35mm Sprocket Hole Panoramic Photographs

How do photographers get those wide images that bleed through the edges of the negative, showing the sprocket holes? It's a technique that allows your to create stunning panoramic images -- these little bits of film become art in themselves.  These photographs are achieved by loading 35mm film into a 120 medium format camera. This tutorial was written with the Holga in mind, but the same technique works for other 120 cameras as well.

Step 1 You will Need....

2 pieces of memory or regular mattress sort of foam cut into roughly 1 1/4 inch squares, 1 piece of foam cut thinly to measurement of the left spool compartment length and width, 1 spool of black electricians or gaffers tape, 4 medium size rubber bands, scissors, your Holga or similar camera, clear cellophane tape. (Photo. 1)

Comments

[zazenergy]

Darin this is awesome! Thank so much for sharing.

[steve blair]

Very cool

[k-twizel]

What speed film? the lowest I could find was 200 (I think) for my pinhole camera and I couldn't get the timing right.

[Darin Barry]

First of all, light is a huge issue with pinholes, as you might know. I NEVER shoot them, well, almost never, in sunny conditions. Cloudy overcast days will yield the best results. I use a low speed film that I get online, Ilford makes an ISO 50 that is perfect for long exposure pinholes.

There is a program available for free that will calculate the exposure time called "Pinhole Designer". I use that in conjunction with a light meter and my pinholes turn out all the time.

This particular tutorial of mine is about sprocket shots, but perhaps I should do a pinhole instructable. Hmm.

Good luck to you K-twizel, hope this helps.

[thekinginyellow]

why risk destroying your holga when you can just buy the relatively inexpensive attachment?

$15:
http://usa.shop.lomography.com/holga-35mm-adaptor

[ToddJShelley]

I do this on a regular basis and not just with the Holga. Although I haven't yet delved into pinhole. I've also done this with an old twin lens and even a Hasselblad. Really fun.

One piece of advice is to not just use electricians tape on the film advance window. I had it taped on both sides pretty good and I still on occasion got an overexposed 'square' on the film. I now also cover it with metallic tape. Only on the outside though.

I've also found that different types of color film have more 'stuff' along the sides than others. Fuji seems to have the most. The cheap Lomography film has very little and I like the little red circles and red crosses it does have. Kodak is in the middle.
B&W has a lot less.

I've also found some clear paper to print them on. I use Photoshop to change the sprocket holes from black to white (or clear) that way it looks more like film.

I don't have don't have much online but I do have some non-pinhole sprocket stuff here. http://TJSphoto.net Click on New Stuff.

[Darin Barry]

Thanks for your question. I have that attachment too and it's worthless if you want panoramic sprocket hole shots as the mask eleminates them and simply makes 35mm size exposures. This method detailed here allows my Holga to be versatile. There is no permanent alteration here.

There is no risk to my Holga using this method detailed here. And really, it's not that hard.

[Darin Barry]

Thanks for the advice on the tape, yes, if it's not black and thick, there could be a problem, gaffers' tape works best but the one you mention seems to work well too.

Do me a favor though and clarify what you mean here...

"I've also found that different types of color film have more 'stuff' along the sides than others. Fuji seems to have the most. The cheap Lomography film has very little and I like the little red circles and red crosses it does have. Kodak is in the middle.
B&W has a lot less"

How does this harm your process? I'm not sure exactly what you might be talking about. Thanks

Darin

.

[ToddJShelley]

I was really surprised that light got through all my tape. Not consistently though. I wonder what the optical characteristics of electrical tape are? Maybe it's more clear in the IR.

It doesn't harm the process. It's just depends on what you want your final image to be.
I find that some of the stuff around the holes to be distracting. Just my opinion though. I'm looking at this more from an art standpoint than a technical one.

As a fine art photographer who used to be a windows sysadmin, I know it's easy to get caught up in the technical part and forget about the art part.

Fuji film has a bar code looking thing going down the side that's bright yellow. As well as a couple of different color lines. Sometimes I'll make a mask in Photoshop and tone down the yellow.

I'll try to upload a pic to show what I mean. It's a regular Holga pic of a prairie that had been burned the night before. It's a terrible pic so don't judge me :^).

If I'm still unclear or if you have other questions don't hesitate to ask.

[Darin Barry]

OH, that. Ok. Now we're on the same page. The coding and proprietary markings on the edges, I thought you meant something chemical- as in residue- that was messing up the inside of the camera - Yes, as far as color goes the Portra is not too bad and Ilford for black and white has subtle markings - this has never been too big of an issue for me as I think it ads to the photos most of the time. That really cool example you have posted, I could see where it might be nice to have the just gold tones of the kodak edges instead of the fiesta of color there. Still man, nice job, I think it's most excellent myself. I hear ya on the photo perfectionism thing vs lomo. I actually try to pro results from my Holga just as a challenge. I even measure distance with pre-but bits of twine all marked with the proper focus distances of from the lens to the subject so they come out sharp.  Still the spirit of analouge exists within what I do.  Frankly, I love the accidents. 

[ToddJShelley]

Thanks! I'm terrible about choosing my own pictures.

That's actually a good idea to focus the Holga. What focus distances do you use?
I guess if you wanted to get real crazy you could add the depth of field for each focus mark. That's a lot of trouble to go to though. Most of my focus problems are really just me forgetting to make sure it's not on Bulb.

[Darin Barry]

Check out your manual, you will see that the little marks on the lens indicate a little man, two people, a bunch of people then a mountain. The manual give approximates but I had to shoot an experimental roll by placing placards with the written distance on them and shooting them from that distance. My Holga's perfect focus was 4 feet 2 inches but it's the fabulous Holga so yours could be difference. Then, I simply measured out a 4'2'' piece of twine, marked it with a piece of overlapping masking tape and it is wound in my tool bag with the other accessories. I repeated this with the other two settings. (my lens is glass-- it's a GFN btw). Really not that big of deal, I use expired film a lot that is free at most photo shops, especially old school ones.

[iectyx3c]

Really great I love Holga mods like this. Because yours produces such wide negs, I bet you could mod your mod to make a stereographic anaglyphic or dual lens 3D camera. 3D for everyone! And using mpap89's Free Film Hack you could experiment endlessly. Good i'ble

[maliani]

Very good job! but I wonder what is the band that plays music? hugs

[Darin Barry]

Spoon, and thanks.

[jeffdodd]

What about using slide film? Granted, you still have the instructions of "do not cut," but you do not need to scan the film to reverse the image.

[Darin Barry]

Slide film you would have to cross process - that's processing slide film at any place that develops with a standard C-41 process instead of having them processed into slides. This makes for really cool colors. I do this all the time.

You will still need to scan them to make prints and share, and here's why. If you want to get the entire image, sprocket holes and all, you have to make sure they haven't cut your film and that the whole image is scanned. Once you have forgotten to mention this or that lab spaces it and makes a disk, you won't make that mistake again. What comes back are partial, cut off images without sprocket holes. All your work toast. I ALWAYS include a 4x6 index card that screams; "DO NOT CUT NEGATIVES".

At home you would need to set your scanner for positive film and scan the whole image.

[matt king]

Hi, how would i go about getting these sprocket hole shots processed? Do i have to get them developed at a specialty place? How can I load them onto my computer and post them online? Thanks for your help.

[TXTCLA55]

Question! I have a very old "box style" camera. You think with the right mods I can use it to take pictures like this?

This is the best image I could find that resembles my camera:

[mastermakoko]

hey guy,what if my camera is a native 35 mm and i want a sprocket effect on it?

[crazyg]

i thought you were gonna make the frame bigger in a 35mm camera,
but no its an oldie and you didnt hurt it,nice one,
dig the fluffy velcro,
i might give this one a go as iv got some oldies
thanks