Combination Conundrum

With so many combinations possible, sometimes it can be really hard to know which lens, film and flash to choose in any given situation – particularly when you don’t have much time. That’s where the favourites option comes in handy, so you can easily select those tried and tested combos.

Save your favourite combinations to make life easier

To work out your favourites, you might want to just spend a while snapping away, trying different lenses with different films and hoping some of them will come out OK… Or you can try a tool like Hipstamatrix.

Ben Gremillion and Cherie Benoit designed Hipstamatrix to allow you to preview what effects different combinations have, depending on what sort of shot you’ve got in mind. Some of the more recent gear is missing, and there are a few inaccuracies with things being mislabelled, but it’s still a useful tool for beginners.

For instance, if you wanted a colour photo with cool tones and a light messy border, Hipstamatrix gives you 17 different options.

Use Hipstamatrix to work out possible combinations for the effect you’re after

My advice is to not spend too long trying to work out what combinations might work well, because there are so many factors to take into account. Sometimes the best thing to do is just get out and have a go, but be prepared that not all shots will come out looking just the way you want – it’s all part of the learning curve! For safe shots the Hornbecker lens is a fairly good bet, teamed with any of the more subtle films, such as one of the Blankos.

Hornbecker/Blanko Noir/no flash

Do you have any fallback combos that never let you down? Let me know – send in a photo and I’ll try to feature it in a future blogpost.