Lomography Tutorials: 10 Tips For Taking Pictures with the Lomo'Instant Wide

Instant photography is becoming the new favorite medium and is a great way to introduce any analogue enthusiast to all things film. Being able to have the best of both worlds as with instant gratification and the physical photograph is a wonderful way to further the future of film. Unlock the full creative potential of the Lomo'Instant Wide with these 10 tips. In this article, we listed down the different functions your Lomo'Instant Wide camera is capable of using the beautiful city of Paris as our backdrop!

The Normal Picture

For these pictures I did not do any particular adjustment, I just disabled the flash because the brightness was good enough. So you can see the type of photos you can do very simply with your camera. The basic angle of the Lomo'Instant Wide is perfect to capture all your memories.

Ultra Wide-Angle

In the Lomo’Instant Wide pack, you have an ultra wide-angle lens that you can add over the basic lens. To help you frame you also have a special wide-angle viewfinder, which is very useful and gives you a better idea of the frame you are taking. The first picture was made with the basic lens of the camera, which is already good! The second one was taken with the ultra wide-angle lens which allows revealing elements of the building that could not be seen in the first picture.
You can use the wide angle lens in many situations, for landscapes photos, group photos, or when you are close to a subject and want to take a step back.

Multi-exposures

To realize pictures with multiple exposures like those ones, you just have to press the Mx button and shoot. As long as you do not press the button again, the picture will not come out and you will continue to do multi-exposures. For the first picture, I first shot some leaves of a tree, and then the front of a building. was inspired by the pyramid of the Louvre Museum, I thought it would be an interesting subject. Why have only one pyramid, while with a double exposure you can have two? For this second shot, the sun was at the top, so I decided to underexpose the two photos to avoid the rendering to be overexposed. For multi-exposures, do not forget to underexpose so that your photos are not too white! The Lomo’Instant Wide has an exposure button, which you can set to -1 (what I did here), to zero or +1.

The splitzer

The splitzer is an accessory that goes in front of the lens allowing you to hide part of the picture. You can decide to hide more or less depending on what you want. By using the Mx function at the same time, you can get pretty cool shots! The first picture here, for example, was taken by hiding the top of the lens in the first place, to take a shot of a door. And in the second time, by hiding the bottom of the lens while taking a picture of umbrellas hanging in the sky. For the second picture, I also wanted to mix two different elements present on the City Hall Square, facing me I had some trees, that I shot with the splitzer on the left side of the lens. Then I completed my image with the City Hall building. This is a way to redefine the landscape based on what you want to show. As well as for the multi-exposure, you can do more than two pictures, it’s up to you to decide!

Close-up

To realize close-ups, the Lomo'Instant Wide is equipped with a macro lens that can be put in front of the lens. I tested it on flowers because it is springtime and the parks of Paris are full of beautiful flowers. For the first picture with the yellow flowers, I set up the distance to the minimum (0.6m) and I put the camera lens 10 cm away from the flower that I wanted to see sharp. I pressed the button and that's the result!
For the second photo, I took it one morning, the sun was not yet well installed in the sky. I made the same settings as for the previous one, with only one difference. As the brightness was less important, I added +1 of exposure so that my picture was sufficiently bright.

Long exposure

The Lomo'Instant Wide has a Bulb function, which allows for long exposure times. For these photos, I wanted to get the streams of light from the cars. Being at a bus stop, I tried to find a stable surface (a tripod is always better in these cases). So I put the device on a barrier (wide enough for the camera). I set the distance to infinity because I wanted to have all the elements as sharp as possible. And then I just waited for the cars to pass and pressed the shutter for a few seconds (for both photos: between 3 and 5 seconds).

Color Gels

For these pictures, I wanted to play with the colors and transform the atmosphere! For the first one, I used the blue color gel, to give a colder atmosphere to the photo, and for the second one, I wanted to do the opposite, using the pink color gel. This gives a warmer atmosphere! The color gels are very easy to use, just slide them in front of the flash to give color to your photos. For the picture of flowers, I put the blue color gel in front, in order to give a special atmosphere to this bouquet!

External Flash

The Lomo’Instant Wide is the only instant camera that has a PC Sync Socket. For this picture, I used the Flash Fritz the Blitz, that I connected to the Lomo’Instant Wide with a cable. I activated the Mx function because I wanted to do a double exposure. For the first shot, I oriented the flash so that it would lighten the top of the face. For the second exposure I put on a yellow filter in front of the Flash, to give a warmer atmosphere, and I oriented it from below. I also set the speed of the camera at 1/30 because there was no light in the room. With this option, you can realize pictures using a standard flash or some studio flash kits.

Selfie mode

With the integrated mirror of the Lomo’Instant Wide, you can say goodbye to bad selfies! If you want to have a picture of yourself in a particular place and you are alone, do not panic, Lomography has planned everything. You can hold your camera, look in the small mirror next to the lens to frame, and shoot! The second solution is the remote control. It is in the lens cap, you will find a self-timer and a remote shutter. I set up the focusing distance regarding where I was going to be, I put the camera on a stable surface, and then I triggered with the remote control. This tool can be very useful to take group pictures without having to sacrifice one person’s presence!

Portrait

This instant camera really allows you to make any type of picture! Feel free to use it for portraits, its wide angle allows you to capture portraits in unusual places, but you can also get closer to make portraits tight. For this photo, I was 2 meters away from my subject, so I set the focusing distance in regards to that, I framed and here is the result!

Now it's up to you to have fun, you know all the tricks! If you do not already have it, go to our online shop to get your Lomo’Instant Wide and its creative accessories!

written by Anna Carestia on 2019-06-25 #gear #tutorials #splitzer #inspiration #creativity #lomo-instant-wide
translated by Anna Carestia