Pinhole?

King Panda · May 26, 2007

Hey! I'm new on this forum and artistic photography in general. I was looking through the threads and happened to see this new style/camera/effect/I haven't a clue on what it is, which really intrigued me. I was wondering if anyone could explain exactly what Pinhole photography is, mad props to the photographers who posted their pinhole images.
Thanks.

blackdoglab · May 26, 2007

Pinhole photography is basically photography without a lens. Instead you use a tiny hole ( around f100 or more). You can get pinhole body caps for slr's, but you can also get into a dr. frankenstein mode by modifying cheap 35mm point n' shoots, box cameras,holgas, or make yer own from an oatmeal box (i like mine with raisins and brown sugar).

mysteryscribe · May 26, 2007

I make a lot of cobbled cameras the pin hole is a staple in the cobbling business or er er hobby.

You just find yourself a camera body, (best if it is still light tight... remove the lens by hook or crook. the fit the opening with something to close the old lens hole and allow you to make a pinhole opening in it. I have drill bit that cuts a .00017 of an inch in roof flashing for my pinhole "lenses" It works pretty well to. I might have one zero too many in that drill bit size.

here is a place you can get all the tecki stuff. http://mrpinhole.com

moracca · May 28, 2007

Back in my high school film class, we used to make pinhole cameras from the oatmeal cartons... you would basically just make sure the canister is light-tight, then put a small pinhole in the side of it, and cover it with a piece of black construction paper or something (to act as the shutter). You would then (in the dark of course) put a piece of photo paper (the kind you would develop photos onto in the darkroom) inside the canister so that when the shutter gets opened for that brief moment, the light shines on the photo paper on the back of the cylinder, and exposes your shot. It was pretty cool if you ask me. Lets you take a photo for only the price of the photo paper + the developing chemicals.

mysteryscribe · May 28, 2007

film works much better as a pinhole material in my opinon gives you a little faster capture time. Iso for paper is about 2-10 film is what it is. You can make your captures in less than a second outside usually. Ideally you want it to be about a half to a full second at least. Hard to count less.

in the shade or under artificial light film just seems to do better. At least that is my experience with it.

Steph · Jun 1, 2007

mysteryscribe said:
film works much better as a pinhole material in my opinon gives you a little faster capture time. Iso for paper is about 2-10 film is what it is. You can make your captures in less than a second outside usually. Ideally you want it to be about a half to a full second at least. Hard to count less.

in the shade or under artificial light film just seems to do better. At least that is my experience with it.

I disagree slightly with Mysteryscribe here. Paper can be a great way to experiment with pinhole photography, particularly with larger format cameras (8x10 and above) as paper is much cheaper than sheet film and easier to handle (under safelight rather than in complete darkness). However, I agree than film seems better in the shade (I have not tried artificial light).

King Panda · Jun 20, 2007

Thanks for all the insight guys. Hopefully I'll be making my first pinhole within the next two weeks, my friend said she made a pinhole similar to the one Moracca mentioned. I'll take them and make sure to post them and show you how things turned out!

jstuedle · Jun 21, 2007

mysteryscribe said:
I make a lot of cobbled cameras the pin hole is a staple in the cobbling business or er er hobby.

You just find yourself a camera body, (best if it is still light tight... remove the lens by hook or crook. the fit the opening with something to close the old lens hole and allow you to make a pinhole opening in it. I have drill bit that cuts a .00017 of an inch in roof flashing for my pinhole "lenses" It works pretty well to. I might have one zero too many in that drill bit size.

here is a place you can get all the tecki stuff. http://mrpinhole.com

I don't want to sound overly critical, but (don't ya just hate the butt's?) the diameter you quoted is a little small. Other than the size being a diameter that no drill is made for, it is a small fraction of the width of the finest human hair. The size quoted is less than 2 tenths of one one-thousandths of an inch. Seventeen thousandth or .017 is what I think you meant. This would be 1/64th of an inch (rounded up)