About the Image(s)

The image I am submitting was made with a Holga 120N camera and Kentmere Pan 200 120 film. The Holga is considered a low-cost, plastic “toy” camera. The components are not connected, i.e., the shutter and the advance, the lens and the viewfinder, etc. It is, therefore, it is as easy to shoot a double exposure as it is to shoot with the lens cap on. One of the few adjustments on the camera is to either shoot people or landscapes and, I believe, the depth of field is either f/8 or f/11. The shutter is fixed at 1/100 and there is no focusing mechanism. Light leaks are also common so you can either embrace them or tape up the camera to prevent light from leaking onto the film. Images are typically hazy and have strong vignettes.

The image was processed and scanned by a local lab that I use until I have access to a darkroom when I go back to RIT in the fall. The image was scanned as a low-res JPG which I typically do with images made with a Holga. Holga images are relatively low-resolution, so I don’t see the benefit of paying more for higher-resolution TIFF files as I would for images I shoot with a Hassalblad.

I shot the image??”“Arrivals”--at the Harrisburg Train Station. There is a skylight above this area which creates interesting shadows on the floor. As I was standing to shoot in the area, an Amish family had just gotten off the train and were headed into Harrisburg. In Lightroom, I increased the contrast by darkening the blacks and also removed any white specks that appear to be dust. I made a slight crop to position the frame of the skylight directly in the corner of the frame to create a better composition. I had another version that cropped the skylight out completely to position the highlight of the hats in the top left corner of the frame. This made the image very small, so I reduced the amount of the crop.