The Weekly Photo – April 4, 2011
A week ago we had about six days of fog and frost and it was beautiful around Cochrane. So a couple of times Samantha and I went out in the fog to make images. This one is of a local property that we have access to. I love the muted colours that fog gives, this is basically an in-camera capture with the Rebel T2i but the image has an old-time sepia feel to it.
©Darwin Wiggett
I also had my Holga, Bop, with me and thought I would compose the same image with this medium-format ‘toy’ camera using Fujicolour Reala 100 film. Below is the result. What do you think? Is the digital capture more your cup of tea? Or does the look of the plastic lens Holga in square format with film look more appropriate for this scene?
©Darwin Wiggett
Darwin Wiggett 
April 4, 2011 at 4:36 AM
I really like the first, digital, image much better than the Holga – there’s more definition. A matter of taste, I guess. I also enjoy taking pictures in the fog and mist – it can be very eerie at times. Turning them into mono (which they almost are already) and printing them onto photo rag paper gives really good results too.
April 4, 2011 at 7:31 AM
For me it is the Holga hands down. I like the warm tone that it has, it is even more of a sepia and I think that the plastic lens adds to the look of the fog. I prefer that there is not as much definition as the digital for this photo. In my opinion it gives it more of a feel of the atmosphere as you do not see all of the details in fog. While digital is great for getting the sharp details, not all images need to be that way especially when portraying something like mist/fog etc. Also it is a little further away and not so in your face as the digital image. This seems to invite the viewer in more. Like a “come and have a look and browse around for a while.” In the digital the bale is right there “here I am”! But that is just one person’s, (who has not had coffee yet) opinion!
April 4, 2011 at 7:54 AM
Heidi, I agree with every word you said (could not express it so well myself), and I’ve just had my first coffee of the day.
April 5, 2011 at 9:09 AM
I am in agreement with Heidi and Natalya..the Holga image has atmosphere and a little mystery, which appeals to me immensely
April 4, 2011 at 8:38 AM
I agree, the Holga wins for sure. I like the softness of the Holga image because it matches the mood of the fog. Also the vignetted corners are great! Maybe I would have preferred a tighter composition though.
April 4, 2011 at 8:44 AM
I think the charm of the digital age is that you don’t have to chose. But if I had to I’d pick the Holga image. There’s a time and place for the high resolution digital capture but for the these dreamy scenes you’d have to spend time processing the image after the fact to retain the look and feel. I’d rather spend time making images with my camera than my computer any day.
April 4, 2011 at 1:19 PM
It’s a very interesting photo but I definitely like the digital photo the best.
April 4, 2011 at 2:31 PM
Really isn’t a fair comparison since the composition is different. BUT, with that said, for me the Holga wins hands down – for feel as well as composition.
April 5, 2011 at 9:36 AM
No its not fair but it was a fun comparison!
April 4, 2011 at 4:19 PM
I think they’re both digital. The Holga image looks too sharp to me. Like it was a digital image which was run through the Camerabag filter on the iPhone. What film ISO did you use? if it is indeed a Holga image (I’m skeptical) you did an amazing job of getting the hay just as sharp as the digital image.
April 5, 2011 at 9:29 AM
Hi Skeptic,
The bottom photo was made with my Holga with Reala 100 negative film. The film was scanned into digital form using an Imacon Photo Scanner. I resized the large 60 MB scan down to a 400 by 400 pixel image you see here. With serious downsizing from a large res file, I sharpened the image for presentaion here. The same resizing and sharpening was done at the exact same settings for the 400 pixel Rebel image. So both images were sharpened for the web the same way.
Samantha is always amazed at the results from my Holga… it seems weirdly sharp in the center so I understand your skeptism. But I have the negative to prove that this was indeed a photo taken with a Holga.
Darwin
April 4, 2011 at 4:24 PM
I love the look of the Holga shot, (just tried a roll of B & W with one) so why not take a good sharp digital, crop square, back down the clarity, vignette a little, maybe some gaussian blur if you wish and you have both types at a substantially reduced cost. Don’t get me wrong, I still love film, but It was becoming far too expensive and time constraining, thus I did not shoot as much as I really wanted to. It may be OK if you live near one of the few remaining decent processing labs, but if you do not, Canada Post will be your best friend. Mail and wait, and wait, and wait,,,,,I may shoot some film again someday, but it will be B & W and I will process the film myself.
April 5, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Sure you can fake a Holga look in digital but it does not the same magic for me. I love the unpredictable nature of the Holga and I shoot things with it I would not with digital. And I do not want to spend hours making a digital image look like a Holga shot when I can do it in 1/60th of a second with the Holga! I live in a town that still has a one hour film lab, so film is easy for me. I plan to return to developing my own B+W film as well and so then Holga will be more fun! Darwin