Lomography

Creating masks to put inside your camera is fun and the creative possibilities are endless. You can do it with most camera's, But a Holga Stereo 3D makes it easy for you.

I am going to try to make an article out of this one. Hell, I will have to be clear and to the point. But as this still is my personal blog I can be as chaotic as I want too ! Today I am going to write about masks, I call them filter frame masks. Basically you can build them for most camera’s even 35mm cams, but it is easier to build a 6X6 mask, you do not have to be very handy to make a big mask. The focus will be on the Holga 3D.

Photo by gauthierdumonde

The Stereo Holga 3D is nice machine. You can shoot slides and put them in a viewfinder. That’s fun and you’ll do it only once. I wanted to see my daughter in 3D. Stupid as I see her always in 3D. So, after you’ve done that, you have two holga’s, two flashes and one shutter in one body. Thus I started looking for some creative uses of the 3D Holga. And I found one. The camera always makes two nearly identical pictures, so I made a frame in the form of a cross, exposing only the cross on the first pic, and the mirror on the second pic (the corners). When you wind your film normally (1, 2,3 etc.) your frame will be completely exposed, first it is exposed by the first lens, giving you a cross with black corners, then you wind the film and it is exposed by the second lens, filling up the corners. I already destroyed my mask, it should look like this.

Photo by gauthierdumonde

You have to tape the mask inside your Holga on the frame that came along. The mask should be as close as possible to the film.
It gives you pics like this.

Photos by gauthierdumonde

As you can see spacing is important. My second frame was the exact mirror of the first, but when you wind your film and don’t stop at exact the right spot, you will get black areas that never got exposed.

Then I tried the same, but I cut out something that looked like a circle. It looks like this:

Photos by gauthierdumonde

These frame filter masks are based on the fact that you expose each picture twice. I also made a mask for only one one exposure. These masks you can easily use in a normal Holga or Diana. The fun part on using them in a stereo cam is that you can choose to expose them only on one, or on both masks. Then you have to start covering one lens with the cap.

This is a filter I intend to keep, it looks like this.

Photo by gauthierdumonde

Single exposure gives this:

Photos by gauthierdumonde

Exposing to both filters gives this:

Photo by gauthierdumonde

You can ofcourse do a double exposure, using a single filter. So here I first shot the name of a tavern (on both frames), then I shot an old guy sipping his coffee. So it is a double exposure on a single filter.

Photos by gauthierdumonde

If you are still reading you might be interested in the do’s and dont’s.

1. Tape your filter in such a way that your film can not tear it apart. I was lazy on my last Sprocket try, so the film bent the mask.

2. If you are using a Holga: Tape the back. The backs of my Holga’s tend to come loose while shooting, if you put a frame mask inside, the film will not wind as easy as normal. Putting some tension on it making the back even more prone to opening.

3. If you are using filters, like gel filters etc. Add one stop ! So use ISO 800 instead of 400 etc.

4. Four :) more info on quadrachromes or Buckshots go visit Buckies home or read his article. He explains it in a clear and understandable way. Read his article.

5. Make a decent filter. I made the mistake to make sloppy filters. I tought: let’s make first a sloppy filter to check out the results, if it is worth it I’ll build a decent one. Afterwards I think it is best to just start with a decent built filter.

Have fun and feel free to react and link to your results !!

Greetz Wouter Gauthier Dumont Van den Berge