Starting With Holga 120 WPC Medium Format Landscape Camera

The Holga 120 WPC is plastic-bodied pinhole camera. It does 6x12 frames as well as 6x9 with a mount. It is the most simplest camera you will find out there, especially if you want to shoot medium-format wide landscapes in particular.

The way that you use this camera is pretty simple. I'm going to take you through the basics of it so that you can get shooting straight away.

How to start shooting with the Holga 120WPC

The way that you release the pinhole is by pushing this button inside. It's on the side. Then it will release the f135 aperture with a 0.3-millimeter radius, pretty small pinhole. You'll get your frame on 6x12. In total, you're going to get six shots on a 120 roll. You've got to carefully think about what you want to shoot as well as how you want to frame it before you start shooting it.

At the top of the camera, you have a very simple outlay. This is where you wind your film. You can hear the little click. The little dots at the top are guide on how to compose your image. You will need to look down the middle and line your shot either side. Thankfully, you have a little spirit bubble at the top here, so be sure to align your bubble in the middle to get some balanced images.

Before you start shooting with this camera, make sure that you have this arrow at the back that's on the downward one. It should point at ’12’ instead of pointing at ’16’. As such, you will get 6 frames when shooting 6x12.

I have created a little label and stuck it of my Holga 120WPC. It outlines what I need to do when shooting 6x12. IIn summary, once you've got frame number one lined up in the window , then you need to skip once you've taken the shot to number three, then to frame five, then to seven, then to nine, and finally 11. If you don't do that, you're going to get double exposures happening along the frames themselves. It can also create a great deal of confusion when cutting your negatives after they have been developed! In summary, remember the frame count is always in odd numbers.

If you are unsure about other guidelines, www.mrpinhole.com is a great website for the finer details on pinhole photography. At the back of the Holga, there is some exposure guide information. If you're shooting fine weather, hold the shutter for seven to nine seconds. Overcast hold for 10 to 12 seconds and morning or dusk, hold for 13 seconds. Ignore this! I've tried several times with these recommendation and not had much good luck. Instead, invest in a light meter such as a Sekonic L308x or use a light meter off your own mobile phone. Even if you are shooting for fun, you want your images to be well exposed, as such, don’t cut corners with this.

How do you load the film on a Holga? Pull the silver latches on either side and gently lift them off to remove the film back. You'll need to make sure that you have a spare spool so that you can load your film on. Just try not to move this foam bit in the middle because otherwise the film would not sit properly and also make sure you don't remove the foam from the other side either.

Now pop the film in and then draw it across. Once you've got the film in place and you put the tongue in on the right hand side of the camera. A word of caution, just make sure that you can actually feel the film going on. So you might need to give it some help here cause for some reason there's no not another latch down here to attach the film on. You might find that it won't catch in which case you're going to have to keep on just trying. A way to get around that would be to put some sellotape.

Then align your film arrows as you're loading it on until it's in the middle so I don't lose any frames. Make sure that you tighten the roll on so you can feel the firmness on the right hand side of the camera. Once you have the arrow in the middle, all you need to do is pop back on the film back make sure that it's the right way up, and then just gently hover over and it should definitely go in.

Then on the either sides of the camera just make sure that the film back sits flush and pull down the latches to firmly put in to place. There won't be anything in the red viewing window so you need to keep rolling the film until you see a bar. Then you keep going until you see some sundials. It is very easy to skip the first frame. Therefore just be really slow and gentle with it when you are first starting off. Keep going until the sundials get larger and larger. At this point slow down further until you get to frame number one.

You can shoot handheld or with a cable release by depressing the button located next to the lens of the camera. Just remember, when you have shot the first frame skip to number three, then five, then seven, nine and then finally 11. Once you have your six frames make sure you do some extra winding of the film at the end just to make sure that it's all securely rolled up. Take off the film back off by depressing the silver latches and you've got your film.

Top Tips on Using the Holga 120WPC

That is the full breakdown of the Holga WPC 120 pinhole camera. Firstly, I strongly recommend that you shoot this camera on a tripod because any little shake on this camera will have an major impact on your film.

Secondly make sure that you have a cable release. Get a strong sturdy cable that will last you a long time. It gives you that further control when you're shooting. Particularly when you're shooting on a tripod.

Remember the images are not going to come out tack sharp. If you are one person who can do that I would love to know how you do it in comments section of my video. On each frame expect that you're going to get heavy vignetting occurring.

Get out there, play with lots of different films, just get an understanding of how light works, how you need to compose your images. This is perfect for that. It's very inexpensive. I think this costs about £50. You can use this pretty much forever. It's completely mechanical, nothing electronic about it in any way, shape or form. Finally, don't use the exposure guides given on the back of this camera!

Street Fashion Shoot With My Fuji GSWiii

I have just had my Fuji GSWiii sit at home waiting for that perfect chance to shoot some landscape images on film. Knowing myself, I figured I would have to create an opportunity! 

With only 8 frames to each roll of film, the 6 by 9 film size is incredible to view, especially on colour positive film.  I parked my trusted Bronica Zenza ETRS and decided to get out and use this camera more this summer. 

This particular GSWiii comes with a 65mm lens which I believe is equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera. 

First shoot opportunity came from a shoot setup with Anna. She was in the country and we set up a shoot in Central London late one afternoon. 

I threw in a whole bunch of medium format rolls into my bag and over the next few hours we shot natural light as well as with my wonderful profoto umbrella and profoto A1. 

Shooting Fuji Provia 100F in Natural Light

We started off by shooting on the colour positive film Provia 100F. It was a late afternoon shoot, hence why I brought along my off camera flash. These images were all taken using natural light. 

I really like this image of Anna in her chequered jacket and blue jeans looking over in the distance. 

The colours came out natural to the eye which I was really surprised to see considering the relatively low level light available at the time. 

The details are captured in this frame with Anna resting one leg down while resting her head gently against her left hand. 

The details in the jeans combined with the reds and yellows in the fore and background add more energy to the image. 

The highlights are perhaps a little overexposed but something that can be managed in a future shoot in camera or in post production! 

Going in a bit closer, once again the colour and detail of the 6 by 9 negative has really come out super well. 

This image of her holding the rose, combined with the red seat and red lipstick draw in the line of sight making it a compositionally attractive image to view. 

This combined with how her arms make an almost symmetrical look on either side in reflection to the legs.

I took another image of her standing up with the rose and framed this one up. I think these more close up portrait shots could be the way to go! 

Ending this set I took this shot which is a little out of focus but I really like the effect and emotion coming through the image and this is definitely one of my favourite shots from the Provia batch! 

Kodak Ektachrome in Natural Light

Well, If I was going to shoot some Provia, I was going to have to shoot some Ektachrome to see the differences in colour. 

Unlike the Bronica unfortunately you don't have the luxury of swapping film backs to capture identical images but I tried my best to keep the frames similar in nature throughout. 

Starting off with this shot, the colours are a bit more subdued but nevertheless deliver outstanding colour rendition. 

Part of the ability to shoot well with subjects comes down to how well you both come prepared to shoot. Certainly Anna, turned up with the perfect outfits for a befitting urban location shoot.

As before I took a combination of closer shots combined with wider shots to see the differences between the images. The consistent theme throughout is the more subdued colour rendition. 

I think, in part, maybe there were clouds passing through in comparison to the stronger light experienced when shooting the Provia roll. 

Nevertheless, you can see the film doesn’t perform as strongly in the shadows. Overall, pleased with this batch of images and my personal favourite was this shot of Anna with her arms crossed holding her jacket. 

Shooting Kodak Gold 200

Kodak Gold has made a comeback to medium format and it has been great to see so many photographers getting out and shooting this film. 

Carrying on with the same outfit and vibe, I decided to shoot some in a different location to catch a bit more of the afternoon sunset. 

This time a combination of natural light which has come out with much warmer tones and then brought in the umbrella and profoto to capture these shots with a little bit more controlled light. 

The colour is better balanced particularly with the wonderful warm sunset light radiating off the back of the Victorian buildings. Bit of a New York vibe, no?

Shooting Kodak Portra 800 with Flash

It was twilight and having these tall buildings surrounding us didnt help too much with the light either. It is somewhat fitting that for a camera that I have not shot much with I was reminded to take out some of that Portra 800 that had been knocking about in my film stash from quite a way back. 

I wasn’t going to waste this roll on the hope the images would come out by shooting this pushed 1 stop, let alone 3 stops. All these images were taken having metered using my Sekonic L-308X with the umbrella and profoto a1. 

Shot with this brick backdrop first, trying to capture some variation in styles from Anna. I like the one with Anna sat on the curb out of this mini set. We moved on to take a few with this black backdrop which I think has colourwise come out much stronger. 

When I first saw this on the film strip it looked as if the image had been taken with a greenscreen backdrop applied. 

In hindsight, I was beginning to think how different these images would look had they been shot on Portra 160 or Portra 400. Personally, I don't think it would be very different. What do you think? 

Important Considerations Shooting with Fuji GSWiii

If you are looking to shoot with this wonderful rangefinder camera here are my thoughts on some things you should consider before shooting away. 

First, if you are shooting portraits you have got to make sure you measure the distances between yourself and the subject accurately. 

If you have wonderful 20:20 vision then you might be thinking, wait why can't you just use the rangefinder optics? 

This can be a bit tricky for me and I suspect probably for many others that may have particular eye conditions. 

Easiest way to get around this is to measure the distances. Honestly this will save you a lot of lost frames. 

This particular Fuji comes with a fixed 65mm and if you enjoy shooting street photography could be a fun companion with its 28mm 35mm camera equivalent lens. 

Although primarily known for landscape photography, the  Fuji GSWiii has the potential to give photographers new creative opportunities in portrait photography.  

It got me thinking, are modern digital cameras up to the level of old school medium format cameras? 

I’m not sure, but it could be a fun experiment! Do you have experience with this? Let me know in the comments below. 

Overall, I feel the closer I was shooting to Anna, the richer the details in each of the frames. Images with natural light use of off camera flash came out super well. 

With more shoots I will slowly find my preference, Let’s see where this takes me next! 

Want to stay in the loop with what I am up to and my work? Then keep checking up on my journal here so you’ll never miss a moment!