Plastic Cameras

In these days of high tech, high spec digital cameras even the rankest amateur can capture technically professional-looking images – but there's a growing trend of happy-go-lucky snappers who yearn for a more simplistic approach, a return to a time when photography was perhaps less predictable. Decidedly low-tech and highly idiosyncratic plastic, or 'toy' cameras such as the original 1984 Lomo Kompakt Automat (which spawned the term 'Lomography'), the Diana and the Holga, and the recently introduced Blackbird, Fly enable them to create images that – while not technically perfect – display a quirky sense of fun, spontaneity, and creative artiness. Whereas digital cameras and high spec film cameras boast the technology to eradicate undesirable optical 'faults' such as vignetting, barrel and pinchushion distortion, converging verticals and noise, the owners of their cheaper cousins – which have only rudimentary plastic lenses – relish the manifestation of such visual aberrations in their pictures. Colors are typically richly over-saturated, exposure frequently off-kilter, focus dreamily soft. Plastic cameras lack light meters, autofocus, auto film advance, adjustable shutters and digital sensors, notoriously leak light onto the 120 or 35mm roll film they employ, and there are some wacky versions: flamboyant wide-angle fish-eyes, stereo cameras with two lenses and two flashes, pinhole cameras that don't even possess a lens, and multi-lens cameras that create negatives combining up to nine images on a single 35mm frame.

Take a tour of the burgeoning world of plastic cameras and low-tech photography in this fun and funky guide to creating the most artistic pictures of your life! Whether you're an experienced enthusiast or toy camera neophyte, you'll find this guide full of tantalizing tips, fun facts, and absolutely striking photographs taken with the lowest tech tools around. You'll learn how to prep your plastic camera, their advantages and quirks, and what film to feed it. You'll also explore what makes a good subject, vignetting, multiple exposures, panoramas, close-ups, night photography, color, flash, problems and solutions, and so much more. Michelle Bates also takes you from a negative to either prints or pixels so that you can show off your photos and jump on the toy-camera revolution! Contributors include: Michael Ackerman, Thomas Michael Alleman, Erin Antognoli, Jonathan Bailey , James Balog, Michelle Bates, Phil Bebbington, Gyorgy Beck, Susan Bowen, Laura Corley Burlton, David Burnett, Susan Burnstine, Nancy Burson, Perry Dilbeck, Jill Enfield, fotovitamina, Annette Elizabeth Fournet, Brigitte Grignet, Eric Havelock-Bailie, Christopher James, Michael Kenna, Wesley Kennedy, Teru Kuwayama, Louviere & Vanessa, Mary Ann Lynch, Anne Arden McDonald, Ted Orland, Sylvia Plachy, Dan Price, Becky Ramotowski, Nancy Rexroth, Francisco Mata Rosas, Richard Ross, Franco Salmoiraghi, Rosanna Salonia, Jennifer Shaw, Nancy Siesel, Mark Sink, Kurt Smith, Sandy Sorlien, Pauline St. Denis, Harvey Stein, Gordon Stettinius, Ryan Synovec, Rebecca Tolk, Marydorsey Wanless, Shannon Welles, Matthew Yates, Dan Zamudio

Take a tour of the burgeoning world of plastic cameras and low-tech photography in this fun and funky guide to creating the most artistic pictures of your life! Whether you're an experienced enthusiast or toy camera neophyte, you'll find this guide full of tantalizing tips, fun facts, and absolutely striking photographs taken with the lowest tech tools around. You'll learn how to prep your plastic camera, their advantages and quirks, and what film to feed it. You'll also explore what makes a good subject, vignetting, multiple exposures, panoramas, close-ups, night photography, color, flash, problems and solutions, and so much more. Michelle Bates also takes you from a negative to either prints or pixels so that you can show off your photos and jump on the toy-camera revolution! Contributors include: Michael Ackerman, Thomas Michael Alleman, Erin Antognoli, Jonathan Bailey , James Balog, Michelle Bates, Phil Bebbington, Gyorgy Beck, Susan Bowen, Laura Corley Burlton, David Burnett, Susan Burnstine, Nancy Burson, Perry Dilbeck, Jill Enfield, fotovitamina, Annette Elizabeth Fournet, Brigitte Grignet, Eric Havelock-Bailie, Christopher James, Michael Kenna, Wesley Kennedy, Teru Kuwayama, Louviere & Vanessa, Mary Ann Lynch, Anne Arden McDonald, Ted Orland, Sylvia Plachy, Dan Price, Becky Ramotowski, Nancy Rexroth, Francisco Mata Rosas, Richard Ross, Franco Salmoiraghi, Rosanna Salonia, Jennifer Shaw, Nancy Siesel, Mark Sink, Kurt Smith, Sandy Sorlien, Pauline St. Denis, Harvey Stein, Gordon Stettinius, Ryan Synovec, Rebecca Tolk, Marydorsey Wanless, Shannon Welles, Matthew Yates, Dan Zamudio

The greatly revised and expanded edition of The Elements of Photography is a new kind of textbook for a new generation of photographers. Moving far beyond the usual technical manual, Angela Faris Belt dives deep into merging technique and vision, allowing you to master craft while adding meaning to your images. Here you'll really learn to see photographically, expand your creative and conceptual use of apertures and shutter speeds, and choose the right media to create the look and feel you want.

The camera revolution has begun! This hip how-to volume will help lo-fi photographers take their shooting to the next level, be it with Polaroid, Diana, Holga, pinhole camera, or many more beloved analog favorites. In 35 fun and imaginative projects, users will learn dozens of unexpected and beautiful techniques, from cross-, push-, and hand-processing to experimenting with film speeds and film types, bleeding images, and using multiple exposures and lenses. Illustrated with striking shots from lo-fi aficionados and organized by technique, this easy-to-follow guide—with simple step-by-step instructions and handy tips on camera quirks—will inspire plastic camera pros and enthusiastic beginners to point and shoot in a whole new way.

The art of film photography using plastic or "toy" cameras is the sensational new trend among camera buffs and hipsters. Featuring a shoot-from-the-hip attitude and a playful retro look, Fantastic Plastic Cameras is the definitive guide to the low-fi phenomenon referred to as Lomography. Inside, photographers will find a roster of forty of the most popular plastic camera models, tips and tricks for shooting with them, and examples of amazing photographs. Perfect for both beginners and die-hard fans, this handy volume is sure to enchant anyone who loves the soft-focus world these cameras capture.

Toy Cameras, Creative Photos is the perfect book for creative photographers, image-makers, designers, and toy camera aficionados. Focusing on the photographs produced by each camera, this is a stunning visual guide to the unique stylistic qualities that different toy cameras offer. Arranged by camera model (all of the cameras included are readily available and in popular current use), Toy Cameras, Creative Photos discusses camera characteristics, special tricks, foibles, functionality, and interesting projects by users, but the visual emphasis is firmly on the photographs. The workings of each camera model are described, as are the ways in which they differ from “everyday” digital cameras, and the distinctive photographic results reveal a huge potential for experimentation that moves away from run-of-the-mill photography. Including a gallery of images produced by each camera, a resource section on film types, and adapting cameras to the use of film, Toy Cameras, Creative Photos fills a gap in the market for a comprehensive guide to this most hip and exciting of creative photographic endeavours.