HOLGA RESOLUTION

Written content and design © 2012 Design by amr

sam abell

2WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HOLGA!So you’ve opened the box and now you’re wondering what the heck

this contraption is and if you’ve just wasted twenty bucks. It seems so

. . . plastic. Well, congratulations! You just got yourself a cheap, plastic

camera! Before you decide to chuck it under your bed, take a minute to

flip through this catalog to see some of the surprisingly beautiful images

holgas are capable of producing.

According to the official holga manual (online at www.freestylephoto.

biz/pdf/holga-manual.pdf ) The holga was born in China in the early 1980s

“as an inexpensive medium format camera.” Unfortunately, it was pushed

aside due to the rise of limelight-stealing 35mm film. Only in the last

decade, have holgas suddenly increased in popularity. Just think, you are

the soon-to-be-proud owner of a historic camera and part of a growing

photographic movement. And you were going to throw it under your bed.

Shooting with a holga is all about resolution. In the most literal sense,

yes, you must consider resolution, or picture quality, when handling

anything of photographic nature. But resolution is also about express-

ing an opinion. Because of the character that is uniquely holga, a holga

photograph can convey powerful opinions—think in terms of framing via

vignetting, and taking advantage of the plastic lens which makes cer-

tain things fall out of focus. The term “resolution” also refers to making

something simpler or being separated into the most basic parts. Likewise,

holgas allow photographers to return to the essence of photography with

minimal controls and simply focus on what makes a photograph amazing.

“As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.

3Hold your holgas! Before holgaing around and shooting your first roll of

film, you need to understand the basics of holgaism. Holgas are technical-

ly classified as plastic or toy cameras, but they still have several switches.

Have no fear—you’ll soon know what they all are, and you probably won’t

even use all of them anyway. (If you ever forget what something is or where

in the holga it is located, please refer to the handy diagram to the right.)

There are only two ingredients that make up a photograph—light and

time—(and you thought photography was complicated, didn’t you?) so

there are only two things to keep in mind: aperture and shutter speed.

Aperture deals with light and shutter speed primarily deals with time.

Aperture (also called an f-stop) is the opening in the camera that lets

light in to expose the film. The larger the opening, the more light that is

allowed in. Each aperture size is identified by a specific number written out

like this: f/20 or f/13. The tricky thing to remember is that the smaller the

number, the bigger the hole. So f/13 is a bigger opening than f/20.

Your holga has only two apertures. The little switch above the lens lets

you switch between the two settings. For really bright scenes, shoot on

the sunny setting (about f/11), and for cloudy days or not-as-bright scenes

shoot on the cloudy setting ( about f/8).

Shutter speed refers to how long the film is exposed to light. When

you take a picture, a little plastic flap, or shutter, inside lifts open for a

fraction of a second and then quickly closes. Holgas have a shutter speed

of about 1/100th of a second which is fast enough for hand-held shooting.

Now that you know some photography lingo and your way around your

holga, it’s time to prep it for use, and then get the film rolling!

1. Begin by flocking the interior of your camera, including the two

boxy inserts, by painting it with matte black paint. This gets rid of

reflective surfaces and prevents light leaks. Once it’s dry, snap in the

square insert and load your film (Ilford 120 works well).

2. On the back of your holga is an image counter (the little red win-

“I always thought good photos were like good jokes. If you have to explain it, it just isn’t that good.

anonymous

Film advance

Hot shoe

Viewfinder

Camera back

keeper-onner clip

Stra

p m

ount

Aperture

adjustment

Shutter button

Focus ring

On the bottom: Tripod socket & shutter speed adjustment

4

5dow) that tells you what picture you’re on. Point the arrow at the 12, and

then wind, wind, wind the film advance until you see the upside-down

1. (Confused? The square insert produces 12 square pictures per roll of

film so you set it to 12. The other insert allows for 16 photos per roll.)

3. Even though the metal clips should keep the camera back in place,

the backs are infamous for ejecting themselves (sans warning) from

the camera body prematurely exposing your film. To prevent this, tape

your holga together. Yes, tape it together. Do it. Tape along the crevic-

es where the back snaps in place, over the clips, and put a little piece

over the image counter (remove this piece when you advance the film

though). Not only will your camera stay together, but by sealing off the

cracks, you can ward off serious light leaks that would otherwise thwart

a perfect exposure.

4. Now you’re ready to take a photograph! Adjust your shutter speed

and aperture, focus the camera by turning the focus ring (pages 11–13

explain how to focus), and you’re all set up! But before you press the

shutter button, keep in mind that what the viewfinder sees and what

the lens sees are different. Make sure to point the lens at what you

want to shoot instead of relying on the viewfinder. (To prove this point,

try this little test: while looking through the viewfinder put your finger

in front of the lens and then in front of the viewfinder. When do you see

your finger? I thought so.)

5. The last step is to decide if you want to A.) look like you know what

you’re doing or B.) look like a tourist. For option A, use the tripod sock-

et on the bottom of the camera and mount it to a tripod. For option B,

put the strap around your neck. While looking this way no one will take

you seriously, allowing you to more discreetly take incredible pictures.

Please double check that you removed the lens cap, and you’ll be on a

roll! (As long as you’ve advanced the roll of film.)

“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communication, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.

ansel adams

6

7 NORMAL SHUTTER SPEEDTwo shutter speed settings are found on the bottom of the camera. When

shooting on “N” (“N” is for normal, that’s good enough for me), the shut-

ter speed is always about 1/100th of a second. Even if you hold the shutter

button down until your finger falls off, the shutter speed will still only be

1/100th of a second. That is great news if there is no tripod handy and you

have to hand-hold.

For borderline obsessive exposure pherds (that’s a really cool mash-up

of the words “photo” and “nerds”), you can shoot at about 2:00 in the af-

ternoon (that lighting is ideal for holga photography), bracket your shots,

and shoot with the help of a hand-held light meter (or the light meter in

your digital camera) to get perfect exposures. (A meter tells you what

aperture and shutter speed are appropriate for the scene to be photo-

graphed.) For everyone else who is not borderline obsessive, just ensure

you shoot with adequate lighting and follow basic exposure guidelines

(refer to the aperture explanation on page 3).

If 1/100th of a second isn’t sufficient, you have three options: mount

a flash on the hot shoe, shoot on Bulb (explained on the next page), or

get clever. For the last option, mount your holga on a tripod and click the

shutter button multiple times without advancing the film. Each click will

expose the film a little more. Two clicks, for example, is the equivalent of

1/50th of a second (1/100 x 2 = 2/100 which reduces to 1/50). Make a chart

for on-the-go referral.

Take three pictures of the same subject and alter the exposure on each photograph. Use the metered exposure as well as an over- and underexposure. This technique better ensures at least one photograph will turn out well for those shots you can’t afford to reshoot.

bracketing

Jaime. Austin Gillins. 2011Photograph courtesy of Austin Gillins

9 BULB SHUTTER SPEEDBulb: For when Normal just isn’t good enough. When shooting on “B” (for

Bulb) a tripod is a must. Setting your holga to the “B” setting allows the

shutter to stay open as long as you hold down the shutter button.

Use Bulb for fireworks, motion blur, light streaks (pictured), to make

running water look soft, and simply to avoid seemingly complex mathe-

matical computations. How many clicks at 1/100th of a second equals a 5

second exposure? Forget it. You’re a photographer, not a mathematician.

It’s a lot easier, and a lot less tiring, to just hold the shutter button down

for 5 seconds than to click 500 times.“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

dorothea lange

Ferris Wheel. Kent Barney. 2011Photograph courtesy of Kent Barney

11 FOCUSING FAR AWAYIf you want everything in your photograph to be in focus and you want a

large depth of field (DOF), set your focus ring to the mountain setting,

which will focus for infinity. DOF refers to how much of the plane is in

focus. A photograph with a large DOF, such as Nye (to the right), means

that the things close to the camera, far from the camera, and everything in

between are in focus.

DISCLAIMER: “If you want everything. . .to be in focus.” The term

“everything” is to be thought of loosely. Holgas cannot focus closer than a

few feet away from the lens, and due to nature of the holga and the unpre-

dictability of a plastic lens, something will inevitably go wrong, throwing

something, probably around the edges, out of focus.

“Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.

robert frank

Nye. Robert Curl. 2011Photograph courtesy of Robert Curl

13 FOCUSING A LITTLE CLOSER UPPERFor photographs a little closer to home, set the focus ring to one of the

friendly people settings. Even though the seven-people/polygamist- family setting shows 7 people, this setting is not to be used exclusively

for shooting groups of 7 people. Choose this focus setting to throw things

into focus about 18 feet from your camera lens. The family-of-three set-

ting will focus objects about 6 feet away, and the one-person setting will

focus from about 3 feet away.3 feet

6 feet

18 feet

focus ring icons

Santa Fe 1. Austin Gillins. 2011Photograph courtesy of Austin Gillins

15 HOLGA MODIFICATIONSJust because the camera came the way it did, doesn’t mean you have

to be satisfied with it. Make a resolution to modify your camera! Many

holga-ers modify their cameras, not only the outer appearance (take

another gander at the cameras on page 6), but also the way the appa-

ratus behaves. Popular modifications include altering the aperture size,

focal length, creating custom inserts to go inside the camera, and cutting

shapes out of the lens cap. By going inside and repositioning one dinky

little piece of plastic you can allow your holga to focus at the minimum

distance, which is about 2 feet (maybe closer if you cross your fingers and

hold your breath). Keep in mind that the closer you try to focus, the more

the edges of your photograph will fall out of focus. Woohoo for identifying

a holga paradox!

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.

ansel adams

Molting. Ashley Ruff. 2011Photograph courtesy of Ashley Ruff

17 VIGNETTINGResolution is about making decisions, so here’s a decision for you to make:

being able to focus closer or having less dramatic vignetting—you can

only choose one. (Vignetting refers to the dark corners and edges in a

photograph, usually in a circular shape. You’ve probably seen this is older

photos, botch Photoshop jobs, and almost every photograph in this cata-

log.) The closer you focus, the more vignetting you get.

Keep in mind that not all holgas are created equal. While some will

create perfect vignetting, some produce uneven or extremely dramatic

vignetting. When it is extremely dramatic, the pictures tend to be circular

and it mimics the illusion of looking through though a pinhole, which will

either cut your subject out of the photograph or really draw your eyes to it.

“The way these images are—. . . sharp in the center and . . . vignette[d] in the corners—is more how we really see. When you’re looking at the world, you’re not seeing a scene that is sharp all the way to the edges and bright all the way to the edges . . . You’re seeing something sharp in the center and then the rest of it is all kind of blurring out.

michelle bates

Untitled. Kent Barney. 2011Photograph courtesy of Kent Barney

19 CHANGING FOCUSThe effect pictured here was achieved by turning the focus ring mid

photograph. To try this technique yourself, set your holga to shoot on Bulb

and mount it on a tripod. Turn the focus ring all the way to the right (so it’s

set to focus up close). Meter your scene to determine how long to leave

the shutter open.

Now it’s time to take the picture. Let’s say that the meter told you the

ideal shutter speed is 3 seconds. With your finger holding the shutter

button down, take the entire 3 seconds to turn the focus ring, in one fluid

movement, all the way to the left. Be careful not to cover up the lens as

you do this. Here’s another example. If your shutter speed is 5 seconds,

take the entire 5 seconds to turn the focus ring. Ten seconds? Take 10

seconds. It’s easy. Get the picture?

“Photography alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment—this very moment—to stay.

sam abell

Britney. Ashley Ruff. 2011Photograph courtesy of Ashley Ruff

21 MULTIPLE EXPOSURESNo Photoshop was used in the making of this photograph. Seriously. If you

understand the science of multiple exposures it’s relatively easy to achieve

incredible in-camera effects.

A multiple exposure is simply overlapping photographs. Even while

haphazardly shooting without any regard to exposure or composition, you

can still get some cool multiple exposures, but the coolest effects require

a little bit of planning.

When you shoot any photograph, the amount of reflected light from

your subject determines how the film is exposed. Most basically, every-

thing in a photograph that is white has been completely exposed and

everything that is black has not been exposed. If you can keep in mind—

or even control—what is black and what is white in a photograph then you

can compose another photograph on top of the first one and fill in the

black (or unexposed) parts of the photograph.

Two Faced: Joe is a double exposure, meaning it is two photographs.

To get this effect, set up your holga (on a tripod) in a completely dark

room. Light half of the subject’s face and snap a picture, but do not

advance the film. Move the light source and light the other half of the

subject’s face and snap a picture. This technique is a little bit difficult to

master, but is great fun after some practice and trial and error.

“There is one thing the photograph must contain: the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough. There has to be vision, and the two together can make a good photograph.

robert frank

Two Faced: Joe. Ashley Ruff. 2011Photograph courtesy of Ashley Ruff

23 PARTIALLY ADVANCING THE FILMOkay, yes, this is technically a multiple exposure, but the effect is slightly

different than the last one. For this technique you simply do not make

a full rotation of the film advance wheel. This allows the edges of your pho-

tographs to be overlapping, essentially creating one long photograph.

To be precise you can mark the halfway point on the film advance

wheel to wind the film the same amount each time. To get a little more

variation, such as in Trees, you can take a more freestyle approach and

advance the film different amounts for each shot.

This photograph was shot using a tripod in order to keep the horizon

line consistent throughout the picture. As the film was advanced, the cam-

era moved slightly in order to show a panoramic view.

Try this technique for the entire roll of film to get one epic 5’ long pho-

tograph. Kudos to you if you can figure out how to print it.

“Photography helps people to see.

berenice abbott

Trees. Ashley Ruff. 2011Photograph courtesy of Ashley Ruff

25 SPECIAL THANKSA great big thank you to Ashley Ruff, Austin Gillins, Cherisa Chappell,

Kent Barney, and Robert Curl for allowing their photographs to be used in

this publication. Thanks also to Ashley, Austin, and Kent for allowing their

customized holgas to be featured.

Now, fellow photographers, pherds, holga-ers (whoever the holga you

are) go out and get your holga on!

For more information on holgas and holga photography please visit microsites.lomography.com/

holga/

resources

Untitled. Cherisa Chappell. 2011Photograph courtesy of Cherisa Chappell