 |
September 7, 2008 |
  |
Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
|
|
Columns |
 
|
Pinhole cameras are a simple and exciting way to experiment with photography. Pinhole photography takes away the lens of your normal camera and replaces it with a tiny hole. Because of this simplicity, pinhole cameras can be made from practically anything: station wagons, large rooms or soda cans. The images it creates tend to be softer and more mysterious. Once you grasp the basics of pinhole photography, there are an infinite number of experiments and modifications that can be made. After a few friends had asked about some of my pinhole images, I decided to invite them over and make oatmeal box pinhole cameras. Here’s how you can get create your own pinhole camera. What you’ll need: • A small cylindrical oatmeal or cornmeal box Step 1: Empty the contents of the box and use a cloth to dust away any remnants. Spray the inside and top of the box with black spray paint. (Note: You should wait about an hour before proceeding to the next step as the strong paint smell takes a while to dissipate.)Step 2: Hold the box up to a strong light to check for any light leaks and tape any problem areas. If the top is plastic, tape it, as the paint tends to crack and allow in light. Tape around the bottom edge to be on the safe side.  © 2005 Susan Stainman Step 3: Find the center (from top to bottom) of your box and cut a square approximately one half-inch around this spot.  © 2005 Susan Stainman Step 4: Cut a one-inch square of the pie pan and place it on cardboard (the back of a writing pad is fine.) With your thimble hold the needle straight over the metal and spin the needle with your other hand. By spinning it, you will drill a round hole through the metal. Once the needle has gone through, check your hole against a light to make sure it looks okay. Repeat if necessary. (Note: While pie pan or baking sheet metal is best for your pinhole, you can also use aluminum foil, although it is much more delicate and, therefore, more liable to break.)  © 2005 Susan Stainman Step 5: Tape the metal square inside your box, centering the pinhole within the cutout square. Make sure to tape around all the edges of your metal square.Step 6: To make a shutter, take a piece of tape, fold an area large enough to cover the hole in your box and tape it just above. © 2005 Susan Stainman  © 2005 Susan Stainman You’re ready to go! Load your photographic paper under safe light or in a completely dark room (a bathroom with no window or a closet) emulsion side facing the hole. Make sure the shutter is closed once the paper is loaded as the paper will be exposed otherwise. Exposures should be somewhere around 30 to 45 seconds in full sun, about two to five minutes in more overcast weather and up to ten minutes indoors. A couple of additional notes: • Don’t have the sun directly on the pinhole when exposing. These are only guidelines. After you have a handle on your camera, you might want to go against them and see what you come up with. The best thing about a pinhole camera is the amount of experimentation you can do with it. Try making multiple pinholes for overlapping images or several images on one piece of paper. Try longer exposures and having your subject move from one area to another. You can even add an off camera flash to freeze your subject in one particular spot as they move across the frame. Try making a camera with different focal lengths (the distance between the film or paper and the pinhole). The smaller the focal length the wider the angle; the longer the focal length the smaller the angel (more telephoto). Below are a few of my experiments with focal length. Notice the distortion and blurring of movement caused by long exposures.  Focal Length 25 © 2005 Susan Stainman  Focal Length 50 © 2005 Susan Stainman  Focal Length 75 © 2005 Susan Stainman For more information look on the web. There are tons of resources for pinhole enthusiasts. Most importantly, have fun!
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2002 - 2008 Take Great Pictures |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
