portraits with holga

Is it possible to make good clean portraitsif you measure the right distance between the subject and the

camera ? I anyone ha any sample portraits I would love to see them.

My response here is serious, not sarcastic. I'm not sure what you mean by "good clean portraits." If you mean sharp, edge to edge, with accurate focus and outstanding lens resolution and contrast, the answer is absolutely No!

 

That is not the nature of the Holga concept. Just the opposite. Even if you measured, you have no distance scale on the lens. The portrait icon is just about as good as anything since it's all you've got.

 

Can you take creative and interesting portraits with a Holga, Yes!

 

Google "Holga Photography" and you'll come up with many interesting sites with good sample images.

 

Sorry, I don't have any human portraits with a Holga. Perhaps someone else can help with that here.

Here's the Flickr <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/71737233@N00/pool/"> Holga People </a> pool.

I too am confused by "good clean portraits."

 

Every Holga is slightly different and ultimately would require practice and experimentation to determine the properties of yours.

 

http://www.perrydilbeck.com/images.html

 

Look at the "Last Harvest" series of photographer Perry Dilbeck. As I understand it, all shot with the Holga.

 

http://www.perrydilbeck.com/truckfarmers.html

Its possible to get pretty darn good results with a Holga, but it requires modifications. Firstly it depends on the age of your Holga, Ive heard that the new ones take surprisingly good images, while the older ones have the qualities of poor craftsmanship that most people are attracted by. You can always seal all the lightleaks, and take the time to calibrate your lens... but you will never get super high quality images out of it. For roughly the same cost there are MANY very nice folding medium format cameras out there availible on eBay. The Zeiss Ikon Nettar is an excellant example... a quick search showed an auction ending in a few minutes for $16. The Nettar was the low-end of the Zeiss line and is a very simple camera... barely more complex than a Holga. The simplest version of the Nettar featured a shutter with only a few speeds. However, these old cameras are capable of drastically better images than a Holga.

What I can't understand is this: The purpose of buying and using a Holga is to capture images that are optically different than standard lenses. This includes a soft feeling, edge drop-off, vignetting, and so on. If one wants a pristine image, then a camera with a fine lens is required.

 

I did this portrait using a digital Holga: Olympus E-300 with a Holga lens mounted on an Olympus lens cap (see: www.holgamods.com )

 

Not only is it soft, there is also camera movement and subject movement. I think that's what Holga photography is all about.

 

<img src="http://k43.pbase.com/o4/95/386995/1/61455532._1011308ae.jpg">

Yes, it is...

Take a look at my "Portraits" folder here and on my website.

Holga ROCKS!

Brian