Photoshop Action

About 10 years ago I was somewhat obsessed with toy cameras. Back when Holgas were only $15 bucks a pop you could buy stacks of them and make modifications without much worry of messing up and losing a large investment. They were fun and cheap. You could experiment as much as you like for less than the price of two movie tickets. Recently I noticed the same camera selling in a trendy boutique for over $50… my heart died a little inside. Kind of took some of the magic out of what made those cameras so fun to begin with.

Anyway, I was approached by a company a few years back to create a Photoshop action that would emulate the aesthetic you get with similar “toy cameras,” and the first iteration of the Holgarizer was born. I began using it on my own crappy digital images and before long friends started asking me, “What camera are you using? What film are you shooting?” Well, that was it, I was simply running the Holgarizer Action in Photoshop. Now people are probably more likely to ask what effect in Instagram I’m using. Times change. Artistic mediums and tools change with them, I guess.

Regardless, I made the action available to friends who asked about it, and after some positive feedback, I decided to revamp it and make it available to the public. So, without further ado, I present to you the Holgarizer 2.0 for Adobe Photoshop. It has been successfully tested to work with Adobe Photoshop CS2 through CS5.

Instructions are included as a PDF in the download. Unzip and enjoy.

To download the Holgarizer Action, click the following link: DOWNLOAD HOLGARIZER

I should note, despite the exorbitant “boutique” prices I’ve seen, you can still find Holgas online for around $30 bucks with a quick google search, and if you like the look and feel that results from using the Holgarizer Photoshop action, I highly recommend buying one and going out and having some fun with it. Still, nothing beats the awesome surprises that turn up after developing a roll of film that came out of a Holga.

If you use it, and you like it, don’t be afraid to let me know via email or your social network of choice.