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pinhole photography starts with a pinhole camera
you can make your own from any light tight container
such as a cookie tin or an oatmeal box. Usually
photo paper is used to capture the image in a homemade camera
and what you get is a negative print. You can reverse it to a positive in a darkroom
or by scanning and inverting the image.
When the camera is designed so the papers is curved
you see some beautiful distortions of straight lines. If the film or paper is flat
the image looks fairly normal although pinhole images do have 2 special
properties
One is that since there's no lens there's an infinite depth of field
everything is in focus whether inches away or in the distance
the other special property is that because the aperture is so small
exposure time will be relatively long compared to a lensed camera
you wouldn't typically take a picture indoors at f-22
so imagine working at f-138 or f-250
which are typical pinhole camera f-numbers. If you are using photo paper
the exposure will be even longer since the ISO of photo paper
is so much slower than film usually about six or twelve rather than
100 or 200 or 400
the long exposure means that anything moving in the scene will blur or even disappear
this room was full of people during a long exposure
but no one stayed in one place long enough to register on the film
you can also buy a pinhole camera or kit to build one
my favorite purchased cameras my Zero 2000
which I bought a freestyle photo it takes medium format film and I get
twelve negatives per roll
I always keep this camera and a light meter in my bag
have used to take almost two thousand pictures mostly in restaurants
this is my series called "squaremeals: a pinhole diary of eating out"
but also amusement parks. hotels. still lifes...
I also like working with toy cameras and my Diana plus has a pinhole opening
so I can use this camera with either a lens or with a pinhole aperture
here are some my other cameras. This beauty was hand built by Mark Brown
and this is one version of the pinhole blender by Chris Peregoy
the Monochrome and the p-Sharan, both of which I built from kits, work really well
I still have to try out my Stenoflex. Pinhole photography
is more popular than you might think. For a few years now
the last Sunday in April has been worldwide pinhole photography day
in 2011 over 3,000 people from 67 countries participated
I was the only one in Delaware. If you're new to pinhole
it's fun first to build a camera yourself. You'll find lots of directions
online
Try to calculate the f-number for your camera which isn't that hard
hand sewing needles have known diameters
and the f-number is the diameter of the camera over the diameter of the hole
for instance 100 millimetres over half a millimeter
would be f-200. Then you can use a light meter
such as the one on another camera, to figure out the exposure time
however if you want to keep working in pinhole
I really recommend getting a camera that takes roll film
I can go on vacation with my camera and come back with a number of rolls ready
to be processed
which is much better than running to the darkroom to develop each paper negative
if you are shooting film you need to remember reciprocity failure
which means that after about a second or two of exposure
the time you expect will actually underexposure the film
if you google my name and the words pinhole exposure
you'll find a page where I explain that. Here are a few of the many photographers who
do interesting work with pinhole cameras
for landscape work you might look at Martha Casanave
Craig Barber, Ilan Wolff
Diane Boss or Vera Lutter, who exhibits her work
as paper negatives. Jessica Ferguson and Ralph Howell often work in still life
with the cameras themselves being a delightful subject for Howell
Katie Cook makes striking self-portraits
Ann Hamilton uses pinhole photography in a more conceptual way
For Steve Irvine the camera itself is a work of art
one artist well-known for pinhole camera work
actually takes pictures within rather than with a pinhole camera
Abelardo Morell has turned rooms into pinhole cameras obscura
and then photographed the outside world projected inside
to keep it short and left a lot out but you'll find tons of information online
I by to visit my website Nancybreslin.com
and also withoutlenses.com pinholeday.org
F 295 .org alternative photography. com
the pinhole camera. com Chris Keeney's
endless source of pinhole links