Pinhole Photography and Camera Obscura

[djguk47]

• It is Friday...again
• It is wet ...again...
• Have a hot air balloon flight scheduled for my wife's birthday tomorrow morning....it will be cancelled....again (been trying for two years for this flight)
• I do not feel like working....again

so, thought I would just write something to share which should not cause any heart ache or grief....

Last night at Camera Club we had a very interesting speaker (Derek Reay) and his subject was Camera Obscura and Pinhole Photography. Camera Obscura I had never heard of and Pinhole Photography we experimented with at school.

We were shown both black and white and colour pinhole photographs which were absolutely amazing, sharp and crystal clear.
The pinhole camera was made from a wooden box and uses 5x4 film. If he needs to change the dof he just adds another wooden ring and holds them together with two rubber bands, the shutter is a cover over the pinhole and to prevent shake he has rigged up a release mechanism.

Some of the images he showed were taken by a pinhole camera set up in a room which he had turned into a camera (Camera Obscura).

He clears a wall opposite a window which is overlooking a view, blackens out the windows and in the window opposite the blank wall he makes a small hole in the window covering, he then sets up his pinhole camera in the room to photograph the image which appears on the wall. These cameras have an incredible ultra ultra wide angle so the whole room appears on the pinhole image.
Now this is the amazing bit..... wait for it..... the f stop is equivalent to f1400... yep one thousand four hundred and the exposure time... 4 days..... no hurried snap and go shot.... he said his average pinhole shot ranges from two to four hours.
For portrait images he has the pinhole camera about six inches from the "victims" face.....and.....he still gets a background to the portrait !!!!!!
Try that in a town centre !!!!

If you are interested here is the link to his website..... http://www.derekreayphotography.co.uk/index.html and have a look at the Camera Obscura images and the Pinhole Camera images.

After all it is a wet miserable day .

David

[codachrome]

Re: Pinhole Photography and Camera Obscura

Ive seen a Camera Obscura at Bradford Photographic museum.And a pin hole camera made from a hole cut into a body cap,a piece of black tape put over the hole and a pinhole made in the tape.
Might try this one day when I have time for a four day exposure.

Coda

[Muscat]

Re: Pinhole Photography and Camera Obscura

I know this is going back a bit but when I was at school, more years ago than I care to remember, one of our classes was to make a pinhole camera, we used old shoe boxes and 5" x 4" plates, it did take along time for the exposure, can't remember exactly how long but some of the images were very good. All we did was secure the plate to the side of the box, seal the lid in place and ensure that it was completely light proof and thenpoke a darning pin through the oposite side to make the hole and when we had finished we simply put something over the hole.

Not very scientific but some worked others didn't.

[BT Bob]

Re: Pinhole Photography and Camera Obscura

A few years ago, I played around quite a lot with pinhole photography as part of a City & Guilds course. Had a great time.
I believe it's possible to do this on a DSLR body if you have a spare body cap you can make a hole it (drill the hole & tape a piece of foil or similar over it, then use a needle to make the hole in the foil. Set the camera to manual and use the Bulb setting for exposure and let it go. A locking remote release and fully-charged batteries help, of course.

On a similar note, I was on holiday in Cuba last year and at the Capitolio Building in Havana are about 3 or 4 old guys with what look like old plate cameras. They put a piece of b&w photo paper (about 3x4in) in the camera and take your portrait on the steps of the Capitolio - exposure of about 5 seconds (at about 4pm on a sunny afternoon!!). Then he slips his hand under the black sheet, takes out the photo and dips it into a tray of developer inside the camera itself. After a minute he takes it out and straight into a small bath of fixer for another minute or so. This, of course, produces a negative.
The clever bit, is he then mounts the negative in a frame in front of the lens, pops in another piece of paper and takes a photo of the neg, develops & fixes it, a quick swill in some water and there you go. For about 3 Cuban Convertible Pesos you get the photo & negative.
Very basic, but a lovely memento.