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Accepting the technical<br />
imperfections of your<br />
kit can stimulate your<br />
creative juices<br />
A dedicated body-cap<br />
lens offers a stripped-down<br />
way of shooting<br />
pinhole photography and use a camera that is<br />
simply a wooden box with a hole in the front – no<br />
viewfinder, metering or autofocus options here!<br />
If this sounds too radical for you, then you can<br />
dip your toe into the world of lensless photography<br />
by getting a body cap converted into a pinhole ‘lens’<br />
or by buying a Lensbaby which offers a pinhole/<br />
zone plate option and fitting these to your latest<br />
digital camera. I’ve also used Holga lenses and<br />
simple body-cap optics on my Olympus Micro<br />
Four Thirds cameras to give me the best of both<br />
low-tech and high-tech worlds.<br />
Advantages<br />
One of the biggest advantages of shooting with<br />
relatively inexpensive low-tech equipment is that<br />
you’re more likely to use it in conditions in which<br />
more sophisticated and expensive gear would<br />
remain cosseted in a camera bag. I’ve used my<br />
pinhole cameras in pouring rain and had them<br />
Low-tech photography<br />
in the digital age<br />
LO-FI photography doesn’t have<br />
to be confi ned to fi lm. For those<br />
photographers wedded to the<br />
speed, convenience and fl exibility of<br />
their digital cameras, there are a<br />
number of ways to combine the<br />
best of both worlds.<br />
It is possible to buy a toy camera<br />
lens adapted to fi t onto a digital<br />
camera to give you that classic<br />
blurred and vignetted look, but you<br />
won’t get the light leaks associated<br />
with a classic Holga fi lm camera.<br />
You can also buy a DSLR body<br />
cap fi tted with a simple plastic optic<br />
that has variable apertures. It’s<br />
called a Loreo Lens in a Cap<br />
(www.loreo.com), while Olympus<br />
also makes a body-cap lens for<br />
Micro Four Thirds cameras.<br />
And don’t forget Lensbaby optics<br />
and the wealth of options it offers.<br />
These include a host of optical<br />
attachments that can create<br />
soft-focus, toy-camera and<br />
vintage-lens looks, among others.<br />
‘The chief attraction of this low-tech approach is<br />
that many of these options are relatively cheap,<br />
so experimentation doesn’t cost a fortune’<br />
There are a range of lenses,<br />
accessories and adapters to<br />
turn your DSLR or mirrorless<br />
camera into a lo-fi machine<br />
subscribe 0330 333 1113 I www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 14 May 2016 13
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