TTV Photography

I first came accross ‘Through the Viewfinder’ photography on, of course, Flickr.

TTV is a type of digital photography that emulates film photography in ‘box’ cameras. Put simply – you take a digital photograph through an analogue cameras viewfinder.

What attracted me to this technique was that you are able to capture an exremely genuine looking ‘vintage’ photographs with a digital camera as dust, scratches and impuities on the lens of the analogue camera are picked up on the digital image. Photoshop can be used to improve the image, but its not essential – apart from cropping the TTV image.

The most popular TTV cameras used are the Duaflex, Brownie – this article from the ‘Through The Viewfinder’ Flickr groups blog -WHICH CAMERA FOR YOU – is very usefull when deciding what camera you are looking for. From personal experience Ebay is the best source for these cameras and prices are extremely reasonable, I bought a Duaflex for £4 there, though second hand stores and the like may be an option though I image it may take a bit of digging to find a camera.

Once you have got hold of your camera the next step is to construct your contraption. If using a DSLR you will need to work out the minimun focal lenght for the lens then construct something to hold the digital camera onto the analogue camera and block out the light so you are able to capture clear images through the viewfinder.
Again this article may be helpful to you Contraption.

There is plenty more info at the Through The Viewfinder group on flickr in the discussions page which will certainly help you.

If you use Photoshop CS2, one of the most valuable tools which I have found for TTV is the ‘Urban Acid’ action which can be downloaded by clicking the following Zip link Urban Acid Zip

Below are a few examples of my own TTV photographs – more can be found through my flickr account.