Photo development is, for most, a lost art. In the era of digital photography and big LCD screens, physical photos are a thing of the past, and developing your own photos is a task akin to printing your own vinyl records — something reserved only for the hardcore enthusiasts.
Enter Enfojer, a portable photographic enlarger, and its accompanying iPhone app, Fojo. Created by four photography enthusiasts from Croatia, the project gives you everything you need to develop your own, analog, black-and-white photo prints — straight from your iPhone.
The project is being partially funded on Indiegogo but, make no mistake, thousands of man-hours of programming and several very clever ideas were needed to get this far. And even at this early stage, it's fascinating that I'm suddenly very excited about turning my iPhone photos into real-world prints.
The Software
It all starts with a free iPhone app, Fojo, which is currently in final stages of development and should be on the market in the coming weeks. The app can be described as a more powerful version of Instagram, aimed at photo enthusiasts. It consists of two parts — one lets you take photos, apply filters and change a myriad of settings such as white balance, hue, sharpness and exposure. You can even create your own presets and share them with other users.
While the number of features and options is overwhelming, the app is responsive and fast, and it offers two modes of operation: simple and advanced, with the latter being aimed at power users.
Turn the advanced mode on, and the app becomes one of the most powerful camera apps I've seen for the iPhone. Features such as multiple exposure, fine white balance and exposure tuning, virtual horizon and burst mode will satisfy even the most demanding photo enthusiasts. Various tricks, such as shaking the app to instantly get back to camera mode, are implemented to make your life a bit more easier.
The other part of the app, currently disabled until the hardware part of the project hits the market, lets you enlarge — or Enfoje — a photo and turn it into a real-world, black-and-white print.
The Hardware
This is where those clever ideas come to light. One thing I couldn't understand, prior to seeing the app in action, is how you transfer the photo from your iPhone to the fully analog hardware. Here's the trick — you don't.
Instead, you simply start the process by hitting "Enfoje" in the app, turn off the light (red light is allowed), place the iPhone into the enlarger, face down, and put a special photo paper beneath it.
After that, the app reacts to audio cues: snap your fingers, and the development starts. A timer (visible but still quite dark on your iPhone's screen, as any excessive light would mess up the final result) will start, telling you how long each of the photo development steps will take. Each snap of your fingers times each step: placing the photo paper into developer fluid, stop bath, then fixer fluid, then water.
The process seems magical. A tiny photo from the screen of your iPhone starts to appear, seemingly out of nowhere, on the 7.9 x 7.9-inch (20 x 20 cm) photo paper. It's far from a photo studio for kids or a fad for hipsters — you're actually learning the tricks of photo development as you go along. Move your hand between the iPhone and the paper during the development process, which takes a couple of minutes, and you change the exposure. Turn the light on for a second, and you'll get an effect similar to the Solarize filter in Photoshop.
The Plans
After I've developed a few photos, we turn the light back on. Ilija and Daniel, two of the project's co-founders, are looking for signs of excitement on my face, and they're not disappointed. "Everyone we showed this to was amazed at how cool it was. It would be such a pity if one day, no one remembered how to make your own photos," says Daniel.
Their immediate plans: bringing the hardware to the market and releasing the app to the public. Currently, the Indiegogo campaign has gathered $31,000, slightly less than half of its $70,000 goal with 10 days left. Those who support it get various parts of the Enfojer kit — the Enfojer itself, fluid trays, 100 pieces of photo paper, red light,or even the entire kit — at reduced prices.
Some obvious questions are easily answered. You can't develop color prints because the chemicals are toxic and the process is very complex, the Android app is coming sometime in the future, and the photo developing fluid is not included due to customs concerns, but can be cheaply ordered online in most countries.
The hardest question, of course, is who would dish out several hundred dollars to be able to develop his own photos at home? The price point is high, but you do get a lot for your money. I can tell you this much: I've tried it, and I want it. And I wasn't that much of a photo enthusiast to begin with.
Images: Mashable
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