Apparently I'm affectionately known as "Pinhole" behind the Pro Photo counter at B&H (where I now work in the photo bags area) It was pretty funny, a customer asked me if I knew if we had Pinhole apertures for sale. I didn't know, being new I really have no idea all of the products we have. I figured I'd ask one of the seasoned veterans behind the Pro Photo counter. There is a little area with all the plastic Holgas, Lubitels and Polaroids so I figured I'd ask over there. They didn't know, so I was sent a bit further down the counter where I was asked by the Pro Photo Guy: "Is it an SLR?" Me: "Uhhh... no." Pro Photo Guy: "A point n' shoot?" Me: "No, it's just a box with a hole" Pro Photo Guy: "Oh! I know what you're talking about! We have those!" Alas, we do not sell the apertures separately. My brother came in and purchased a memory card from the same fellow behind the counter and apparently I am now affectionately known as "Pinhole."
Anywho, this started me thinking about my pinholes again. I mentioned to a co-worked that I did a Sleep/Pinhole project and she immediately said "I totally wanna try that now!" So I think this is an apropos time to post some past pinhole work.
Before I do that I should probably explain exactly what a Pinhole is for those non-photogs. A pinhole basically starts with a box or container of some kind with a lid. Many have started with an empty Quaker Oats tube-like container. I prefer mine to be more box-like but it's all personal preference.
So, got the box- right? Now you paint it all black in the inside, tape up the corners and seams with black masking tape to eliminate light leaks. Now on the lid or on the side (in the middle) you're going to cut a little opening, not too big, like half an inch to an inch diameter and put some tin foil or other maleable metal over the opening. You will tape that too so it stays. and now you prick a small hole with a needle or thumb tack in that metal directly in the center of your foil. make sure the hole isn't big, and it must be a clean puncture. put some tape over your new hole, that's the shutter. You've made a camera! Tada!
In the darkroom, load it up with photo paper on the back wall of your box (double stick tape the back so it's stationary) and close up. Take it out on a sunny day and peel the tape off your aperture. Be sure to keep the camera perfectly still, rest it on a ledge or solid structure and expose for a minute or so (the bigger your camera the longer the exposure, a matchbox pinhole will take a lot less than a pinhole the size of a moving box) also if you're paper is realllly far away from the aperture it's going to take a longer time to expose properly. Once you expose your paper (only one shot!) take it to your darkroom and develop normally (Devo-Stop-Fix-Water Wash) there you go it should have worked. If you've got a totally black image there was too much light, it could be over exposed or you could have a light leak. It you have a white paper it was under exposed, not enough time with the aperture open. You should have some sort of image though, the perspective will be weird (because the aperture's so small) and it will be a negative. For a positive image contact print it in the darkroom, or scan it in and invert in Photoshop.
How it works:
The light is projected on the back of your box where the photo sensitive paper catches it.
OK lesson over! Now to the pics!
The negative came out of the camera, then I developed it in the darkroom and then scanned it into Photoshop.
The image would also be reversed in addition to the Blacks and Whites being inverted, e.g. the head of the bed on the left, but I fixed it in Photoshop. I also adjusted the levels and spotted the dust out in PS. This is "Pinhole #5" in the Pinhole/Sleep Series
