best paper for large pinhole camera

bicycletricycle · Feb 10, 2005

i need to know if any one paper is better suited to sunlight than others. i need to purchase a roll soon for a project and i dont have time to test. rather have rc paper and i think it needs to be matte because i have a curved film plane. i know that none of these papers were made for this but it looks like im going to get some 12 -24 hour exposures out of this camera, i dont suppose any paper is less prone to reciprocity failure than any others?

removed account4 · Feb 11, 2005

bicycletricycle - -

i shoot paper negatives pretty often, but not extended exposures as you write about. the problem you may have with your paper negatives is that paper in inherently more contrasty than film, and you may get all your hi's and lo's all blown out. i usually use older paper because it doesn't have the same problems as brand new paper. you can fog by flashing it ( as you might when enlarging ) and that might help your contrast a little bit. its too bad you can do a test or 2 beforehand. in order to get a good print you probably want to meter @ asa 6, shoot less in bright sun than in overcast conditions + underexpose about 1-1/2 stops ...

good luck with your camera obscura!

-john

rogueish · Feb 11, 2005

I watched a segment on a science show where a guy make a camera out of a courier van. If I remember correctly, he used Ilford RC by the roll. I don' t think he exposure times were any near the lengths your talking about.
Good luck and let us know how you do!
It may still be in the archives
http://www.exn.ca/dailyplanet/
I almost forgot, there was a thread about paper negs sometime ago. Try a search, I'm sure you'll only get a couple of hundred returns

mark · Feb 11, 2005

12-24 hour exposures?!!!! Where are you shooting, under a bridge during cloudy weather? I would be real concerned about the contrasty nature of a paper neg.

bicycletricycle · Feb 11, 2005

my camera has a focal distance of 712 mm and a pinhole 1.2 mm in diameter which gives it an f stop of about 600 - 700, that plus the inherent slow speed of paper negatives seems to give me atleast 10 hour exposures from all the info i can find.

removed account4 · Feb 11, 2005

hi again -

before i invest a ton of $$$ in a roll of paper, i would get a bunch of 8x10 samples of papers you know come that way, and write the names of each paper in b/p pen on the back ... and make a sample exposure to see what paper will suit your needs best. who knows, you might like the "talking heads more songs about buildings and food" mosiac approach better than the roll approach ... it would e a lot easier to process a bunch O' 8/10s than a 5x3 foot sheet of paper in a sink or in wallpaper - hanger's troughs ... you would have better control w/ smaller paper & exhausted developer too ... sorry, just thinking aloud ...

127 · Feb 12, 2005

My recomendation would be any grade 1.

I've only tried a couple of tests, but got signifigant improvement switching from the Ilford MG which I had around the house to some grade 1 which I bought specially.

The low grade controls the contrast, and being fixed it doesn't change the contrast for different coloured objects.

Ian

brennerp98 · Mar 23, 2005

I've been doing pinhole for a fair bit, and sometimes do paper rather than film.

My favorite paper is Agfa Multicontrast Classic. I also use it to print on sometimes. Both in the darkroom and in the camera, I find it to be a somewhat lower contrast paper than many others. As several have observed, the challenge is to tame the contrast.

The other benefit of this (or any other) variable contrast paper: You can use a green filter to reduce the contrast further if you need to.

My ASAs tend to be about 6 outdoors with no filter; 3 with the filter. Indoors, no filter, I'm about 3, and 1 1/2 with a filter.

Murray@uptowngallery · Jul 18, 2005

Sorry, not a paper neg., but I tried a roughly 7 hour exposure on film.
http://uptowngallery.org/Murray/Pinhole/35RFPH/Fuji200SuperHQ/7hourovernight.jpg

I was expecting to see cars or neighborhood dogs wandering around at night, but it was pretty uneventful.

Donald Qualls · Jul 19, 2005

That long an exposure, you'd only see a dog if it froze to death in front of the camera, and did it more than an hour before you closed the shutter. Cars, if the drivers had any sense, would have been parked overnight with that much snow on the ground.

Whiteymorange · Jul 19, 2005

Photo Warehouse has a "Fine Grain Positive" film that can be used like paper in an enlarger. I've used it and found it to be about the same speed as RC Ilford. The image is clean and dense enough to be used for a photo silkscreen exposure. You could make contact prints from it onto paper.

They say
"Will yield a black and white transparency from a negative. Use standard paper developer. Red safelight.
8 x 10 x 25 Standard .004 poly base 228-8103 $ 9.95
8 x 10 x 25 Extra heavy .007 poly base 231-8103 12.95 "

They also say to call for other sizes. Might work well in a pinhole, though I've never tried it.

Murray@uptowngallery · Jul 19, 2005

Sounds like a good film for pinhole.

Well, Donald, no pooches in the snow in the morning when I brought the camera back in, and being Michigan, I think we lose our common sense or judgement after a while about when not to drive in snow. I have had a 75 mile round trip commute for work for so long I don't think about it anymore...I just make sure I have a camera in the car with me.

best paper for large pinhole camera

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