Winter mood at Grimburg Castle (1)
Camera: Holga 135BC
Film: Ilford HP5 Plus 400, rated @ ISO 800
Exposure: ca. 1/100 sec and f/8, hand-held
Film developed and scanned by Foto Brell, Bonn
Edited under Adobe Lightroom
Whether 35mm or medium format, you can use the Holgas as toy cameras and eagerly anticipate the results, or as serious cameras, like any high-quality classic camera. I prefer the classic approach. I've gotten used to the viewfinder parallax, and the film advance on the 35mm version works without overlap (I use 24-exposure film instead of 36-exposure). I cover the notoriously problematic areas with gaffer tape to prevent light leakage. I use the Holgas to achieve the typical look of the plastic lens: soft rendering of details in the center, a drop in sharpness towards the edges, vignetting, and color saturation in the case of color film. Not all subjects are suitable for this. But when it works, you get impressionistic, painterly images. Sharpness isn't everything in photography, and sometimes too much sharpness can be distracting. Reduced sharpness can downplay unimportant details, thus focusing attention on the essential elements. Sharp or soft reproductions are not mutually exclusive for me, but rather complementary approaches in photography.
In this case, I thought that the little Holga would be the appropriate recording tool for capturing the winter mood within the walls of a centuries-old castle ruin. The distinct softness results from the rendering of the plastic lens and the fog.
Winter mood at Grimburg Castle (1)
Camera: Holga 135BC
Film: Ilford HP5 Plus 400, rated @ ISO 800
Exposure: ca. 1/100 sec and f/8, hand-held
Film developed and scanned by Foto Brell, Bonn
Edited under Adobe Lightroom
Whether 35mm or medium format, you can use the Holgas as toy cameras and eagerly anticipate the results, or as serious cameras, like any high-quality classic camera. I prefer the classic approach. I've gotten used to the viewfinder parallax, and the film advance on the 35mm version works without overlap (I use 24-exposure film instead of 36-exposure). I cover the notoriously problematic areas with gaffer tape to prevent light leakage. I use the Holgas to achieve the typical look of the plastic lens: soft rendering of details in the center, a drop in sharpness towards the edges, vignetting, and color saturation in the case of color film. Not all subjects are suitable for this. But when it works, you get impressionistic, painterly images. Sharpness isn't everything in photography, and sometimes too much sharpness can be distracting. Reduced sharpness can downplay unimportant details, thus focusing attention on the essential elements. Sharp or soft reproductions are not mutually exclusive for me, but rather complementary approaches in photography.
In this case, I thought that the little Holga would be the appropriate recording tool for capturing the winter mood within the walls of a centuries-old castle ruin. The distinct softness results from the rendering of the plastic lens and the fog.