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World Pinhole Photography Day - April 28, 2024

Mike Bates

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
154
Location
Columbus, OH
Format
Multi Format
April is upon us and that means World Pinhole Photography Day is near (April 28, 2024). After several years of absence, I'm looking forward to participating this year. I'm a little embarrassed by my absence since I enjoyed it every time. For some reason, I'm also more interested in looking through the gallery of submissions when it includes one of my own.

For historical reference, I last participated in 2017:

Mike Bates, Columbus, Ohio, United States | Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2017 Exhibition

I saw this funny hand-painted mural on the side of a bar while I was walking to a more iconic photo location. I set up and made an exposure just for fun. My better photos turned out to be boring, so this is the one.
pinholeday.org


And 2018:

Mike Bates, Westerville, Ohio, United States | Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2018 Exhibition

The city of Westerville requested and received a piece of steel from the World Trade Center destroyed on September 11, 2001. They built a firefighters' memorial around the steel. This bronze sculpture of David Theisen, who lost his life as volunteer firefighter, is located there.
pinholeday.org

I'll be using my 4x5 Travelwide camera with a Skink pinhole mounted in a recycled Copal shutter from a Polaroid process camera.

Travelwide with pinhole

Travelwide camera with Skink pinhole lens

I hope this serves as a reminder and others will join in. Share your 2024 camera, process, experience, and results here.
 
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BAC1967 said:
I mostly use this Voigtlander 116 Roll Film Camera. The lens had bad separation between the elements so I replaced it with a pinhole.
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I've seen 116 and 616 film cameras I'd like to do something similar to. Do you respool 120 film onto the 116 spools or use something else?
 
Mike Bates said:
I've seen 116 and 616 film cameras I'd like to do something similar to. Do you respool 120 film onto the 116 spools or use something else?
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I either use very expired 116/616 film or cut down sheet film. There are adapters for 116/616 to 120 that would work as well. I should get some adapters and try that since the focal plain for pinhole photography isn’t critical. Without a mask for 120 film it may not be perfectly flat.
 
In the past, I've used my Zeiss Ideal 9x12 plate camera, my Speed Graphic with a pinhole mounted in place of the regular lens.
 
How timely! I teach darkroom photography at a community college ... and this week am joining forces with the ceramics class to make ceramic pinhole cameras! With luck, we will have results to post soon.
 
I thought it might be helpful to mention what the actual day is - April 28, 2024.
Thread title and initial post amended.
 
My fresh box of 10 sheets of 4x5 Portra 400 film arrived Saturday along with the chemistry to develop it.

Hoping for good weather on Sunday.
 
I need to check that I have some empty film holders and if so, load up a few sheets of the litho film I bought a while back. I can load and process that under red safelight, in trays, so there's actually some chance I'll get it processed and scanned before the deadline to upload. I might even attempt a reversal on one or more sheets...
 
grahamp said:
until June 30th this year
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Yes, but I have two exposed Grafmatics waiting to go in my Agitank and both of my Paterson tanks are were loaded when the shelf came down in my darkroom. I just got that back up last weekend, still need to clean up a bit before I can process anything. And I'm very slow at this, energy and time are always short.
 
Well, best laid plans etc. I just came from the darkroom, trying to load the Regent Royal "dot line" film I bought (at a very good price) a few months ago into my newest (to me) Grafmatic, which was still empty -- and found that the film appears to be actually four inches by five inches, vs. 4x5 film dimension of about 100x125 mm; it won't lay flat in the septum, but once fitted under the edges, bows up a quarter inch or so in the middle. I'd have to trim a couple millimeters off each long edge to load this film in a 4x5 film holder.

Since I have an engagement tomorrow afternoon, I probably won't make it out for Pinhole Day -- I might try to get a couple frames in the morning with my LomoGraflok on my converted electron microscope camera, but Instax doesn't seem to do very well with pinhole because of its poor reciprocity characteristics.
 
I'm good to go. Five 4x5 film holders loaded with 10 sheets of film. I hope at least one shot will be worthy.

I calculate my f-stop at f/214. That's 7 1/2 stops less light than f/16. The Sunny 16 rule puts me about 1/2 second exposure for my 400-speed film in bright sun. I can adjust down from there if it's hazy or late afternoon.
 
Five 8x10 holders are loaded with Fuji HR-T X-ray film and the gear is lined up by the door. It just remains to be seen if the weather cooperates for a major expedition versus just messing around near home (as seems to happen alarmingly often on WPPD).
 
I'm still testing my macro camera, it looks like the exposure will be around 7 or 8 hours for the subject I have in mind , so it will take most of WPPD to make one image, and it's surprisingly hard to aim it correctly! I bought more batteries for the lights today, so I can try it twice if the 1st one is a dud. I'll probably go out and make a few FP-100C instant film photos as a backup if it doesn't work.
 
Donald Qualls said:
Instax doesn't seem to do very well with pinhole because of its poor reciprocity characteristics.
Click to expand...

Well, and as a great philosopher once wrote, "If you try sometime, you just might find you can get what you need."

I took the above-mentioned equipment out in the front yard, set up, metered at EI 400 (my EM camera is 150 mm f/320), got 4 seconds metered exposure in dappled shade, gave two stops for reciprocity departure (net 16 seconds), and got the following (after one deeply underexposed with only one stop for reciprocity, and one poorly framed because there's no viewfinder on this camera, not even framing marks, which still wouldn't be right for the LomoGraflok's off-center actual frame). I'll be uploading this to the WPPD web site ASAP.



There's a little reflection because the super-glossy Instax print is hard to rephotograph, and the inevitable tiny "Sauron's Eye" (which my redeye filter only slightly reduces) from the IR rangefinding light -- bit this is the best I'm going to get with the equipment I have.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

www.pinholeday.org
 
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I ventured out with my wideangle tomato paste pinhole canmera (made years ago) and took a few photos. It can only take one at a time, though, so I used Kodak Lith film and Svema MZ3 - both of which can be developed under safelight. I tossed them in paper developer.

These are scans of prints - the scans are terrible (my scanner is generating artifacts) but that's all I'm doing today.

Kodak Lith

MZ3
 
I like both of those Don.

I think the first macro photo ( on paper negative ) I made looks pretty good. It's hanging to dry right now, and I started a 2nd one with the lighting more from below. Won't know for sure until I scan or contact print. Also took a couple instant film shots just in case, and one of them looks decent. I let those hang to dry in a dust-free place too, until they are no longer sticky ( a few hours to be safe ). In about 7 hours I'll develop the 2nd macro
 
I made 7 exposures today on Portra 400. I realized my accurate submersable thermometer has broken, so I need to order another for developing. Just a small delay in the process.
 
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