Post your pinhole photographs here

[Sirius Glass]

One could even discuss them.

 

[awty]

Yippee!
This is my first pin hole picture (well, that was exposed correctly). I bought a f250 8x10 and a box of edu 100 film. Managed to calculate the exposure correctly at about 45minutes. Wanted a little more of the water spurt, but hey I got the sun and everything else. Had the try pod in the pool about half a meter from the lions head.

 

[REAndy]

First pinhole for me, and first film in this camera. I need some advise...

4X5 Pinhole Camera; estimated f-stop 256; shutter open 6 seconds.
Film Arista EDU 400
Film Developed 8 minutes @ 68F stock D-76
Contact printed on Ilford Multigrade IV RC Portfolio Paper; 24 second exposure (but I know this might not mean anything as it depends on enlarger height, and f-stop used); Dektol 1:2 for 1 min 30 seconds.
Contact print scanned into computer.

I'm looking for some advise. This is my first "playing" with a pinhole camera. Opening the "shutter" and looking closely at the pinhole itself, it appears that it is a tiny hole made of lots of little holes. Like a super microscopic screen/sieve. Is this normal? I feel the negatives have a soft-focus look to them. (tripod is sturdy, I don't think it is camera movement. (maybe "wind blowing tree movement?, but day was pretty calm) So I'm wondering of the "pinhole", being made of a dozen or so micro-holes would be the cause of the soft focus. Has anyone else experienced this, or have a pinhole that is like this?

I also see my film holder seems to have a light leak where the film is inserted (fogging on right side of photo). I bought these used on "some auction site". Maybe the seller knew they leaked and wanted to get rid of them.
If anyone has ideas on making film backs "light-tight" please pass along a trick, a link or a paragraph.

I guess I was expecting "super crisp" negatives with everything in perfect focus.

Thanks,

REAndy

 

[awty]

First pinhole for me, and first film in this camera. I need some advise...

4X5 Pinhole Camera; estimated f-stop 256; shutter open 6 seconds.
Film Arista EDU 400
Film Developed 8 minutes @ 68F stock D-76
Contact printed on Ilford Multigrade IV RC Portfolio Paper; 24 second exposure (but I know this might not mean anything as it depends on enlarger height, and f-stop used); Dektol 1:2 for 1 min 30 seconds.
Contact print scanned into computer.

I'm looking for some advise. This is my first "playing" with a pinhole camera. Opening the "shutter" and looking closely at the pinhole itself, it appears that it is a tiny hole made of lots of little holes. Like a super microscopic screen/sieve. Is this normal? I feel the negatives have a soft-focus look to them. (tripod is sturdy, I don't think it is camera movement. (maybe "wind blowing tree movement?, but day was pretty calm) So I'm wondering of the "pinhole", being made of a dozen or so micro-holes would be the cause of the soft focus. Has anyone else experienced this, or have a pinhole that is like this?

I also see my film holder seems to have a light leak where the film is inserted (fogging on right side of photo). I bought these used on "some auction site". Maybe the seller knew they leaked and wanted to get rid of them.
If anyone has ideas on making film backs "light-tight" please pass along a trick, a link or a paragraph.

I guess I was expecting "super crisp" negatives with everything in perfect focus.

Thanks,

REAndy

View attachment 206216

You cant tell if it is clean with the naked eye, mine looks like the way you described. You could blow some compressed air through it just in case. Your main problem is the light leak, really need to fix that before you can sought out any other possible problems. Maybe you can cover the film holder with a dark cloth when exposing the film. Seems to be exposed about right.
You can use a yellow filter if you want more contrast. 100 iso film might handle highlights a little better in full sun.
Keep playing with it, there a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.

 

[awty]

Another 8x10 f250 pinhole using a red filter and 100 iso film for an hour long exposure in full sun. Used the red to emphasize the shadow and tree trunk. Was about a foot away from the trunk, pointed down slightly.
8x10 contact print on Vandyke Brown emulsion and toned in gold briefly.

 

[mcfitz]

Yippee!
This is my first pin hole picture (well, that was exposed correctly). I bought a f250 8x10 and a box of edu 100 film. Managed to calculate the exposure correctly at about 45minutes. Wanted a little more of the water spurt, but hey I got the sun and everything else. Had the try pod in the pool about half a meter from the lions head.
View attachment 206053

Well done, Paul, the lion is impressive. How did you get away with having the tripod in the pool in what seems to be a public area?

 

[mcfitz]

I've been experimenting (fooling around, more like), with multiple pinholes, two, three, and five, which I make myself. Three works the best, for my purpose. Some images work out well, many don't. I never know before hand what will or will not work, which makes the experiment (fooling around) appeal to me.

I make the pinholes in the soft metal that small wax tea candles sit in. It is easy to pierce and cut to size. A size 10 sewing needle works well. I use a hole punch to pierce black card, set the pinholes in place, cover the back with another pierced bit of card and fix the result to an extension tube for a 35mm camera, in this case, a Minolta. Using 35mm film makes it possible to do tests and also makes it possible to swap a lens with the pinhole extension tube, in order to frame more or less accurately. With the still lifes, and even portraits, doing so is helpful.

This is a still life-abstract of a peony branch with a 3 hole pinhole, indoors. The extension tube gave focal length of about 70mm. Exposure time was 30seconds, film was Agfa APX 400.

 

[ransel]

...it appears that it is a tiny hole made of lots of little holes. Like a super microscopic screen/sieve. Is this normal? I feel the negatives have a soft-focus look to them.

Andy, I am familiar with single pinholes, which I have used, and zone plate, which I have not used. I am not familiar with a pinhole camera having a dozen or so holes. I would think that would give a much softer, perhaps glowing image than a single pinhole. I would think you could remove the multiple pinhole and replace with a single pinhole, for sharper images.

I also see my film holder seems to have a light leak where the film is inserted...

Did you completely remove the dark-slide during exposure or leave it slightly inserted in the film holder? Sometimes leaving it just barely inserted can cause light to get in. What ever, don't be to fast to blame the film holder, it could be the camera back it's self that is letting light leak in, or some other part of the camera construction. Also, could it be that the sun was hitting your pinhole causing a flair during exposure? That is another caution that you need to take.
If it is the film holder or camera back, one simple tool is to just keep a black T-shirt with you and drape it over the back of the camera during exposure.

 

[Roger Thoms]

One could even discuss them.

Your image isn’t showing up on my screen.

Roger

 

[Sirius Glass]

Your image isn’t showing up on my screen.

Roger

It does not show up on mine either.

 

[REAndy]

Andy, I am familiar with single pinholes, which I have used, and zone plate, which I have not used. I am not familiar with a pinhole camera having a dozen or so holes. I would think that would give a much softer, perhaps glowing image than a single pinhole. I would think you could remove the multiple pinhole and replace with a single pinhole, for sharper images.


Did you completely remove the dark-slide during exposure or leave it slightly inserted in the film holder? Sometimes leaving it just barely inserted can cause light to get in. What ever, don't be to fast to blame the film holder, it could be the camera back it's self that is letting light leak in, or some other part of the camera construction. Also, could it be that the sun was hitting your pinhole causing a flair during exposure? That is another caution that you need to take.
If it is the film holder or camera back, one simple tool is to just keep a black T-shirt with you and drape it over the back of the camera during exposure.

Your question about dark-slide in or out: I removed the dark-slide completely. Now, after reading your comments, I'm wondering if light is getting in the slot for the dark-slide.
Your question about sun on pinhole causing flair: I was shooting east (I live in the northern hemisphere) and it was around noon, and the slot for the dark-slide was facing south

I think I will try a jewler's loop looking thru the camera with the back removed to confirm what I think I see with the naked eye, isn't an illusion. If it really seems to be a "screen of holes" I think it would be easy to replace. The literature with the camera talked about they used a laser-beam to cut the aperture.

Thanks for your thoughts.

REAndy

 

[REAndy]

What a pinhole (the aperture itself) looks to my eye..

I just took out a jeweler's loupe (X10) and looked at the pinhole. Perfect round.

That screen/sieve I thought I was seeing... I just convinced myself that is an optical illusion. Probably caused by my own eyeball (retina cell placement???) Because this is what I did.
I looked at the pinhole with one eye. made a mental note of how the pattern of dots within the pinhole looked like. I then switched eyes, and found a completely different pattern.
And to confirm it was my eyeball. I tilted my head and the pattern of dots rotated with me.

Ok, I think that solves that. You can't look at the pinhole aperture and see if it is round and clean/clear. Use a magnifying device.

And for those who might be wondering "why does that guy have a jeweler's loupe?" I'm into fountain pens and it helps with aligning the tines of the nib.

I'm off to solve my light leak problem. Thanks everyone again.

REAndy

 

[Roger Thoms]

It does not show up on mine either.

Oh, to bad, it would be great to see some of your pinhole images. I have a few pinhole images but they only seem to show up on silver gelatin.

Roger

 

[John Koehrer]

FWIW there are multi-holed Zone Plate used for soft(er) focus.

 

[awty]

Well done, Paul, the lion is impressive. How did you get away with having the tripod in the pool in what seems to be a public area?

No one noticed me that time, but I have had to explain my wooden box to security guards before, some just cant comprehend that is a camera, just get puzzled looks when I take the film branch off and show an empty box.
You have some very interesting experiments, the picture turned out great, love the soft texture.

 

[narsuitus]

Cell Phone vs Pinhole by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

[Arbitrarium]

Mundane subject but it shows off how sharp this pinhole is. Pinhole from Au Premier Plan, used on a camera I built from an old Goldeck tube camera:

Apologies for the colossal photos...

 

[SMBooth]

Recent image from Little Desert National Park. 4x5 /60 mm pinhole using Macophot IR820 with R72 filter. Ended up being 25 min exposure.

 

[pmviewcam]

Shane:

A beautiful image!

 

[NedL]

Shane:

A beautiful image!

+1

 

[DWThomas]

@SMBooth that's certainly a spectacular example of pinholery!

 

[SMBooth]

Thanks, Im pretty happy with it. Looks nice printed on Fomatone 131.

 

[MattKing]

Here is a few:

 

[MattKing]

And one I've posted before - a pinhole portrait:

 

[Ces1um]

Here's one of mine taken with a Harman Titan 4x5 pinhole at Kejimkujik National Park.