ok all you pinhole enthusiasts

[mysteryscribe]

about pat: It was the automatic rifle joke that did it.

Pin hole portrait... Hubby can make you one of those head brace things that they used in the 1800s,.

 

[JamesD]

I'm glad I did the test... it appears I've damaged the emulsion on some of my paper, either when I cut it, or by accidentally spattering something on it, or something.... but anyway, this is a 4X5 contact print. I do have a question: the foreground (the blown-out part) is concrete, with a textured surface. Other than blocking the light, is there some way to get an image like this to show some detail both in the shaded background and also in the brightly-lit foreground? Perhaps my exposure is too long? A VC filter (I have them to 00, I think) in line with the negative?

Any ideas? Y'all've got more experience with this than I do.

Oh, and the picture (duh, almost forgot it):

BTW, Terri, this was made with the picture frame contact thingy.

-James

 

[mysteryscribe]

on a contact print I have no idea.

Unless you were to Expose for the foreground I think, then in your photo editor after the scan lighten the background. that should work... Eh terri

I like the shot by the way... Much better than the stuff I am getting

 

[mysteryscribe]

SLEEPY SUNDAY MORNING

It was six thirty on a spring Sunday morning, when the young park ranger looked up to see the battered old Dodge pull into her just cleaned parking lot. A minute or so after the car stopped a very old man removed himself from the car. It seemed to be about all he could manage. He leaned against the car to catch his breath even after so small an effort.
She stayed to watch. At first she was afraid he would have a heart attack in her park. Later she watched because she was fascinated. It seemed as though it took an hour for him to unpack his one leather satchel. The bag was large like the kind mail men from her youth had carried.
It was so large that she expected him to stagger from the weight of it. Instead he bent left from his waist to counter balance the weight on his right shoulder. She watched as he slowly walked to the lake. There were several observation points at the lake, but he moved to a single bench away from all the others. He seemed to have known exactly where he was headed. She was surprised since she had never seen him before.
The old man sat the satchel down on the bench beside him. He stopped to take a long, deep breath before he continued. From the satchel he removed a few wooden sticks. One at time he assembled them into a tripod. It was either very old or a very good reproduction of an old tripod.
Next he removed a flat square piece of wood. It was obviously newer than the tripod. Somehow he was able to attach it to the top of the older contraption. He shook the whole thing then nodded slightly to show his approval.
At that point he removed what appeared to be an old cigar box. The box was even adorned with the picture of a half dressed woman sitting on a cloud. She watched as he cut a square hole in the top of the cigar box with a razor knife. The ranger was fascinated. She had no idea what the old man would do next.
He removed what appeared to be an empty dog food can from his bag. He pointed the can at the sky before looking inside it. He again nodded his approval, then covered the edge of the can with something from a jar. He sat the can down carefully as he cut a new hole in the cigar box. The hole he cut the second time was round. How he cut it without a guide she could only guess was years of experience. After the hole was cut, he coated the area around the box with the whatever was on the brush from the same brown bottle.
He put a couple of very large rubber bands on the contraption after he attached the can. At that point he removed a very small container, of what, she presumed was coffee. He leaned back to look at the lake while he sipped his coffee. With the show over, the young ranger went to unlock the boathouse. She knew the Sunday families and fishermen would be along any minute.
It was an hour later when she again passed the bench where the old man sat. He appeared to have drifted off to sleep. She noted his contraption on the bench beside him. The rubber bands had been moved, they no longer held the dog food can in place. Instead they held some kind of rectangular black thing to the square hole at the rear of the cigar box. She would have checked to see if he had died, had he not stirred slightly as she watched him.
She got busy with the park visitors for a while. When she next saw the old man he was awake and attentive. His contraption was on the little wooden table he had assembled. On top of the box there appeared to sit a pair of sox. At that point her curiosity got the best of her.
"Hi there how's it going?" she asked from her pickup truck parked behind the old man.
He held up his hand to silence her. She was about to explain she was the park ranger, when he put something over the end of the dog food can, then looked up at her. "Sorry I couldn't lose count. I'm not smart enough to do two things at once any more." With that he slipped the dark slide back into the film holder at the rear of the box.
"Is there a problem?" He asked showing her his dentures.
"No I was just curious. What is all that?"
He knew what she meant. "This," he said proudly. "Is a pinhole camera. Today is worldwide pinhole day."
"That's a camera?" She was very much surprised, both by the strength of his voice and his obvious dementia.
He laughed before he answered. "Before you call the men in white suits, let me explain." He went on to explain a little about the history of cameras.
"Fascinating so what kind of pictures does it make."
"Not very good ones, but it is fun to be able to do something most folks can't do." He looked twenty years younger as he added, "So you see Ranger Jane, there really was photography before Nikon and digital cameras."
the end

 

[JamesD]

Man, this pinhole day & paper negative thing has opened up a can of worms for me! I've got all kinds of experiments going on now... determining exactly how light and dark the paper can be, calibrating for maximum contrast in print, and a bunch of other things... test strips, panels, and prints galore... enlarger settings, timing, apertures.... Y'all have unchained the scientific beast within me!

GRARGH!

 

[JamesD]

By the way, this can be viewed as a good thing... Or at least, that's the way I prefer to view it. :mrgreen:

 

[mysteryscribe]

See I knew I was doing this wrong>>> rofl

 

[mysteryscribe]

But since you brought it up.... answer me this one...

I shoot paper negs outside at iso 5 and they are great. I expect that I could do the same under a flood light. Just a guess,,

What I do know for sure is that the iso number is different under what we used to call dead light. Dead light being light deep in a shadow or that in a room with no really 'hot' (another old unscientific term) light source. Ie my studio with a small window light source.

I can get a negative in there but I can never be sure of the exposure, since I can't work out the iso to use in my meter. It just isn't consistant enough for me to figure it out. What I have begun to do is shoot two exactly alike and vary the development after I see the first one. A most unsatisfactory way to do it.

So what iso do you use in low light.

 

[mysteryscribe]

This is my third ps... I am losing my mind... I am going to shoot the duaflex kodak twin lens brownie type that I converted to pinhole. Some fool bought the argus and I don't want to risk damaging it.

I had to respool a roll of 120 film for it but she is ready to go. Got the beer in the refrig and I'm all set to go. I'm even looking forward to it.

 

[JamesD]

Well, to tell the truth, I have as yet not done any pinhole photography anywhere except outside on a sunny day. Nor have I established an ISO for shooting...

When I initially built my camera, I took it outside and made a couple of test shots. I finally settled on a sunny-16 rule exposure of 50 seconds, give or take. I wrote that down (along with the estimated aperture) on the camera and that's what I've stuck with. Now, I merely adjust the exposure time as needed based on the negative.

Let's see... f/290, 1 minute exposure... that's what, ISO 6? (According to mrpinhole.com... I'm too lazy to figure out the math myself).

I know of someone on another forum who has done low-light pinhole photography; I'll try to get ahold of him and ask about it.

I'm curious about your development procedures.. what kind of developer do you use and what dillution? How long do you normally develop the negative, and how do you vary development, and with what effects does that variation have?

I've been using Dektol 1:2 for 90 seconds, no real variation with it... perhaps I'm missing something here.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Well now you have hit on an interesting point. I develop my negs in a daylight tank. So I'm trying to get a standard developing proceedure so I dont have to pull it or push it. Thats why trying to find a lower light Iso is importrant.

I use a dektol clone mixed 1x7. There standard mix is 1x9 for enlarger paper and 1x6 for contact prints. 1x7 seemed a compromise. Then I add a half once of d76 to my 8oz mix. I can use the mix for film or paper. The film has a little grain but I like that. I shoot all retro and primative now.

A standard paper is about 2 min. But an interesting thing happened today. I forgot to change my light meter and shot a sheet of 100iso film at 5 iso. Instead of the usual 7 min I processed it 2 min. The image is the one I posted under the retro thread here.

It seems that you can use that developer as a wide wide latitude developer. I'm not going to shoot any more five stops off to test it, but it seemed to work pretty well. Its the camp meeting shot ...

I have no idea what the d76 does but the mixture works really well for me. The only problem with shooting paper negs and film together with different chemical mixes is that you are never exactly sure what you will get. But as long as i get something I'm thrilled.

It's actually more fun to adapt to the negative, than have the negative bend to my will.

 

[JamesD]

Fascinating. I was actually using Dektol 1:1 (oops) but I diluted it down to 1:5 this time, and it seems to be helping with my contrast issues. Originally, I actually used TMax diluted for film (1:4?) but I opted to try the Dektol this time. I've been tray developing; the trays are the cut-off bottoms of 1 gallon milk jugs... perfect size for 4X5.

This whole calibration thing is kinda involved, since I'm trying to figure it out pretty muchly from scratch, but it's fun. I just need to get a standardized negative that covers the entire range of the paper, from base white to max density, so I can refine it for maximum detail in the positive contacts. As it's been, I've been getting seriously blown highlights and blocked shadows, as you can see from the boot negative--well, the highlights, anyway. It's possible, of course, that I'm overexposing. That's one of the reasons I'm trying to get this test negative.

I'm not going to be left with any choice but to bracket come tomorrow, I think. I think I probably am overexposing... and the expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights thing is only working marginally for me.

I'll tell you this, though: I've learned a ton more today than in all the printing I've done before.

Anyway, I'm kinda rambling... waiting for Pizza to arrive before heading back into the darkroom.

BTW--I liked the story. Nice to see another photog that shares my inclination toward writing.

 

[JamesD]

The pizza just arrived.

 

[terri]

The pizza just arrived.

Now, that just made me hungry.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Then write some things.... And I cant be that detailed with the development any more. My eyes and senses are just going on me. I can use the negs on the scanner and that does some but it isn't like really getting in there.

Pizza is always good terry. The smell of turpentine, the taste of pizza and the buzz of red wine. Now where have i seen that before.