Instant Film Camera has already been trending for a while as I know, but this little "low-tech" camera seems to be irresistible to everyone. There are a few different kinds of Instant Film Cameras in the public right now, the main ones are Polariod camera and Fuiji Instax Camera, which is what I'm going to focus on today.
I bought this camera (Fuji Instax mini 7s) about 2 years ago, and I'm just obsessed with it. You can just simply capture your favorite moment and it will print it instantly, that's also the reason why people are so obsessed with instant film cameras. Comparing with Instax mini 8s, Instax mini 7s doesn't have much function as Instax mini 8s, but it's a good camera for people who like lomography or playing with different effects.
The biggest difference between Instax mini 8s and Instax mini 7s is that Instax mini 7s doesn't have a "High-Key" function. There are 4 mode for you to shoot your photo, you can adjust different modes according to the lighting.
You may aware that the flash light on all the Fuji Instant film cameras will flash in every single mode, even when you adjust to the "clear" mode, the flash will still fire and may cause a slightly over-exposed to the picture. But as long as you stick to your cameras and keep practicing, these problems can be avoid.
The only problem is you have to be careful when you are taking close-up shots as there's a large distance between the eyepiece and the actual lens, focusing close objects with you eyepiece may cause your final picture a total different story. But again, practice makes perfect.
It's not difficult to take a nice picture using instant film cameras, but just remember the following tips below.
1. Lighting
Whatever camera your are using or whatever photos you are taking, lighting is a very important element that you can't ignore. Especially when you are using Instant film cameras, lighting is the very main thing that creates the mood of the photo.
As the flash light of the instant film camera fires every time you press the shutter, it may easily cause the photo to be over-exposed. To improve this problem, you may stick some "naked-white" scotch tape on the flash, so that the flash is completely covered causing the flash light to decrease its brightness.
2. Modes
Switching to the right mode is very important for an instant film camera as it controls the brightness of the flash. However, if you'd like to play with different effects, you may always switch to a "High-key" or a "Low-key". As I've said before, the Instax mini 7s doesn't have the "High-key" feature, but don't worry because the high-key feature in Instax mini 8s will only be useful in the indoors but not the outdoors.
For Instax mini 7s, switching to the "high-key mode" (which you switch a higher mode, causing the light of the flash brighter), creating a slightly exposure to the photo, you will find it pretty awesome after you got your photo printed out.
Switching to the "low-key mode" (which you switch a lower mode, causing the light of the flash dimmer), may slightly darken your photo but gives out a more "solid" effect for the objects or views you are shooting.
So, switching to a "low-key" or a "high-key" mode is all up to you, you can do this in whatever occasion when you feel like doing it. Just try it with different environment then you will slowly get the feeling of when to use "Hight-key" and "Low-key".
3. Taking Selfies with Instant Film Camera
Many people have told me about this "selfies problem", but it's quite an easy problem to solve. You can simply purchase a "self-taking lens" (shown in the first photo of this blog post) in some shops, which is kind of like a mirror attaching on your instant film camera's lens, and you can just simply adjust your position by looking at that little mirror and press the shutter.
If you can't find a "self-taking lens" or you don't feel like buying one, there's one simple method is that just simply look at the reflection on the lens and adjust the position, it may be hard at night but you will find it easier afterwards.
4. Distance
Many people like to use a instant film camera to take group photos, to save their memories, but misplacing your camera in a far distance may cause your "memories" to fade away. As the flash of the instant film camera can only flash within a range of 3-4 ft. (even though it's said to be "infinite"), especially when you are in a dark environment. So try to keep everything within 3 ft.
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| The golf court (using the high-key effect) and a tall tree (using the low-key effect) outside my house. |
So, have fun with your instant film cameras and try to capture every single precious moment if you can. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions about the tips or information about instant film cameras, or even if you have some other requests for my next blog post, just let me know. ;)
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At last, I will be doing a "Instant Film Camera Giveaway" by the end of the week (the next post), so be sure to keep an eye on this blog and remember every tips on this blog post. Please also leave a comment below to let me know if you are entering the giveaway or not so that I can have a brief number of how many of you are entering as I will only be giving out one camera (the camera is 100% new, same with the one above).
And also just to let me know if you've read the tips from this post, so that you can use the camera wisely ;)
Happy Photographing everyone:)
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