The Holga Close-Up Lens: Photographing Flowers by Alec Pain

Written by Alec Pain (Alastair Place)

I started taking photos of flowers primarily after having seen the beautiful work of @georgefilmfotografie and @vivid_opia.

George uses an old set of Vivitar close-up lenses, whilst Rachel continues to amaze me with her beautiful sets of flower photographs (without using a close up lens) on a Holga.

The Holga Close-Up Lens Sets

Holga has produced two close up lens sets for the Holga 120:

• The Holga CLS-1 Close-up lens set, comprising of a 500mm, 250mm, and 120mm set of add-on lenses to your Holga lens; and
• The Holga MLS-1 lens set. Comprising of two “macro” lenses. 60mm and 30mm.

These lenses are attached to the regular Holga lens. They come with instructions – but in case you find a set without instructions – set the lens to infinity (the mountain sign).

Where to Purchase

You can get hold of these lenses on eBay, or on Amazon UK or Amazon Japan.

I bought mine directly from A Power in Japan. I found it easier to email Yoshi and save on Amazon costs and find other Holga goodies there.

Focusing with the Holga Close-Up Lens

Focusing is done very exactly by measuring the distance on the close-up lens – so 30mm, 60mm etc. Be warned that this can be frustrating and be very, very tricky the shorter the distance.

Macro is achievable but only recommended (for me at least), to gain some arty blur.

You can, if you are lucky, find some further Holga accessories to help get this right. There are: a Holga Macro Light MCL-30/60, a Close-Up Light CFL-500 (I have this but haven’t yet tried it); and a Holga Close-Up Stand CCS-250 with an adjustable distance from 60mm-250mm.

First Attempts Shooting Close-Up Flowers on the Holga

My first role was in spring, and I tried a number of the close up lenses and got mixed results. I thought I could guess my distances, and, even when I measured them, I got mixed results.

When I did get focus, it produced some okay images, but I wasn’t particularly happy with them.

The first image below is soft focused and a little dull. The next image, the daffodil, is in focus but didn’t really the artistic feel I wanted.

These next two were better – I quite liked the colors in the first image. With the second image, I think I almost almost got there.

For the record, I’ve still not quite worked out why you get the black corners on some images rather than others, but I think it’s to do with sunlight coming into the lens. Personally, I don’t like black corners (one of Holga’s “selling points”).

Studio Shots

The next two shots of the tulips were significantly out of focus, but, in my opinion, the first is kind of beautiful.

As with most things practice makes perfect.

Making doubles of the Oxeye Daisies against a black background really helped them shine. I also worked out that using the 250mm or the 500mm was the best option – the distance after time became easier to get right by eye.

I would still recommend using a ruler, but in most circumstances when you are out, it simply isn’t practical.

I did also manage to get one of the macro lenses to work, too:

Beautiful Mistakes and Double/Triple Exposures

You may disagree, but I found beauty in some of these totally out of focus flowers. I realized that by using the macro, I could get some lovely, almost painterly effects:

Doubles, triples, and quadruples also create a very unique artistic vision:

When You Get It Right!

So, if I haven’t put you off using these lenses – and spending a lot of money on film! – it is worth it when you do finally get something magical.

The sharp center and Holga blur do produce something incredibly unique:

In Conclusion

Whilst you are not going to nail focus every single time, I believe it is worth either finding the Holga close-up lens sets or a similar set of close-up lens which you can attach to your Holga:

Thank you so much, Alec! Alec is a regular contributor here at Shoot It With Film, and be sure to check out his other articles, like Self-Portrait Experiment: Holga, Strobes, & Gels and Creating EBS Self-Portraits.

You can also check out more of his work on Instagram.

Leave your questions about shooting self-portraits with strobes and gels below in the comments!

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Alec Pain

Alec Pain (AKA Alastair Place) is a pinhole and experimental photographer and a regular contributor for Shoot It With Film. Find his other articles here, such as How to Shoot Holgaramas.

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