Beginner Pinhole Camera

Meg518 · May 18, 2018

Hello!

First off, please excuse my photographic ineptitude. I'm just now getting into this and am looking for as much info as possible before diving in.

I understand the basics of pinhole photography-- construction materials and methods, exposure times, etc. The one burning question I have, though, is what kind of paper/film to use. I have found varying answers, but most seem to require you to develop the film yourself. This is not something I am equipped to do (no dark room, unfamiliar with the process and materials). Is there any method that either doesn't require formal developing in a dark room (that's probably a dumb question) or can you just take some film to your local photo store to be developed (and if so, what film would they process)?

Thank you for any and all information! Again, I apologize for my ignorance!

Sirius Glass · May 18, 2018

Welcome to ~~APUG~~ Photrio
I use film, use a changing bag to load the tank, then in daylight use the developer, stop bath and then the fixer.
No apologies necessary, none of us was born with this knowledge, someone had to help each of us.

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Meg518 · May 18, 2018

I found a source that recommends Harman Direct Positive Paper.... this seems like a good option because you don't have to worry about negatives...I also found that there are ways to develop with around-the-house materials. Does anyone have any "recipes" to offer for this? Does this seem like a good option?

MattKing · May 18, 2018

I use a Noon 6x12 pinhole camera for my pinhole work. It uses standard 120 roll film. For black and white I develop it myself, but for colour I get my local lab to develop it for me.
If you don't have a local, 120 capable colour lab, there are mail order labs that are set up for you.

NedL · May 18, 2018

I have one pinhole camera that uses instant ( like polaroid ) film. Unfortunately, the last source of this film recently stopped producing it.

Even if you do start out with film and have it developed by a lab, do consider learning and trying to develop yourself eventually. Paper negatives can be a lot of fun in a pinhole camera and it doesn't take a lot to learn how to develop them. For a darkroom, some people use a bathroom, or just wait until night. To start out you just need a tray ( buy a plastic tray at walmart ) and three solutions. Have fun!

Theo Sulphate · May 18, 2018

If ...

... your pinhole camera is designed to take commercially available film such as 35mm or 120, then you could get it commercially processed and printed.

Otherwise...

The most fun and most reward will be from doing your own developing, especially with positive paper. It's easier than cooking a meal. All you need is a dark closet for loading and unloading the film and a bathroom where you can put three trays in the tub to process the paper. I would do this at night with a large dark cloth covering the window and a towel against the door to keep out stray light. With positive paper, you may be able to use a red safelight to see what you're doing (I was dumb and used a pale green night light, but all was ok). After you've developed your own photos you'll thank yourself for the experience. It's also the least expensive.

ransel · May 18, 2018

If you have a digital SLR camera, like a Nikon or Canon, you can make (or purchase off ebay) a pinhole adapter made out of a plastic body cap and shoot digital pinhole photographs - works great. But for a dark room, I just use a small bathroom - I process everything in there - 35mm, 120, 4X5, 5X7, even 8X10 film.
Heck, do what I did and just make your bathroom into a giant pinhole camera

MattKing · May 18, 2018

Theo Sulphate said:
...If your pinhole camera is designed to take commercially available film such as 35mm or 120, then you could get it commercially processed and printed

Or, if you are handy with tools, a fair number of people have had success removing lenses (and sometimes shutters) from older simple roll film cameras and adding a pinhole mechanism instead.

summicron1 · May 18, 2018

For a beginner I'd stick with simple: There are several very nice pinhole cameras out there made out of wood that use either 35mm or 120 film -- the nice folks at ZeroImage make some really elegant ones, but cheaper is also available. I made one out of a very old box camera. As MattKing notes, an old folder works well also -- just remove the glass and put a pinhole over the front opening and use the existing shutter.

You can even make one out of a cheap point-and-shoot 35mm plastic camera -- just punch the lens out and replace it with a pinhole and there you are. A piece of tape works for a shutter and you're in business.

Send the film to any good photo lab -- The Darkroom, I believe, advertises with APUG, or you can send it to Dwayne's in Kansas (google it) and get reasonably cheap processing and prints/scans.

So you don't have to learn how to do darkroom work, although if you even just learn how to process the film and scan it, you're ahead of the game. There are any number of reasonably priced flatbed scanners that do a good job with film...make sure it does 120 if you use that size.

awty · May 19, 2018

ransel said:
Heck, do what I did and just make your bathroom into a giant pinhole camera

Excellent!

M Carter · May 26, 2018

I've successfully made a 6x6 and 4x5 pinhole, even made the pinholes myself. But I can really recommend spending 8 bucks on eBay - there's a guy who sells laser-drilled pinholes. Knowing the actual size of the hole (so you can calculate exposure accurately) and knowing it's perfectly round is pretty cool. I switched my 4x5 to one, actually bought 2 different sizes and ran some tests. Worth it by far.

And I'll pipe in like the others - sure, get started with paper positives - you'll need a couple trays and a safelight, and you can scan them on any old printer-scanner combo to show them off. It should be a low-stress entry. You'll need paper developer and fixer - buy 'em online if needed. You'll need a room (preferably with a sink) that you can black out, like cover the windows and any door cracks.

Check out the "Darkroom" forum on Reddit, lots of young people newer to this stuff there that can give some advice as well.

But I'd skip the "household chemicals" idea and get proper chemicals, they're pretty cheap. And when you get comfy with that process, consider developing your own film. You'll add another chemical (but some, like HC-110, are "syrups" that last for years, you mix a little with water and dump after use). Baby steps, keep it where it's fun, and ask questions, check youtube videos and photo blogs. Everything you need to know is likely covered on someone's youtube channel!

NedL · May 27, 2018

M Carter said:
...... keep it where it's fun.....

This is good advice.

DWThomas · May 27, 2018

M Carter said:
But I'd skip the "household chemicals" idea and get proper chemicals, they're pretty cheap. And when you get comfy with that process, consider developing your own film.

I second this comment. It's best to start learning a new process with materials that have known characteristics; i.e, from tried and true manufacturers. Once you are familiar with the general process you can branch out into experiments. Without a "real" darkroom, I would lean toward using paper rather than film as it's less light sensitive and can be handled under a safe light so you can see what you're doing. (I've never used the direct positive paper, but I assume that still applies.) You can also contact print paper negatives onto another piece of paper by placing the negative image against the blank paper, emulsion to emulsion, weighting it down with a sheet of glass and doing a brief exposure with white light.

The level of darkness is a bit less critical for paper than for film. In my youth I used to load a developing tank in a rather small closet with some rolled up cloth covering the opening at the bottom of the door. At night with the outer room light off that was adequate. For printing I had sheets of "stuff" -- corrugated cardboard, black foamcore, whatever, that I put over the few windows in the basement of the house. Many people operate in a bathroom which typically only has one not very large window to cover. That has the advantage of running water available too!

M Carter · May 27, 2018

DWThomas said:
The level of darkness is a bit less critical for paper than for film.

And man, those cheap-as-hell red LED bulbs that go in a standard clamp light? My darkroom is like daylight (on mars I guess), and I've found they only fog Adorama's cheap RC, but I got off RC long ago. It's just a huge improvement in darkroom enjoyment for me, particularly for lith printing.

I spend some time answering questions on Reddit every week (humbled to say I was named "most helpful commenter" of 2017), and man, I can't stress "keep it fun and exciting" enough. There's endless improvement and growth available in this calling, and you can comfortably fall into anything from "shoot for fun and don't stress the details" to "I want to become a master-printer of yore" or explore all of the alternate processes out there. No need to learn it all in one weekend, and there are many simple paths to succeeding with a decent image and slowly IDing what you'd like to improve.

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