A subject from four different perspectives at four different times of the day.
Traditional film photographers have all of the fun. And the bulk of this fun emanates from those crazy folks at Lomography. From wonderful film emulsions like LomoChrome Color ’92 Sun-kissed 35mm (B&H) to wild cameras sold with funky names like Sprocket Rocket (B&H) and La Sardina (B&H), Lomography has become the one-stop-shop for fun film photography.
Although not dedicated totally to satiating film users’ thirst for, err, well, film, Lomography does have a respectable footprint in the world of digital photography, too. Primarily focusing on far-out lenses like the Lomogon 2.5/32 Art Lens (lomo) for DSLRs and the Atoll Ultra-Wide 2.8/17 Art Lens (B&H) for mirrorless digital cameras, there are some other products, however, that are equally at home on either a film camera or a digital camera. One such product is Splitzer.
You can purchase Splitzer for $16.90 from Lomography. Or, you might already own a Splitzer and not know it. This is a bundled accessory with some Lomography cameras, like LomoApparat 21mm Wide-Angle Camera.
The Splitzer is a wild multi-wheeled “filter” that can be threaded onto any 49mm front lens element. Once you attach Splitzer to your preferred optic, either directly threaded onto a lens, adapted to a lens via a step-up lens conversion ring, or even handheld in front of your lens, some really wacky time and space mutations can occur.
Thread the Lomography Splitzer on a lens that has 49mm filter threads.
One creative expression of this wackiness happens when you twirl the Splitzer’s twin discs into a 90-degree pie-shaped wedge. At this point, you can make an exposure, but only 25% of the frame will see the light of day—the remaining 75% will remain black. You can see where this process is headed, right?
Physically hold the Splitzer in front of a camera lens.
Now spin the Splitzer in a 90-degree incremental rotation around your lens and take another photograph. Repeat this rotate/photograph procedure two more times for a total of four images, with each exposure restricted to one corner of the frame. Once you’re finished with your shooting, import each photograph into your favorite photo-editing software and arrange the four exposures into each corner of your final image.
One of four frames that can be subsequently stitched together to represent a varying time and space viewpoint.
Using the magic wizardry of variable opacity, selective cropping, and layer blurring, you should arrive at an experimental interpretation of your subject that varies from changes in time, as well as variations in the space occupied by each corner of the final photograph. Go wild with crazy samples of different subjects, obvious changes in time, and different perspectives all focused on a common theme. The sky’s the limit once you become a resident of the Splitzer zone.
Enjoy.
