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Do you remember?.. The first time you played with pieces of modeling clay, melting them in your hands and going deeper and deeper into the colourful plasticine world where your imagination was the only limit. Since the 19th century, when Franz Kolb and William Harbutt independently of each other invented plasticine (modeling clay), it has been used in almost all fields of art: illustration, web design, typography, claymation, installation design.

Plasticine artworks can be found just everywhere: advertisements, book/magazine as well as CD/DVD covers, movies / TV series, music videos, computer / console games, and even web design elements. Below you will find a collection of beautiful plasticine artworks that hopefully will inspire you and give you an idea about how this material can be used in your next design project.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential and popular Twitter accounts? Join our discussions and get updates about useful tools and resources — follow us on Twitter!]

Plasticine + Photography / Illustration

Advertising

Nike Italy by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Faber Castell plasticine Advertisement by Unitas RNL Santiago (Chile)

Onida Washing Machines Advertisement by McCann Erickson Mumbai (India)

Freya Lingerie Advertising by Stuart Jackson

Becks Advertisement by Scholz+Friends Hamburg (Germany)

Forma Total Gym by Artplan (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Nicorette Advertisement by DRAFTFCB KOBZA (Austria)

Aniquem Advertisement by McCann Erickson Peru

Stamyl Advertisement by Maruri Grey (Ecuador)

Magazine Cover Design

Esquire (March 2009) – 30th birthday of plasticine character Morph

Poster Design

“The Summer Reading Club” Poster for The Toronto Public Library by Barbara Reid

“Young Audience” Poster for Theatre Direct by Barbara Reid

Flyer for The Ovnis by Pablo Alfieri

Book Illustrations

Barbara Reid

Artworks

Amy Vangsgard

Irma Gruenholz

Anna Villalba

Manuela Martin

Charlotte Oh

Tammy Durham

CactuSoup

Plasticine + Animation = Claymation

Clay animation, or claymation as it is popularly known, is one of the types of stop-motion animation which is extremely laborious. Each animated piece is sculpted in plasticine clay. Some of the best-known clay-animation artists and studios include Will Vinton, Aardman Animation, Art Clockey and many others.

Animatied Movies / TV Series

The Gumby Show (1957 – …)

Closed Mondays (1974)

Morph (1977 – …)

The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)

Wallace and Gromit (1989 – present)

Wallace and Gromit in “A Matter of Loaf and Death” (2008)

Creature Comforts (1989)

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992)

Loves Me… Loves Me Not (1992)

Purple and Brown (2006 – …)

Shaun The Sheep (2007 – …)

Chess Game “Poole – HAL 9000″ (from the “2001: A Space Odyssey” movie)

Pigeon Pilfer (2009)

Plasticine Crow (1981) [RU]

Last Year’s Snow Was Falling (1983) [RU]

From Iljitsch to Kuzmich (2000 – …) [RU]

Movie / TV Opening Title Sequences

Freaked

Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi! [RU]

Advertising

Levi’s

Sony Bravia: Play-doh

Chevron Cars

American Express: Modelling Clay by OgilvyOne London

Xbox 360

Music Videos

Frank Zappa – Baby Snakes (1979)

John Fogerty – Vanz Kant Danz (1987)

Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able (2009)

Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full Of Lead (2009)

Computer / Console Games

Claymates (1993)

ClayFighter (1993)

Primal Rage (1994)

The Neverhood (1996)

SkullMonkeys (1998)

Platypus (2002)

Gumby vs. the Astrobots (2005)

Cletus Clay (2006)

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures (2008)

Shaun The Sheep

Plasticine + Web Design

Microsoft: {You shape} it

lauren.brandcubator

malum

Plastilina Creativa

Zaramella

Plastilin Event

Plasticine + Typography

Further Resources

• http://www.bombastudio.pl/index.php?/identity/plastelinowa-typografia-new/
• http://www.behance.net/Gallery/plasticine-typo/310776

Installation Design

James May’s “Plasticine Paradise” garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009 on May 19-23, 2009 in London, England.

Plasticine Art Tutorials

• “Working With Plasticine” Tutorial by Barbara Reid
• “Making Plasticine Pictures Video” Tutorial by Barbara Reid

What do you think?

What is your opinion on plasticine art? In case any exceptional plasticine works haven’?t been covered, please feel free to use the comments area to share your thoughts and suggest other beautiful works. We are looking forward to your feedback and your thoughts!

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Yes, this is another round-up of fresh and useful Javascript techniques, tools and resources. But don’t close the tab yet, as you might find this one very useful. In this selection we present calendars, forms, buttons, navigation, debugging, optimization and compatibility tables as well as handy resources and tools. We also cover various jQuery-plugins that will help you extend the functionality of your website and improve user experience with ready components or coding solutions.

The last section also covers a number of useful educational resources such as a compilation of useful JavaScript coding practices, a detailed comparison of JavaScript frameworks and general JavaScript programming conventions. We are looking forward to your feedback.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• 50 Fresh JavaScript Tools That Will Improve Your Workflow
• 45 Powerful CSS/JavaScript-Techniques
• 70 Useful AJAX And JavaScript Techniques

By the way, what was the last time you visited our sister site Noupe? Subscribe to Noupe’s feed for more inspirational and design-related articles.

Calendars and Timelines

jDigiClock – Digital Clock (HTC Hero inspired) /> jDigiClock is a jQuery plugin inspired from HTC Hero Clock Widget.

jQuery Sliding Clock v1.1 /> jQuery transpearant Slider clock with CSS sprites.

Date / Time Picker /> Note that this control is not designed to work in IE6; although it will function correctly in most cases, the positioning of the calendar may be way off depending on how your page is styled.

JavaScript Debugging and Validation Tools

Venkman JavaScript Debugger project page /> Venkman is the code name for Mozilla’s JavaScript Debugger. Venkman aims to provide a powerful JavaScript debugging environment for Gecko-based browsers namely Firefox 3.x, the Netscape 7.x series of browsers, Netscape 9.x series, Mozilla Seamonkey 1.x and Mozilla Seamonkey 2.x. It does not include Gecko-based browsers such as K-Meleon 1.x, Galeon 2.x and Netscape 8.x. The debugger is available as an add-on package in XPI format. Venkman JavaScript Debugger has been provided as part of the Mozilla install distribution since October 3rd 2001.

CompanionJS /> Companion.JS (pronounced Companion dot JS or CJS) is a Javascript debugger for IE.

How to Test your JavaScript Code with QUnit /> QUnit is a powerful JavaScript unit testing framework that helps you to debug code. It’s written by members of the jQuery team, and is the official test suite for jQuery. But QUnit is general enough to test any regular JavaScript code, and it’s even able to test server-side JavaScript via some JavaScript engine like Rhino or V8.

JS Bin – Collaborative JavaScript Debugging /> JS Bin is an open source collaborative JavaScript debugging tool.

Forms, Buttons & Navigation

Making a Google Wave History Slider /> Here is shown how to create a Google Wave-like history slider. Using it will enable visitors to go back and forth in time to view the changes that take place on a comment thread.

Fancy Radio Buttons With jQuery /> Creation of 2 mandatory option sets that a user could choose, while hiding off the radio button inputs and using an anchor links to make it a bit more usable.

Creative Button Animations with Sprites and JQuery /> Fading hover effect for which the transition is smoothed with JavaScript, using jQuery library.

Password (un)Masking /> JavaScript jQuery that toggles the masking and unmasking of the password field.

jQuery MagicLine Navigation /> These “sliding” style navigation bars have been around a while, and turns out it’s really pretty darn easy. Here are put two examples together.

Fixed Fade Out Menu: A CSS and jQuery Tutorial /> The aim is to have a fixed navigation that follows the user when he scrolls, and only subtly showing itself by fading out and becoming almost transparent. When the user hovers over it, the menu then becomes opaque again. Inside of the navigation we will have some links, a search input and a top and bottom button that let the user navigate to the top or the bottom of the page.

jQuery plugin: Simplest Twitter-like dynamic character count for textareas and input fields /> The best way to explain what this plugin does is to mention Twitter. Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters. While typing the Twitter post there is this always present information about how many characters the users have before reaching the limit. The information is not only provided merely by displaying a number, there are different colors applied to certain stages to notify the user about the status.

Sliding Labels v2 /> Form label keeping the label inline, but sliding it off to the left rather than going away on click.

Ketchup Plugin /> Ketchup is a slim jQuery Plugin that validates your forms. It aims to be very flexible and extendable for its appearance and functionality.

Layout tools

jQuery {css}designerGrid Plugin /> {css} designerGrid is A jQuery Plugin developed for website interface developers who use the grid system of layout. {css} designerGrid is intended to assist these developers with CSS prototyping.

css-template-layout /> JavaScript (jQuery) implementation of the CSS Template Layout Module

How to create a fluid grid with jQuery /> Grid-based layout is probably the more preferred way to style up a webpage to give it more magazine-like look and feel. This tutorial is about how to use CSS and Javascript to create a fluid grid-based layout (See demo here). The algorithm/procedure used in this tutorial is very simple and straightforward. There are more advanced algorithms out there which can handle multiple scenarios. But the purpose is to understand the basic logic on how to create such layout. So here it goes…

closure-templates /> Closure Templates are a client- and server-side templating system that helps you dynamically build reusable HTML and UI elements. They are easy to learn and customizable to fit your application’s needs. Closure Templates support JavaScript and Java and use a data model and expression syntax that works for either language. You can also use the built-in message support to easily localize your applications.

Useful jQuery Plugins

TipTip jQuery Plugin /> TipTip detects the edges of the browser window and will make sure the tooltip stays within the current window size. As a result the tooltip will adjust itself to be displayed above, below, to the left or to the right of the element with TipTip applied to it, depending on what is necessary to stay within the browser window. TipTip is a very lightweight and intelligent custom tooltip jQuery plugin. It uses ZERO images and is completely customizable via CSS. It’s also only 3.5kb minified!

jQuery Roundabout /> Roundabout is a jQuery plugin that converts a structure of static HTML elements into a highly customizable turntable-like interactive area. (And now, not just turntables, but many shapes!)

jParse – jQuery XML Parse Plugin /> jParse is a jQuery plugin that allows you to parse XML that was fetched with the jQuery .ajax method (making it fully customizable).

jQuery Quicksand plugin /> Reorder and filter items with a nice shuffling animation.

typeQuery, change website typography with jquery />typeQuery gives the flexibility to change the font-family for everything you define with class, id, or tag, this example is referring to the selected item on a select object with id=”tag” and the font-family value at select object with id=”family”: $($("#tag").val()).css("font-family", $("#family").val());

Flip! A jQuery plugin v0.9.9 /> Flip is a jQuery plugin that will flip easily your elements in four directions.

Data Encryption With JavaScript: jCryption /> jCryption is a jQuery plugin for encrypting POST/GET data submitted by forms. It uses public-key algorithm of RSA for the encryption & has a PHP file for handling the decryption of data.

Minimalist jQuery: 11 useful plugins under 4K /> jQuery makes our lives easier. So much so that it’s tempting to use it all the time, inadvertently slowing our page load times (cue YSlow and Hammerhead). Combining, compressing, and delivering scripts at the end of your page helps in the HTTP request department. On the file size front, below are jQuery plugins that give solid bang for your performance buck.

Undo/Redo in jQuery /> An easy-to-use plugin for adding undo/redo capabilities to a jQuery application. It is based loosely on the Objective-C/Cocoa way of doing things.

editease /> editEase – jQuery CMS | no fuss, no database, no worries

jsHub /> jsHub is a single piece of JavaScript (a “tag”) that can handle reading different sorts of page information and then send them to many different vendors’ products. One piece of code to send to Google Analytics, Omniture SiteCatalyst, WebTrends and Mixpanel. Instead of one piece of JavaScript per vendor, jsHub has a single piece of code (the “hub”) and plugins that know how to translate into the required wire protocol for each vendor. Vendors only maintain the plugin for their product.

Educational JavaScript Resources and Tutorials

Caffeinated Simpleton /> JavaScript is an amazing little language, but it’s got some quirks that turn a lot of people off. One of those quirks is this, and how it’s not necessarily what you expect it to be. this isn’t that complicated, but there are very few explanations of how it works on the internet. This article is an attempt to explain how this works and how to use it properly.

What You Need To Know About JavaScript Scope /> This article discusses how JavaScript handles scope and how various JavaScript libraries provide methods for dealing with it and how they smooth out a few bumps. We’ll also look at how you can get back to basics and do some interesting scope wrangling without a library, a useful approach if you’re writing code that needs to stand alone.

Learning Advanced JavaScript /> A very nice tutorial to learn JavaScript, containing code and discussion from the upcoming book Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja by John Resig.

Highlight search terms automagically with JavaScript and mark /> Script surrounding the search term(s) with the mark element rather than a span, although the class searchword is retained in case you want to style these marks differently from others. In the CSS, the rule article mark is just added to turn it a gentle shade of pink.

10 Really Helpful Traversing Functions in jQuery /> With jQuery, selecting HTML elements is laughably easy. But at times, we may wish to further refine the selection, which can be a hassle when the HTML structure is complicated. In this tutorial, we’ll explore ten ways that we can refine and extend a set of wrapped elements that we wish to operate upon.

Using keyboard shortcuts in Javascript /> If you want to enhance your web app, Javascript keyboards shortcuts is definitely something to consider. In this article, you’ll learn to use JS keyboard shortcuts, with and without the JQuery framework.

Code Conventions for the JavaScript Programming Language /> This is a set of coding conventions and rules for use in JavaScript programming.

jQuery – Select element cheat sheet />This cheat sheet helps you to find the index of a selected option, set the selected option by value, set the selected option by text, insert a new option before or after another and get the text or value of the selected option.

Compare JavaScript frameworks /> Modern Web sites and Web applications tend to rely quite heavily on client-side JavaScript to provide rich interactivity, particularly through the advent of asynchronous HTTP requests that do not require page refreshes to return data or responses from a server-side script or database system. In this article, you will discover how JavaScript frameworks make it easier and faster to create highly interactive and responsive Web sites and Web applications.

Park your Horse, Code Cowboy: Professional JavaScript Workflows, Part 1 /> In this series, we’ll talk about tools & techniques you can use to cover those No’s, and cut a lot of strife & embarrassment from your JavaScript experience.

JavaScript Reference examples (example source code) /> JavaScript Reference examples, organized by Objects, Properties, Methods & Collections. Some Event Handlers Reference are also available.

JavaScript best practices /> A compilation of best practices and good advice I’ve amassed over the years, much of it learnt the hard way (experimentation and suchlike). Take the advice below to heart and keep it in a part of your brain that has a quick access route so you can apply it without thinking about it. I am sure you will find things to disagree with, and that is a good thing – you should question what you read, and strive to find better solutions. However, I have found that following these principles has made me a more effective developer and allowed other developers to build upon my work more easily.

wtfjs /> JavaScript is a language we love despite it giving us so much to hate. This is a collection of those very special irregularities, inconstancies and just plain painfully unintuitive moments for the language of the web.

Related Posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• 50 Fresh JavaScript Tools That Will Improve Your Workflow
• 45 Powerful CSS/JavaScript-Techniques
• 70 Useful AJAX And JavaScript Techniques

Poll

/> /> What programming language should we cover in next round-up?surveys />

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Mobile forms tend to have significantly more constraints than their desktop cousins: screens are smaller; connections are slower; text entry is trickier; the list goes on. So, limiting the number of forms in your mobile applications and websites is generally a good idea. When you do want input from users on mobile devices, radio buttons, checkboxes, select menus and lists tend to work much better than open text fields.

But constraints breed innovation, and mobile forms are no different. The limitations of mobile devices have forced developers and designers to find new ways to allow users to input data faster and more easily. Thanks to the modern solutions covered in this article, the mobile space may not be a place to avoid forms much longer. Instead, it may become the place to encourage them.

[Offtopic: by the way, have you already visited Smashing Magazine’s Facebook fan page? Join the community for a stream of useful resources, updates and giveaways!]

Field Zoom

In many mobile Web browsers, when a user selects a form’s input field, the “field zoom” feature expands it to fill the screen’s viewable area. This makes an otherwise tiny field large enough for people to actually see the data they are entering. Given that many form errors are caused by people not seeing their inputs well enough to correct misspellings, the usability of this feature is clear.

The Safari browser on Apple’s iPhone makes use of field zoom together with a “form assistant.” The form assistant displays “Previous,” “Next,” “AutoFill” and “Done” buttons below the magnified input field, giving people an easy way to move through and complete a form. No need to worry if an input field is off screen: the user just hits “Next” and won’t miss it!

However, not everyone will know about the form assistant or know how to hide the keyboard. So, make sure the controls on the Web page still allow them to complete the form. Excessive spacing around the “Submit” button can tuck it behind the keyboard.

Field zoom is another great reason to top-align input field labels in forms. As you can see on Google’s registration form (screenshot below), left-aligned labels disappear when input fields are expanded to fill the screen. With no visible label, the user can easily forget what question they have to answer. Long input fields also suffer a bit with field zoom.

Mobile browsers that don’t have field zoom also run into issues with left- and right-aligned input field labels. Anyone using such a form on Google’s Android OS (below) faces the problem of disappearing labels. The screen simply does not have enough room for both the input field and its corresponding label. Top-aligned labels avoid this issue.

Input Formats

Some mobile Web browsers recognize specific input types (part of the developing HTML5 standard) and adjust their input modes accordingly. For example, specifying an input of the type url brings up a virtual alphanumeric keyboard with “.”, “/”, and “.com” keys. Specifying an input of the type email brings up a virtual alphanumeric keyboard with “.” and “@” keys. Specifying an input of the type number brings up a virtual numeric keyboard.

These input-specific keyboards make entering the particular type of data required by each input field much easier. Even browsers without virtual keyboards benefit from the use of number, because users would not have to switch to number mode to enter numeric data.

Password-Masking

Most password input fields in forms instantly obscure all characters that a user enters to keep sensitive information hidden from prying eyes. Automatic masking of passwords may provide the appearance of security, but it can also create usability issues when people are left staring at a row of bullets that they hope (but can’t verify) is their password.

Many mobile devices address this issue by displaying the most recent character the user has entered, and then obscuring that character as a bullet only after a brief delay. This technique has made its way onto the desktop, as illustrated in this password-masking solution from ZURB.

Pop-Up Menu Controls

Drop-down select menus are one of the hardest input types to use. First, you have to click on the menu to open it. Then, you have to maneuver through a potentially long list of small targets. Once you find the value you want, you need position your cursor on the right target and select it. To top it off, many implementations of drop-down menus on the Web require you to keep your cursor on the menu while navigating the list, or else the menu closes!

Even dexterous users often miss them and need to start over. Couple this interactive challenge with the small screens of mobile devices and the need for a different solution for select menus becomes quite obvious.

For drop-down select menus on Web forms, Apple’s iPhone presents users with a pop-up menu control. This control displays the options in the menu in a contained list that can be scrolled at various speeds though drag, nudge and flick gestures. The large touch targets also make it easy to select the right value once you’ve found it.

Similarly, Google’s Android provides a larger touch target for select menu options. When the user taps a drop-down select menu on an Android device, a scrollable list of menu options appears in a dialog window over the Web page.

Compound Menu Controls

Pop-up menu controls can be applied to compound inputs as well. So, instead of requiring three separate input fields for the month, day and year of a requested date, one date field can bring up a set of pop-up menus that allow people to scroll through three lists at once to find the right date. This approach can be applied to other kinds of compound inputs as well, such as height in feet and inches.

Google’s Android has a compound input field solution, though it makes use of visible interface elements to move through a list instead of relying on gesture-based scrolling alone.

Native Input Controls

In addition to having compound menu controls, most mobile operating systems have several other custom input controls available to application developers. Sliders, split buttons, rating widgets and scrubbers are just a few of the components worth considering in place of standard form controls to make inputting easier for users.

Orientation

Because people like to hold mobile devices both horizontally and vertically in their hands, mobile forms should adjust accordingly to take advantage of the changing screen space. The compose email form on Google’s Android does just that.

When held vertically, the screen shows three input fields with several action buttons. In the horizontal position, the email body input takes over the screen, and one action button is shown on the right. This layout maximizes the screen space available for the message content.

Voice Input

Google’s Nexus One phone allows people to use voice input for any text field in an application. Users can swipe the virtual keyboard to switch the phone to audio input mode, or they can use the microphone button. The video below demonstrates both of these options in action. With effective voice input, typing any characters into the mobile device becomes a thing of the past.

What’s Next?

Mobile is growing exceptionally fast, and as more designers and developers focus on the space, we’ll hopefully see even further innovation in mobile forms. After all, anything that makes inputting (both on mobile and desktop devices) faster and easier will do a lot of good for both companies and their customers.

About the Author

Luke Wroblewski is an internationally recognized digital product design leader and the author of two popular Web design books. You can follow Luke on Twitter @lukewdesign or by using RSS.

Smashing Magazine readers can get a special 20% off discount on Luke’s latest book: Web Form Design Filling in the Blanks. Just use discount code MIX to order.

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Since its emergence, the digital photography market has gradually supplanted the traditional one. APN and digital SLR cameras entered our lives, and some people announced the death of silver-based images. This is not all lie, and yet old-fashioned images have been particularly popular in the past few years. All we do seem to do now is try to recreate the atmosphere of those bygone times anyway. Blurry, distorted and over-saturated images are not just a fad anymore. People have became familiar with the style and even consider it a full-fledged photographic genre.

And this is where toy cameras play a role. These devices, made entirely of plastic, including often the lens itself, are not only toys. Sure, they cost next to nothing and have no controls to speak of, but this is what people like about them: they create unpredictable pictures, with equally unpredictable vintage effects. Once you understand this, the rest is a beautiful game. Take them anywhere, anytime, and photograph whatever you like.

/> Photo credit: Pirouetting, by helenannsia

How does this apply to modern design? Now that vintage websites are so trendy, why not look to this type of image for inspiration? You probably don’t want to go through the trouble of taking up silver-based photography because that would mean buying, developing and scanning film, maybe even making prints. That takes time and is expensive.

What you can do, though, is use the magic of Photoshop to make your ultra-sharp, high-definition images look like they were taken with one of these cameras. Below are a list of the most famous toy cameras and some tutorials that can be used to recreate their famous effects. Most of them are part of the Lomography movement, but you might also want to consider some other options in trying to recreate that authentic look. You also may be interested in our previous article “The Disturbing Beauty of Oversaturated Pictures and Lomography.”

[By the way, did you know there is a brand new Smashing Wordpress Book? Push WordPress past its limits!]

Famous Toy Cameras

Toy cameras are cheap, low quality and yet functional. As such, the deformations in the photos they produce are pronounced, and not all images are guaranteed to be perfectly exposed. Still, there are just so many of them these days that picking a few is hard. The ones presented here have paved the way for the success of the others. You may know them but not the stories behind them?

Diana

Let’s start where it all began. Picture yourself in Hong Kong in the early ’60s, when a factory starts producing the Diana. This inexpensive plastic-body camera was at the time usually given away as a novelty gift. Occasionally, it would be used by actual photographers who took advantage of the various effects it produced. And many effects there were. Because of the poor quality of materials used, the Diana camera was disposed to light leaks, leading to film damage, an effect typically fixed by sealing the seams with light-proof tape. Handy, huh?

But the plastic body wasn’t the most interesting part: it was the lens, also made out of plastic. Not only did it enhance the already low contrast created by the light infiltration, but it also made for odd color rendering, chromatic aberration and blurry images. As if this weren’t enough, the image circle only marginally covered the diagonal of the film frame, which is why Diana images have heaving vignetting.

/> Photo credit: elZekah

As photographers started to deliberately exploit these characteristics, production grew through the ’70s and opened the way for other toy camera manufacturers.

/> Photo credit: chomdee

Lomo LC-A

This is where things get a bit tricky, so pay attention. It’s now the beginning of the ’90s, and for a few years the Russian factory Lomo PLC has been producing the Lomo LC-A camera, which basically has all of the characteristics of a toy camera (vignetting in particular). But production was stopped, and the camera was all but forgotten until two Austrian students found one at a flea market in 1991 and decided to exploit its marketing potential. They convinced the director of the Lomo PLC factory to relaunch production and negotiated an exclusive contract for distribution with their brand-new company: Lomography AG.

/> Photo credit: maaku

And here begins the Lomography movement. If the term is familiar to you, you probably know at least two things about it. First, it promotes casual snapshot photography. Second, it is associated with over-saturated and high-contrast images. To confuse things, this second characteristic has nothing to do with the LC-A camera itself or with any other cameras for that matter. It is actually the result of the way the film is processed, which would usually be cross-processing. But Lomography is a movement, not a technique, and it was certainly the first to promote camera imperfections as an aesthetic. The success of the LC-A camera helped spread this aesthetic.

/> Photo credit: citronnade

Holga

With the success of this movement, Lomography AG became interested in other low-cost cameras, such as the Holga, which had been produced in China for a decade. Even though it was made by a different manufacturer, the Holga was considered the successor of the Diana. Inspired by its predecessor, the Holga was designed as an inexpensive mass-market camera. And like the Diana, it is not of the best quality and has the same flaws.

/> Photo credit: babyabby10

But the Holga became popular and was even exported to the West over time, mostly for photo-reporting, for which its low profile was appreciated. Its problems were no longer problems, and now it is not surprising to hear of Holga photos winning awards. Because it is entirely manual, one can create effects, such as double exposure and panoramas, by not winding the film.

/> Photo credit: Bill Hansen (website)

ActionSampler, SuperSampler, Oktomat

These three cameras don’t have many differences. They all take multiple shots in a set period of time, thus creating micro-images that look like short animated movies. The Actionsampler and Supersampler have four lenses each, while the Oktomat has eight, fitting eight frames into the standard 35mm.

/> Photo credit: amylynnthompson

To make them a bit more fun, what you see through the viewfinder is not exactly what you get.

/> Photo credit: golfpunkgirl

Lomo Fisheye 2

As the name suggests, the Lomo Fisheye camera has a fish-eye lens. It was the first 35mm compact camera to offer such a wide angle (170°), and unlike the other toy cameras covered here, it gave surprisingly good results for the price. The second edition came with several enhancements, such a viewfinder that covered the same angle as the lens (it was blocked off before).

/> Photo credit: aapnootmies

The effect created, often seen in sport images, can serve many other purposes. But the user should be aware of two major characteristics: strong deformation and light leaks.

/> Photo credit: faha

Photoshop Tutorials And Resources

Now, let’s put all this into practice. Even if you are familiar with these effects, have ever actually tried to replicate them? There are a lot of different effects, and you can combine them to create unique images.

Faking the Holga Camera and Fisheye Lens

How to Fake a Holga Photograph /> This tutorial shows you how to fake Holga photographs in a few simple steps.

Another Way to Fake a Holga Photograph /> Another tutorial on faking Holga photographs.

Fish-eye effect /> This shows you how to create a fish-eye effect for a picture taken with a regular lens. This one is a video and it addresses two important points: the lens circle border is not supposed to be so sharp when taking a fish-eye photograph, and one often deals with light infiltration.

Fish-eye effect /> Another fish-eye tutorial. It doesn’t show how to distort the image, so you will have to add this step yourself, but it adds a nice final touch to the image by using a picture of the inside of a fish-eye lens.

Recreating Low-Quality Camera Flaws

Vignetting /> A very simple tutorial on recreating the vignetting effect.

Soft-Focus Lens Effect /> What if you’re already happy with the contrast and color saturation of your image and just want to recreate the effect of a soft-focus camera lens or diffusion filter? In this tutorial, you’ll learn a fast and easy way to add a more traditional soft-focus lens effect to images.

Faking Barrel Distortion and Chromatic Aberrations /> Here is a nice Photoshop plug-in to fake barrel distortion and chromatic aberrations. Adding these effects to your pictures will make them look even more authentic.

Light Leaks Effect, Part 1 and Part 2 /> Of course, this article wouldn’t be complete without a great tutorial on light leak effects. Here is an awesome one, divided into two parts, each covering a different effect: a white-blur light and a colored bar leak.

Working on Colors and Light Exposure

Getting That X-Pro Lomo Look /> This tutorial is fairly quick and easy. It shows you how to get that great x-pro Lomo look by tweaking color. You’ll be exploring a new method of vignetting, and you’ll be widening and blurring the image a little.

Cross-Processing Tutorial /> With so many possible permutations of film stock and processing techniques, there is no single, identifiable look to cross-processed images. The most common combination is C-41 as E-6, in which slide chemistry is used to process color negative film; and mimicking it in Photoshop is a quick job. Image contrast is usually high, with blown-out highlights, while shadows tend towards dense shades of blue. Reds tend to be magenta, lips almost purple and highlights normally have a yellow-green tinge.

Cross-Processing /> Another cros-processing tutorial.

Vintage Effect /> Age your images a give them a vintage effect.

Using Textures and Double Exposure

Through the Viewfinder /> Did you know that Flickr has a Through the Viewfinder group? The idea is that you shoot through the viewfinder of an old camera using your modern digital or film camera and create an interesting framing effect. Here is a tutorial on how to create this effect.

Resources of Speckle Pattern /> Yes, there is also a Flickr group called “Noise and Dust Through the Viewfinder.”

Paper Texture Effect /> Here is a quick and easy tutorial for those who want to learn the art of taking a photo and turning it into an old-fashioned vintage picture.

Some More Paper Texture Effect /> Another tutorial (this one a video).

Filmstrip Effect /> Download a filmstrip template and use it to create negatives of your pictures.

Double Exposure /> When you take a double-exposed photograph, the results are usually a bit unpredictable. With Photoshop you have much more control over the result.

Another Way to Create Double Exposure /> While the most common way to create a double exposure is by using a different blending mode on the top layer and adjusting its opacity, this method accurately simulates how a camera takes a double exposure.

Other Ideas

No tutorials are needed to create these effects. They are included here merely to give you more ideas. You’ll still need to work on your pictures to get that vintage look. Then, just put them together and enjoy.

Shoot Series Like the Oktomat and the Actionsampler /> Draw inspiration from the Oktomat and Actionsampler cameras. You’ll get either four or eight images in the same frame, each of them having been shot after an interval of only a few seconds.

/> Photo credit: Look!, by Moyö

Shoot Series like the Supersampler /> The Supersampler effect is quite similar to the Actionsampler: four images in the same frame, but spaced differently. And remember that you can arrange layers both horizontally and vertically.

/> Photo credit: moving clocks run slow, by aleinsomniac

Panorama 1 /> Panorama images don’t necessarily have to be perfectly arranged. Here is an example of what else can be done.

/> Photo credit: Christophe Dillinger (website)

Panorama 2 /> Another inspiring panorama.

/> Photo credit: bruceberrien

Panorama 3 /> The panorama view can be combined with a filmstrip effect. It simulates a double-exposure panorama taken on a manual camera.

/> Photo credit: mikrofoniusz

Want More?

Polaroid

If cheapness is a defining characteristic of toy cameras, it surely isn’t for Polaroids. The Polaroid camera itself is not expensive, but because Fuji is now the only company that produces the film for it, getting affordable ones has become difficult. But this may change in the next few months thanks to the Impossible Project.

Going back a bit, the world’s first commercial instant camera was the “Land” camera, unveiled in 1947. Since then, Polaroid has become synonymous with instant photography, because most of the cameras have been created by the Polaroid Corporation. Nowadays, the cameras are used by photographers mainly to preview their work before actually shooting. But as toy cameras, they are fun to play with and can make for nice effects.

/> Photo credit: paine666

Polaroid and Transfer Effect

Retro Polaroid Coloring on Your Photos /> This is a simple tutorial on how to get that retro Polaroid coloring in your photos.

Polaroid Transfer Effect /> This Photoshop tutorial shows you how to create a cool old photo transfer edge effect using a piece of stock photography, an alpha channel and the burn and dodge tools.

Showcase of Beautiful Pictures

Considering that Flickr has a group for almost every subject, it is no surprise that there is one for toy cameras. Here is a showcase of the most beautiful images from it.

/> Photo credit: have I told you lately, by cHr1st1an S

/> Photo credit: ubu84

/> Photo credit: 000038, by qwj

/> Photo credit: 54330027, by etara

/> Photo credit: Ipanema Beach – Brazil, by marcelo_maia

/> Photo credit: Hélicoïdal, by Cathy Lehnebach

/> Photo credit: Purgatoire, by stiveune

/> Photo credit: untitled, by Greg Zauswoz

/> Photo credit: untitled, by bradbrochill

/> Photo credit: .., by cjlomo

/> Photo credit: spree1, by hellomelly

/> Photo credit: Love me two times, by laszlo_ototh

/> Photo credit: exit, by renaishashin

/> Photo credit: untitled, by Sergio Conde Sánchez

/> Photo credit: Akhirnya buat lomba juga -__-, by febryanyovi

/> Photo credit: Cosy Clausterphobia, by miss_michelle

/> Photo credit: svema_test1, by ashtonleee

/> Photo credit: untitled, by poppart

/> Photo credit: lomographicsocietyinternational

/> Photo credit: La Bòfia – Redscale, by fgali1964

/> Photo credit: chomdee

/> Photo credit: offcenter

/> Photo credit: Holga Tennis, by Nick Whitmoyer

/> Photo credit: golfpunkgirl

/> Photo credit: eyetwist

Further Resources

Old Toy Camera – Photoshop action /> This Photoshop action makes images look as though they are aged prints, shot on a toy or antique camera. Also included are two actions that create borders similar to those seen on photos from many antique and toy cameras.

Toy Camera Contest /> FILE presents here a selection of images submitted for its Toy Camera Contest. This collection gives an idea of the challenge facing the judges to find three winners. The range and quality of the submitted images are impressive.

Gallery /> This project is home to photos taken with toy cameras. Most are plastic: Holga, Diana, Dorie, Debonair, Lubitel, Banner, Snappy and Yunon. Distortion, blur and imperfection are some of the characteristics that endear these cameras to enthusiasts.

Abduzeedo: 60 Interesting Lomo Fisheye Shots /> Gathered here are a few Lomography fish-eye shots. Some were taken with Lomography cameras such as the Diana and the LC-A+ with a fish-eye lens adapter attached.

Lomography.com /> Lomographic Society International Website.

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