my first Diana Mini roll - failure

[Yancab]

Hello! I bought a Diana Mini camera and today I picked up my first roll and I'm so disappointed with the results (I was expecting it because is my first time, but still)
So I need help, how can I get better shots? And what happened? why the colors are so weird? And why they have, i don't know how to explain this, like two blue lines in some photos, maybe light leaks?
I used ISO 200 in really sunny days btw.
I really appreciate if someone answers.

The colors are not how I expected them to be, like blue sky but it turned out yellow for example.

 

[timor]

Pictures seems to be just fine. Pure Lomography . Shifted colours, light leaks, vignette. Perfect.
I don't know, what you did expect from Diana, but what you've got, people want. Diana and Holga are famous for this type of, how some people say, "artsy-fartsy" renderings. I call it alternative vision. But if you not in it, it is a bust.
There is a separate thread for this kind of lo-fi photography:
Holga, Brownies, Pinhole and any other kind of Lo-Fi
There are whole websites dedicated to it.

 

[limr]

Hello! I bought a Diana Mini camera and today I picked up my first roll and I'm so disappointed with the results (I was expecting it because is my first time, but still)
So I need help, how can I get better shots? And what happened? why the colors are so weird? And why they have, i don't know how to explain this, like two blue lines in some photos, maybe light leaks?
I used ISO 200 in really sunny days btw.
I really appreciate if someone answers.

The colors are not how I expected them to be, like blue sky but it turned out yellow for example.
View attachment 147707 View attachment 147708 View attachment 147709

Exactly what timor said. This is the kind of image that a Diana Mini is known for. If that's not what you wanted, then perhaps the Diana Mini is not the right camera for you.

What film were you using? Yes, you said ISO 200, but what brand and where did you get it? Color shifts also come if film is expired or hasn't been stored properly.

 

[jcdeboever]

Love these. What they said. I have a holga that is sharp and one that is soft. Toy cameras are like a box of chocolates.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I have one, haven't used it much but don't think I got color that was off like this. The pictures are softer as expected thru a plastic lens. Similar to Holgas or a 110 Kodak Teleinstamatic or even some midcentury plastic cameras.

I agree with Leo in wondering about the film with the color shifted.

edit - Oh, looking again, I think you've got a light leak, on the lower right. It might be more noticeable depending on which way you were facing and how the light was hitting the camera. And those two streaks, same thing, another light leak?

You could get some black electrical tape or gaffer's tape to tape along the seams of the camera after you load it. Which would mean having to do that every time you load/unload. Unless you want some crazy funky colors which some people like to experiment with. You could crop down the scanned copies of these to get rid of the blue blobs and streaks and keep the shifted color, that can be kind of cool with the right subject.

 

[Yancab]

Pictures seems to be just fine. Pure Lomography . Shifted colours, light leaks, vignette. Perfect.
I don't know, what you did expect from Diana, but what you've got, people want. Diana and Holga are famous for this type of, how some people say, "artsy-fartsy" renderings. I call it alternative vision. But if you not in it, it is a bust.
There is a separate thread for this kind of lo-fi photography:
Holga, Brownies, Pinhole and any other kind of Lo-Fi
There are whole websites dedicated to it.

I like lo-fi but I wanted to try that after. I like more those photos that are more on the "dreamy/ghostly" side, if that makes any sense.

 

[Yancab]

Hello! I bought a Diana Mini camera and today I picked up my first roll and I'm so disappointed with the results (I was expecting it because is my first time, but still)
So I need help, how can I get better shots? And what happened? why the colors are so weird? And why they have, i don't know how to explain this, like two blue lines in some photos, maybe light leaks?
I used ISO 200 in really sunny days btw.
I really appreciate if someone answers.

The colors are not how I expected them to be, like blue sky but it turned out yellow for example.
View attachment 147707 View attachment 147708 View attachment 147709

Exactly what timor said. This is the kind of image that a Diana Mini is known for. If that's not what you wanted, then perhaps the Diana Mini is not the right camera for you.

What film were you using? Yes, you said ISO 200, but what brand and where did you get it? Color shifts also come if film is expired or hasn't been stored properly.

I used from lomography and I don't remember the name of the store, it was one of those generic stores that sell cameras and stuff.

 

[Yancab]

I have one, haven't used it much but don't think I got color that was off like this. The pictures are softer as expected thru a plastic lens. Similar to Holgas or a 110 Kodak Teleinstamatic or even some midcentury plastic cameras.

I agree with Leo in wondering about the film with the color shifted.

edit - Oh, looking again, I think you've got a light leak, on the lower right. It might be more noticeable depending on which way you were facing and how the light was hitting the camera. And those two streaks, same thing, another light leak?

You could get some black electrical tape or gaffer's tape to tape along the seams of the camera after you load it. Which would mean having to do that every time you load/unload. Unless you want some crazy funky colors which some people like to experiment with. You could crop down the scanned copies of these to get rid of the blue blobs and streaks and keep the shifted color, that can be kind of cool with the right subject.

thanks! I'm going to try that black electrical tape thing because at the moment I don't want photos with crazy funky colors, I want color to be more on the softer side.

 

[Designer]

So I need help, how can I get better shots? And what happened? why the colors are so weird? And why they have, i don't know how to explain this, like two blue lines in some photos, maybe light leaks?

Hello to you, and welcome! It does seem strange, doesn't it, that some people want this result? As strange as it seems, your camera is performing exactly as expected.

 

[timor]

thanks! I'm going to try that black electrical tape thing because at the moment I don't want photos with crazy funky colors, I want color to be more on the softer side.

Try and let see. Crazy colours maybe not caused entirely by leaks. each of this cameras has own, uniquely inconsistent plastic singular meniscus lens, which make given camera special. Or not. If you want colours without shift but soft etc. try normal camera and some warming filters and soft filters from immense Cokin collection:
Intro 2020 Ltd. - A SERIES
P-series is even more impressive.

 

[limr]

Hello! I bought a Diana Mini camera and today I picked up my first roll and I'm so disappointed with the results (I was expecting it because is my first time, but still)
So I need help, how can I get better shots? And what happened? why the colors are so weird? And why they have, i don't know how to explain this, like two blue lines in some photos, maybe light leaks?
I used ISO 200 in really sunny days btw.
I really appreciate if someone answers.

The colors are not how I expected them to be, like blue sky but it turned out yellow for example.
View attachment 147707 View attachment 147708 View attachment 147709

Exactly what timor said. This is the kind of image that a Diana Mini is known for. If that's not what you wanted, then perhaps the Diana Mini is not the right camera for you.

What film were you using? Yes, you said ISO 200, but what brand and where did you get it? Color shifts also come if film is expired or hasn't been stored properly.

I used from lomography and I don't remember the name of the store, it was one of those generic stores that sell cameras and stuff.

I think a couple of things could have been going on with the film.

First, it's possible it was expired or exposed to heat. You see, Lomography doesn't make its own film. They buy bulk film and rebrand it, sometimes recutting to a different size. These could be rolls that were going to expire soon and they're sold more cheaply, or possibly the inside of the industrial size rolls. If there were any issues with shipping or loading into canisters, or with storage at the retails store, that film could have been exposed to heat. Now, the film probably wasn't so expired that you would notice significant color shift. That generally takes years. But heat can do that.

The thing with Lomography is that most of the time, the film stock they are using is fine, but you might have just gotten a bad batch. That has been known to happen with rebranded film. For example, I bought three rolls of medium-format black and white (not Lomo, but from Freestyle). Two rolls were fine, but the third must have gotten heated or wet or something because the backing paper markings were "burned" into the emulsion. Here's what that looks like: low contrast, grain, markings. Color film probably would have shown color shifts:


Day 128 - Dam by limrodrigues, on Flickr

Looking at your pictures, though, I don't think you were dealing with damaged film. You'd expect not just color shift, but grain and low contrast. I suspect you might have either accidentally picked up a roll of redscale film or mistakenly loaded the film backwards (which is essentially what redscaled film is) I know Lomo makes redscale film. I've used it. Here's what it looks like:


Day 36 - Redscale river by limrodrigues, on Flickr


Day 36 - Redscale library by limrodrigues, on Flickr


Day 35 - Redscale shopfront by limrodrigues, on Flickr

 

[timor]

Nice pics Limr.

 

[limr]

Nice pics Limr.

Thanks

 

[jcdeboever]

This thread has me loading up my holga's

 

[Yancab]

Thank you all for replying! I'm going to take more photos maybe this lo-fi thing will grow on me, because I was so used to the colors from polaroid and instant cameras that this was quite a shock. I'm going to buy the film from another brand and I can't wait to go out and take some photos!