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The Cape Town-based Lends Collective came up with an utterly unique wedding gift idea – a massive mosaic of different wedding photos printed on Instax. How did they pull this off? Instax South Africa chatted to them to find out more.
Please tell us a bit more about the Lends Collective.
Hi there, the idea for the Lends Collective came to life over a cup of coffee. What started as a rental service for high-end camera equipment evolved into offering photography, videography, branding, and media and marketing solutions.
How did you come up with the idea of creating a mosaic of different Instax prints?
We wanted to do something big which has never been done before. The main thing was for it to be a gift for the wedding couple, a gift that could always be a reminder of all the blessings in the form of people, moments, and emotions that come from wedding festivities.
We came up with this crazy idea to create a mosaic of the wedding couple consisting of all the events leading up to the big day. For this to meet our main requirements, we came to the conclusion that the mosaic needed to be made of Instax film. We had no clue how to execute this initially but through countless hours of brainstorming, teamwork and planning we created it to great effect.
Tell us more about the wedding where you shot this. Were the Instax photos taken with the Instax Mini Evo?
Traditional Eastern wedding festivities is a week of celebration that begins with a congregational prayer which is held to bless the festivities that follow through the next few days up until the wedding. The main events leading up to the wedding day are the Turmeric ceremony held at both bride and groom's family home separately. The next event is usually the henna and bhari (exchanging of gifts) ceremony held by the bride's family for the ladies, usually followed by singing and dance. Occasionally families will have a braai the night before the wedding to give thanks to family and friends in assisting with the week's events.
The photos/memories of the week's events were collectively captured on three Instax mini Evo’s, various phones and a mirrorless camera. A total of 392 Instax film sheets were used for the mosaic.
Tell us what you like the most about the Instax mini Evo instant camera and printer.
The features we utilised the most were the filter- and lens effects that the Instax mini Evo offers. We also made use of the mini Evo app to allow for editing and printing from our phones. One of the most useful features is its ability to select which photo you would like to print. This came in handy when managing film stock.
You used a bit of Photoshop magic to achieve the exact colours for the effect. How did you plan the mosaic, and how many images did you have to edit to get the effect?
Each image was imported into a single file which then needed to be edited in accordance with the overlaying image, which meant each and every image had to be individually edited using Photoshop.
What was the couple’s response when they eventually saw the mosaic?
They were very much in shock and surprised, it was way better than what they expected. The couple loved it and were left in awe.
Find more of the Lends Collective’s work here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lends._/
