TTV Experimentation

Since joining up with Etsy I have 'met' some wonderful new people. In particular I have joined the POE (Photographers of Etsy) Team and have been in awe of the amazing talent there is there. I spend lots of time on the POE Promo threads each week and reading up and learning great stuff in the Poetic Pixels Forum. One new technique I was introduced to from POE members is TTV (Through The View Finder). This is basically where you take photos through your digital camera looking through the lens of any older camera. You get square images and an old nostalgic feel to your shots.

I had seen photos that were TTV (though at the time i had no idea what they were just thought ooh pretty!) but never really considered how it was done. So after reading up about it and asking lovely fellow POE members I thought I'd do a bit of experimentation.

I searched ebay, bought myself an old Kodak Duaflex (first ever experience on bidding - i learnt all the tricks of the trade after losing my first few bids), waited a few days anxiously for delivery and then when it arrived scrambled around for something to build my 'contraption' (this is to block out the light between your old camera and digital camera). I took my first few photos with the inner core of the toilet roll (see how desparate i was to use it!) and later tried an old cracker box.

Because i didn't have a macro lens for my big camera I tried it out with my baby compact canon on the macro setting. I was so eager I basically ran around the flat taking anything and everything. It was all very exciting!!! Here are my very first shots.

They were quite dirty as you can see. So off I went on the net again to find out how to clean these old timer cameras. Finally after screwing the lens off and on again to clean it I tried it out again. Much cleaner.

I'm still undecided as to whether i like the 'gritty' or 'clean' look. Maybe somewhere in between. After all this playing I really wanted to try it out outdoors. So I took it out on a day trip to Richmond Park and played around. I looked pretty silly with my make shift 'contrapation' (u can see it in the pic above - oh sorry thats my ugly hand in the shot), got lots of funny stares but was still a fun day out! Here are a couple that I took:

As you can see I still need loads of practice and a better contraption i think to block out the light properly!

More exciting news is that I've just received my close up lens set (cheaper version of macro lens as u need the macro to take the shots) so I can try to do the TTV technique with my proper camera rather than my compact. Now just gotta build another contraption to block out light for my big camera! Will keep u posted on how that goes.