Holga Photo simulation

My brother in law was playing with his cheap plastic Holga camera when he came to visit, and I was inspired to see if I could approach the effect digitally.  

The camera original shot on medium format film, which was then often cross-processed, resulting in a unique artistic color pallette.  Cross processing is intentionally or accidently developing film using the wrong chemical baths.  Here's an actual image from an actual Holga, that has been cross-processed:

Note the yellow-orange skin tones and cyan sky that is the signature of a cross-processed image.

For maximum 'realism', I duplicated the camera as much as possible with the tools I had at hand, namely a Canon Rebel xti and a prime lens:

F/13, 50mm (not 60mm, sigh), ISO 400, shutter speed 1/100.  

Then I played with a variety of 'old timey' action sets and filters, most of which were awful and didn't do anything close to what I wanted.  I ended up doing most of the effect 'by hand'.

Here's a source image we took that duplicated all the Holga settings (except focal length):

And here is my attempt at emulating the effect:

I'd say I got 60% there.  I'll fiddle some more and see if I can do better.  The analog process of the plastic camera is fun, as they are about one step above shoebox/pinholes.  Plus, hacking it to use 35mm film instead of medium format is a fun challenge.  They're about $20 on Amazon....hmmm...may have to pic one up.

Baby blog is live! (for people who haven't seen it)

So, we've got thecharlottesector.blogspot.com online and ready for live announcements as Charlotte transitions from womb to world.  Feel free to go check it out!  There's still some time to get your birth time guesses in if you haven't already!  

Cell phone signal allowing, I'll be making live posts from the hospital to keep people up to date, so bookmark now!

http://thecharlottesector.blogspot.com/

Crib Hacking

So (surprising noone reading this blog, I'm sure) I hacked a crib. Wasn't happy with the stock options available to me, so bought a cheap crib on craigslist, bought some table tops at Ikea, and a handful of threaded fasteners (and some white paint) later, Tada! Cool modern crib for under $100.



(that's a really dark wood on the ends)







The dresser and changing table were different light woods, so we painted them white to match the room. One was free, the other was cheap.




Debbie made those curtains. It's strips of ribbon.   I'll post an update when Debbie gets finished with the crib skirt and when we finally get knobs on all the furniture!