Eiffel Tower on gameboy camera
Hi! I have been trying to learn to take pleasing photos with the gameboy camera. It’s quite tricky due to limited resolution and aspect ratio but super fun! Is there anything I can look to do to improve the framing or quality of my shots?
This is so interesting!
I'd say that working within the limits of the medium, in this case the gameboy camera, means that you need to understand the limits, and understand them well. What are the max resolution, focal length, and contrast ratio that you can get?
Once you have that figured out you can start planning your shots and pick an environment that works within those limits. Once you can take a picture that isn't washed out etc, at that point it's just the normal elements of composition, rule of thirds, light-source etc. Since the camera is monochrome, you may be able to do something interesting with light vs shadows, but I suspect that contrast will need to be super high for it to work.
Finally if you are actually serious about this, you will very quickly reach the limits of the equipment meaning that you'll ultimately be unsatisfied with the outcome even after putting a lot of planning work into it. There is a reason people suggest using pinhole cameras as a first foray into photography. The pinhole camera is much more capable then the Gameboy while still having a lot of limitations that encourage experimentation.
Thanks! This is super helpful. I’ll try and test some of this stuff out. The light vs shadows sounds like a very cool concept and I’m excited to test it out :) I really appreciate you’re feedback!
With such low resolution you'd really have to focus on composition for every shot. But that said it's crazy how that blob of pixels can still be seen as a unmistakable shape
Yeah! It’s really amazing how good we are at recognising images. I think the low resolutions will provide some interesting challenges which hopefully will result in an interesting image. I think I’ll start really focusing on composition now. Thanks :)
This is sick. What is the thing in the foreground on the left? vegetation?
It’s trees on the path to the base :). I was trying to make the image a little more dynamic but I think with such limited resolution it didn’t quite work out right
I think it worked great! I figured it was something like that. Cool project, I'm interested to see what else you can do with it
I love this!
This is cool asf
To improve the quality of your shots I'd recommend getting a reasonable camera. To improve Gameboy images, I'd homogenously disperse transparent glue over a canvas put the Gameboy on it and hit it generously with a ten pound hammer. That's about the best image you'll ever produce with a Gameboy.
Someone is having fun, and doing so while creating content which is interesting, eye catching, nostalgic, imaginative, and visually appealing. They’re humbly asking if anyone has suggestions for improvement, and you suggest they destroy the vintage equipment that inspires them?
You should totally rethink your relationship with art. A series of modern gameboy photographs would be an incredible project
That doesn't change the fact that there's pretty much no way to improve the quality of Gameboy shots. I'd personally have more fun doing the purposed deconstruction of the device on canvas. At least I'd have some influence on the result, which tickles my creative spot while the output of toy cameras will be of predictably shitty quality but lacking reasonable ways to improve the output. You can't even enlarge and cut out or meddle wit exposure or contrast. The fixed, poststamp like format also doesn't leave you any room for composition. If you want to get creative with antique technology and for no budget, for fucks sake get an old analog camera and darkroom gear. You can get pro equipment second hand that once was eyewatering expensive and you'll never get bored with for small money.
Clearly, you're not familiar with 2bittoy's Gameboy Camera+. There is an objective way to 'improve' the camera.