Color Pinhole ...? Wha ?

[Pastiche]

Well...
There's the question...
I'd like to get into color...
Why not do that the same way I came into B&W... pinholes!
Could someone set me straight - can I do color paper pinhole images?
I'd think the simplest most economic, and MOST learner friendly color process would be ideal to start with... (as if such a thing existed )
Can someone suggest a process?
Major pitfalls a newby would fall into?

I'm not concerned with color fidelity at this point, this is really just to get my feet wet... so.. color reversal papers & processes would be just fine by me.

Is this a process that I'd have to get a book on before I blow any $$ on? I'm not too dense, and I'd certainly read all that I could online.. still..?

 

[Photo Engineer]

It works with both film and paper. Bujor B on PN has posted some pictures taken on color paper and cross processed.

Try it, you'll like it.

PE

 

[nsurit]

Major pitfalls a newby would fall into?

Noah, please accept my apologies, however I couldn't let this one pass. Guess I was just reared wrong.

The main pitfall I've run into with doing color pinhole is finding a coated pinhole.

Seriously, I've used color negative film for pinholing with relatively good success. I've not tried just paper.

I've also used another process for color pinholing, however I won't mention it here.

Bill Barber

 

[Pastiche]

PE- Thanks for the link. I could not, however, access it (more than his self portraight). I did find examples of color pins on the web, but none that specificaly said paper color negs... looks like the film is the way to go. I guess with pinhole & film, I wont feel too darn bad about botching a couple of rolls... depending on what process is most economical.
BB - so a coated pinhole diminishes the diffaction of color at the aperture? That's just what I'm guessing a coated pinhole does... wadda you say?
You mention that you're now using film, rather than Just paper... do you recomend stating with either in particular? Most common mistake (for those who dont know the process)? Is learning how to process one the same as processing the other? Are both develpment processes as touchy about temp?

I think I need to learn color process... before I can decide which paper and or film to start with.. aehh... ?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Pinholing in color is easy with 35 mm or 120 film, and not too bad with 4x5 (which costs more to process, but is otherwise better). Just expose the film and (especially with 35 mm) hand it over to a commercial lab for processing -- Costco charges me $5.22 to develop and scan a 24 exposure roll from my 35 mm pinhole camera, and I can get 120 negatives developed locally as well (even 4x5, if I can ever find the lab people keep telling me about, though 4x5 color gets expensive in a hurry). Doing so with color paper would require being able to process RA-4 in order to develop the negative and contact print, and CC filter the light used for contact printing to correct color (which will otherwise tend to be too yellow because of lack of the orange negative mask).

It would probably be a good bit simpler, and possibly cheaper (given no need to make contact prints) to work on Ilfochrome; you can find a filter that gives good results in daylight and stick with it or add correction filters to it as you would with slide film, and the print will develop directly to a positive (though it's also possible and not even very difficult to reverse RA-4 papers); contrast is controllable by choice of first developer formula (the Beers developer family is said to work well).

 

[smieglitz]

Don't forget Polaroid. You can probably find an old Colorpack II camera at a thrift store fo under $1 and modify it into a pinhole camera easily. Type 669 Polacolor would also let you do image and emulsion transfers with it.

Joe