Holga for the digitally inclined, tutorial

I drool for the look of holga pictures, and I'm sure any of you who read the rockstar diaries have felt the same longing. I actually have a little plastic camera, a lovely holga. These cameras are just not practical for me. Sad but true.

1. Film=a bunch of really dumb pictures of the backs of my kids heads.

2. 120 film (which holgas use)= expensive, and the developing cost... yikes

So, I have a lovely friend, mr. lensbaby. These lenses work on SLR cameras (cameras that you can take the lenses off and switch them).

Make sure you go with the plastic lens if you'd like to achieve this look.

The picture directly out of the camera looked like this:

Then, you can crop it to a square, if you like:

My favorite setting on a holga is the "pin-hole." I took the photo into photoshop and added a border:

Photoshop boarder tutorial:

1. Make a new layer over the top of your picture, fill it with black

2. Create a mask over the black layer

3. Select the Lasso Tool and set the feathering to about 200

4. Lasso a circle-ish shape in the near-center of your picture. You don't want to draw a perfect circle, and I think it looks better if the circle runs off the top of the picture a little bit.

5. Fill the circle (on the mask layer) with black.

And there you go.

I know there are ways in photoshop to blur your photos, and do all that, but there is just something special about using the lensbaby. Maybe it's the lack of light-meter and auto controls that force creativity. Maybe it's not really knowing what you'll be getting until after you upload your pictures.

I guess it is just bringing back a bit of the magic of photography, for those of us who are digitally inclined.