Pinhole Photography

In yesterdays workshop we were experimenting with pinhole cameras. In this session I used 3 different pinhole cameras; one made from a formula milk tub, one made from wood and a Harman Titan Pinhole Camera.

The first camera I used was a wooden box pinhole camera. I loaded it with Ilford photographic paper in the dark room and went outside to expose it. I exposed my paper for 10 seconds before covering the pinhole back over and developing the paper. Unfortunately the paper had fallen down inside meaning it was never actually exposed. 

I used the same camera again, this time sticking the paper to the back wall of the camera so the same thing wouldn’t happen again. Again I exposed the paper for 10 seconds and despite being a little out of focus it did work.   

Next I tried out a homemade milk tub pinhole camera. As this is a rounded tub I knew the image I produced would be distorted so I was excited to see the results. I again loaded it was photographic paper but this time exposed it for 15 seconds. Although this photo is more in focus than the last it is also overexposed.

For my last attempt I used the Harman Titan Pinhole Camera, which is a shop bought, ready-made camera and should give me the best results. I loaded the magazine with a sheet of Harman Direct Positive Paper and slid it into the back of the pinhole camera. The cameras fixed aperture is F/206 and the ISO of the paper is 3, so using a light meter I determined I needed to open the pinhole for 48 seconds to get the correct exposure. Although I used a light meter I do think the photograph is still slightly underexposed as its hard to see all of the detail, it is however the best result of the day. Unfortunately it is also looking a little worse for wear as this type of photographic paper is not meant to go through the dyer. I did eventually mange to rescue my photo from the grip of the evil dryer and its safe to say I wont be doing that again.

I thoroughly enjoyed the pinhole workshop and even though none of my images are prize winning I love the idea of never really knowing what the photograph will look like or if it will even work before developing it. I would like to work with pinhole photography again and I plan to make my own little pinhole camera up to experiment with soon!

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