TINY LAB

A ONE-HOUR PHOTO LAB FOR TINY CAMERAS

FILM, DITHER, FRAMES AND TAPE FOR YOUR KODAK CHARMERA

Plug the camera in, pull the shots off its card and give them film grain, dithers, borders and VHS tape. Free, and nothing leaves your laptop.

Download for MacFree · macOS 11 or later WindowsComing soon

FILM · DITHER · FRAMES · VIDEO FX · 3 THEMES

Before and after - Tiny Lab
A church dome, as shot
The same dome in a blue pattern dither
As shot Pattern dither

HOW IT WORKS

  1. STEP8801

    PLUG IN

    Plug the camera in, or put its card in a card reader. Tiny Lab sees it by itself.

  2. STEP8802

    IMPORT

    New shots and clips copy into a roll on your laptop. The card stays as it is.

  3. STEP8803

    PLAY

    Film, dither, filters, frames and tape. Your originals never change.

5 FILM STOCKS

Each one has its own colour, contrast and glow round bright lights. Pick one, then set the grain.

St Peter's dome, Sunny 200Sunny 200
11A
The same shot, Soft 400Soft 400
22A
The same shot, Slide 100Slide 100
33A
The same shot, Night 800Night 800
44A
The same shot, Mono 400Mono 400
55A
Grain, 400% - Tiny Lab
A sleeping cat's fur up close, in coarse film grain
GRAIN888070

GRAIN, NOT NOISE

The grain breaks up the camera's pixels instead of sitting on top of them. Fine, medium or coarse.

PIXELS, ON PURPOSE

Dithers turn a shot into dots: one colour, a pattern, newspaper halftone or a pocket games console. Pick the ink and the paper.

A church facade in orange dots on black
1-bitOrange on black
A crate of records in brown dots on yellow
1-bitBrown on yellow
Horses in a paddock in Game Boy greens
Game Boy4 greens
Graffiti in halftone dots
HalftoneLike newsprint
An old factory in a navy pattern dither
PatternNavy on lilac, softened
A ruined wall in 8 colours
8 coloursIts own palette
A black and white cat in hard 1-bit dots
Soften 0
The same dots, softened into tones
Soften 60

Soften blends the dots into smooth tones, so the picture is easier to make out.

MAKE YOUR OWN

Make filters from colour, tint and contrast, and borders from any picture. Save a whole look as a preset and use it in one click.

FRAMES AND THE DATE

Fishing boats in a harbour, with a white border
White border
A country lane between stone walls, with a black rounded border
Black, rounded
A white house in a yellow instant-print border
Instant
A sunset over rooftops, with a black border
Black border
Pastries in a pink halftone border
Halftone
A scooter with an orange date stamp
Date stamp

PRESETS

Sunny filmFilm + grain
Golden borderLook + light
CyanotypeLook + frame
Game BoyDither + frame
Ink 1-bitDither + light
Night tapeDither + VHS

VIDEO FX

The Charmera films little AVI clips. Tiny Lab runs them through tape, an old TV and light trails, and saves an MP4 with the sound.

VHS tape - Tiny Lab
  • VHS tapeColour bleed, wobble, noise and the PLAY counter.
  • Old TVA curved screen, scanlines and the bright band that rolls down it.
  • Tube trailsBright lights leave fading tails.
  • Filter and frameYour looks on a clip, with the date if you like.

TRY IT HERE

A little Tiny Lab, right here. Pick a look under the photo, slide the light, and switch between Fling '87, Darkroom and Millennium.

Tiny Lab with a cat at a window, in Sunny 200
FREE · NO ACCOUNT · NOTHING UPLOADED

GET TINY LAB

For Macs with Apple chips or Intel, on macOS 11 or later. Windows is coming soon.

Download for Mac.dmg · 16 MB WindowsComing soon
Opening it the first time

Tiny Lab isn't signed by Apple yet, so the Mac asks before opening it.

  1. Open the .dmg and drag Tiny Lab into Applications.
  2. Open Tiny Lab. The Mac says it can't check it: click Done.
  3. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down to Tiny Lab and choose Open Anyway, then Open.

You only do this once.

Keep Tiny Lab going

FREE, AND STAYING FREE

Tiny Lab is made by one person. If it makes your shots better, chip in what you like: it pays for the Apple licence that stops the "unidentified developer" warning, the domain and the next features.

Support Tiny LabAny amount, once or monthly

QUESTIONS

Is it free?

Yes. No account, no subscription, no watermark.

Which cameras work?

It's made for the Kodak Charmera. Any camera whose card has a DCIM folder works too: JPEG photos, and AVI, MP4 and MOV clips.

Does it change my card?

No. Tiny Lab copies new shots into a roll on your laptop and leaves the card as it is. Your originals never change either: edits are kept beside them.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Everything happens on your laptop. Tiny Lab doesn't need the internet at all.

What does it export?

JPEG, PNG or WebP photos, at full size or doubled with crisp pixels for posting. Clips come out as MP4 with sound.

When is Windows coming?

Soon. It's built and being tested.