To mask, or not to mask?

Written by callmeoblomov

The old-school Holga 120S came with only one mask: a rectangular 4.5×6cm mask that enabled 16 shots per roll. A popular modification was to cut the rectangular mask so that the opening was square. With the wider opening, your Holga would take 12 square format shots per roll. The newer Holgas save you the trouble and come with a square mask as well as the rectangular one. When using this square format, make sure you move the film counter slider down to 12, as shown below:

You can load your film without a mask at all. This will give you 12 exposures per roll, and the photos will be basically the same size as those taken with the square mask installed, but with a much softer edge, and the possibility of increased vignetting. Bright light will cause significant bleed since the photo is no longer constrained by the frame.

You'll still be able to fit 12 frames per roll, since the plastic bracket that the mask normally rests on will probably stop your photos from overlapping on the sides. Additionally, if you're intending on shooting without a frame, be sure to tape over the edges of that bracket, as it will come in contact with your film and may scratch it when you advance the film. The film may be a little looser against the film plane, too, so your photos may be a bit more out of focus. To help remedy this, make sure you use cardboard tensioners underneath your spools. See the loading film section for help.

The canted sides of the frames normally block off the film from the rest of the camera body interior, so without a frame, you may find that you're getting a lot more light leaks. You'll probably want to tape up the interior of your Holga (as well as the outside, of course) if you want to minimize those. The most common leaks revealed by shooting without a frame come from the two little holes that live right above the lens, which are normally blocked by the frame. Just stick a piece of tape over them.

Flickr member RedLuX has come up with a genius little hack for using your Holga without a mask. All you need is about 12cm of small plastic tubing, which you can find in pet shops for fish pumps. Cut a length to fit each side of your Holga then slice it down one edge. Now place the tubing over the edges of where the film slides over, as shown below. Whether you glue these in place depends on how permanent you want the hack to be, the tube should naturally hold itself in place. This tube method has a unique advantage over the tape method shown above - as it helps to keep the film in its correct distance from the lens. That should cut out some of the annoying blurriness, while giving you plenty of vignetting and light leaks.

Creative Masking

You aren't limited to using the masks that originally came with your Holga. You can create your own creative masks by cutting a shape from card and taping it over the mask in your Holga. This technique is particularly effective when used with multiple exposures. If done properly, you'll end up with a roll of pictures featuring an abstract shape in the middle.

How do I do it?

It's pretty easy actually:

1. Print out a shape.
2. Cut it out of black card.
3. Stick it over your 6x6 mask.
4. Shoot roll, stopping once you've shot frame 12. Do not advance, or it'll make things trickier.
5. In a completely dark room/changing bag, carefully rewind the film onto its original spool.
6. Take out the mask and shoot the roll as normal, and then develop!

Here's my star shape, complete with cropping marks. Cut out a square marked by the corner crop marks, then cut out the star shape in the middle. If you try this technique, don't forget to post your results in the squarefrography group for us all to see! It doesn't have to be a star, it can be any shape you want so go nuts!

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