. Photograph this image also.

    7

    Continue in this manner. Each image will be to the right of the previous one, but slightly overlapping. This overlapping will create the mysterious montage effects of the Holga panorama. You will have 16 images, but they will run together, creating a kind of panoramic landscape.

    8

    Experiment with pre-visualizing your image, rather than randomly juxtaposing shots. Find a landscape and photograph the left portion of the view first, followed by its middle, and finally by the right side. It's OK if the three shots overlap some or don't quite meet; the objective is not to make a photo-realistic image, but rather an image of your memory of a place.

Printing the Panorama

    9

    Develop the film, or take it to be developed at a photo-processing business. If it is negative film, make or ask for a contact sheet.

    10

    Inspect your contact sheet or positive transparency film. You will see sections of the film that have delightfully serendipitous overlappings of objects and people from one frame into the other. You can trim apart the film in order to store it in negative file sheets, or keep it as one long roll.

    11

    Scan the film using a flat-bed scanner, preferably equipped with a medium format film holder. Adjust your image in Photoshop, to even out transitions between the frames. Print out your image on a desktop printer, or send it to a lab for printing.

    If using a wet darkroom, you will need a glass negative carrier that can accommodate larger pieces of film, such as a 4x5 carrier or a 5x7 carrier. You can project two to three frames onto your photographic paper using such a carrier.

    12

    Experiment with different ways of cropping the image either digitally or in the enlarger. Sometimes the panoramas look best with just two frames included; sometimes three frames are desirable. (In the darkroom it's difficult to project all three frames without an 8x10 enlarger. You can contact print as much of the film as you like, however.)


How to make Holga panoramas

The plastic Holga camera has gained a following among photographers because it is easy to use, lightweight and inexpensive. It's easy to learn how to make square, single-frame images with the Holga. But if you learn a few tricks, you can learn to make mysterious, dream-like panoramic images with this simple camera.

Instructions

Loading and Shooting

    1

    Set the number of exposures on the back of the Holga camera to 16 rather than 12. You do this by sliding the black tab with its arrow upward so that the arrow points at the number 16. While doing this, be careful not to puncture the red plastic underneath the tab.

    2

    Open the back of the camera by sliding down the metal pieces on the sides of the camera. Put the 120 film on the left side of the camera and thread the end of the film roll into the spool on the right side. Turn the knob on top of the camera a few times to make sure the film is secured to the right-hand spool.

    3

    Put the back on the camera again and slide the metal pieces up until you hear a click. Pull a piece off the roll of gaffer tape that will fit the crack along the top of the back of the camera. This prevents light from leaking into the camera and fogging your film. Put another, longer piece of Gaffer tape from the upper-left corner of the back, around the bottom, and back up the left side, covering any cracks where the back meets the body of the camera.

    4

    Turn the knob on the top of the camera until you see a number one appear in the red window on the back of the camera.

    5

    Go outside and find something to photograph that is not in deep shade. Remove the lens cap. Estimate the distance from the camera to the object, and choose an appropriate focal length on the lens of the Holga. The closest focal length is about 3 feet, and the furthest is infinity. Depress the shutter button to take your first exposure.

Making the Panorama

    6

    Find another scene or object that you want to appear in your panorama. On the printed image, this second scene will be to the right of the first image. Advance the film to exposure number two, as seen through the red window. Photograph this image also.

    7

    Continue in this manner. Each image will be to the right of the previous one, but slightly overlapping. This overlapping will create the mysterious montage effects of the Holga panorama. You will have 16 images, but they will run together, creating a kind of panoramic landscape.

    8

    Experiment with pre-visualizing your image, rather than randomly juxtaposing shots. Find a landscape and photograph the left portion of the view first, followed by its middle, and finally by the right side. It's OK if the three shots overlap some or don't quite meet; the objective is not to make a photo-realistic image, but rather an image of your memory of a place.

Printing the Panorama

    9

    Develop the film, or take it to be developed at a photo-processing business. If it is negative film, make or ask for a contact sheet.

    10

    Inspect your contact sheet or positive transparency film. You will see sections of the film that have delightfully serendipitous overlappings of objects and people from one frame into the other. You can trim apart the film in order to store it in negative file sheets, or keep it as one long roll.

    11

    Scan the film using a flat-bed scanner, preferably equipped with a medium format film holder. Adjust your image in Photoshop, to even out transitions between the frames. Print out your image on a desktop printer, or send it to a lab for printing.

    If using a wet darkroom, you will need a glass negative carrier that can accommodate larger pieces of film, such as a 4x5 carrier or a 5x7 carrier. You can project two to three frames onto your photographic paper using such a carrier.

    12

    Experiment with different ways of cropping the image either digitally or in the enlarger. Sometimes the panoramas look best with just two frames included; sometimes three frames are desirable. (In the darkroom it's difficult to project all three frames without an 8x10 enlarger. You can contact print as much of the film as you like, however.)



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