please HELP!! I'm having major issues with my PINHOLE camera

[baileyw]

I have experience with pinhole photography, but have never done it completely on my own- and now my photos are very unpredictable

I am using Illford Harman B/W Direct Positive FB glossy
The first photo I took came out okay- just too much contrast (no gray), but every photo afterwards ended up either almost completely black or very blurry
I thought I could fix it by altering the exposure times- from 1:00-4:00 minutes, but there was almost no pattern
**my paper says to expose for approximately 1-2 minutes(direct sun), 2-3(sun), and 3-4(cloudy)- which I have followed

Maybe it's the way I'm facing the sun??

I heard that preflashing can help with this particular type of paper, but am not sure how to do it so I have only experimented

PLEASE HELP!!

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[KmH]

Moved Out of the Beginner's forum per the Beginner's forum description, to the Film Discussion and Q & A TPF forum.

[unpopular]

an unpredictable pinhole camera?

imagine that.

[christopher walrath]

I would just keep messing around until you find out how that camera is going to work. If you have too much exposure, expose the paper less. And vice versa. I mean, it is a pinhole. There is science behind it and it is as involved as you want to be. But it comes down to trial and error. The more trial, the less error. Now, go play amongst yourself and figure that thing out and have fun.

[Hobbytog]

an unpredictable pinhole camera?

imagine that.

LOL!!!

[tangerine]

an unpredictable pinhole camera?

imagine that.

Could be the weather...

[Helen B]

Could it be light leaks or an ineffective capping method? Both of these can cause overall loss of contrast and weird relationships between what you thought the exposure time was and what it really was.

[timor]

Check this out:
PinholeDesigner [pinhole.cz]

[unpopular]

^^ But, is it wavelength optimized? The one I wrote was