Harinezumi 2++ Highlighter Mod: Take soft, dreamy-looking photos

Left: Scene with soft-colour mod. Right: Normal photo without mod

While I really, really love the Digital Harinezumi 2++, one of my issues with it is that the photos tend to turn out super-saturated and very contrasty.  Now, this isn’t usually a huge issue, but sometimes I just want to take photos with softer colours, which would give them more of a dreamy feel.  From the photos I’ve seen, the first Harinezumi does seem to take softer colours, but nonetheless I am determined to get that sort of effect with my trusty Zumi 2++

I’ve been experimenting with lots of ways to achieve this and I’ve finally found a cheap and easy way to take dreamy photos with softer colours.  As a proof-of-concept, the image above gives you an idea of what to expect.

What you’ll need:

• Clear sticky tape, preferably around 1cm wide
• Highlighter: any colour – I chose to use yellow
• Scissors.

How to do it:

Step 1: Cut off a sizeable length of the tape and stick onto the edge of your table.  This will make things a lot easier for later steps.

Step 2: Cut off a piece of tape approximately 2cm in length.  With this piece, stick onto the Harinezumi, in front of the lens (as pictured).  What you should then do is rapidly remove it.  Repeat this process several times.  What you’re doing here is removing any dirt or dust on the lens, as that could create havoc with your photos.

Step 3: Cut off a 1cm long piece of the tape and stick it on the lens part at the front of the camera.  You could stick it on the whole thing if you wanted to, but you only really need to cover the lens.  (Note: …. Camera flashes really highlight all the dust on things, don’t they?)

Step 4: Here’s the fun part.  Grab your highlighter of choice and draw all over the sticky tape.  I find that it’s smoothest when you highlight consistently in one direction.  Dont’ worry if you can’t get a consistent, solid layer of highlighter – that’s bound to happen on sticky tape.  Besides, having those spots without highlighter can make for really cool effects, too.  You could theoretically stop here and start shooting, but for more long-term use, proceed to the final step.

Step 5: All you need to do here is to cut another piece of plastic of a similar size to the one already stuck onto the lens.  All this does is seal the highlighter so that it doesn’t rub off onto everything it comes into contact with.

And that’s it, you’re done!  You might not be able to tell the difference on the Harinezumi’s screen, but it becomes very pronounced when you view the photos on your computer.  I’ll soon post up more photos using this mod.

Have fun shooting soft, dreamy photos on your Harinezumi 2++!

PS: The difference when using this mod isn’t as pronounced in black & white mode, but it still has an effect.