Pin-Hole Camera

Hello everyone,

I am currently taking a photography class at Stockton University and wanted to hear some opinions on a pinhole camera that I plan to make. What type of box works best and why? Ex: Shoe box, cardboard box, etc. Also do I have to line the inside of the box with black paper and if I do, why does the paper have to be black? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Here's one way to do it with an existing camera body:

Pinhole-1989-03-Modern Photography

 

Some of the information is relevant to starting with some kind of box of any kind.

Unfortunately, we can no longer post pdf files on P.net, but I have some 5-6 pp articles on pin holes...

Morning everyone. If building the "pin hole camera" IS NOT part of the course, and you own an slr camera with a removable lens, you might consider a camera body cap with a pin hole thru it. DIY can be accomplished but several vendors on Ebay have laser drilled caps for $10-20 (USD) that have known f stop status. I have several for my various rangefinder cameras that are fun to use now & then. I have also seen some very good work from other photographers. Aloha, Bill

Last week I did the above. Never tried it before. Nothing to write home about, but fun. I used a every day pin. I tried a lot of times and my best exposures with ASA 50 film on a Canon EF with the hole mounted on a Canon 50mm extension tube were two seconds. Of course exposure will be a function of the size of the pin hole. Bottom line is if you already have a camera with interchangeable lenses, use it.

 

PS - I used a sandwich of foil and black construction paper.

 

Here is one of the photos.

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by chuck909

I've never been sold on pinholes myself, and can't offer much experience. But...

 

What type of box works best and why? Ex: Shoe box, cardboard box, etc.

 

There are two requirements: That it be light proof (because you only want light coming through the pinhole to create the image - and since there won't be much of that, it's not like any leaks are going to be drowned out) and that it can hold your film medium steady. If the film isn't flat, you'll get some distortions. Normally it would also affect sharpness because the focal plane in the scene wouldn't be flat, but with a pinhole, that, at least, isn't such an issue. So if you use a shoebox that's been squashed, you might get something that looks a bit funny - but as Chuck indicates, you might not be able to tell. :-) There are people who make pinhole cameras out of drinks cans, for example, so it doesn't matter all that much. Some precision in the pinhole itself might, however, which is why people tend to make a hole in some foil rather than just stabbing a cardboard box with a penknife (which will, technically, work).

 

Also do I have to line the inside of the box with black paper and if I do, why does the paper have to be black? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

Have to? No. But any light that hits the film is going to affect the image, and that includes any light that gets to the inside of the box and bounces around. If you have a white box, some light will come through the pinhole and reach the film, and form the image. Some light will come in at an angle and bounce off the inside of the box, which will then affect the image. Some light will bounce off the film, illuminate the box, then light up the image again. Since the indirect light is very soft, you won't get an image of the inside of the box - but the extra light will affect the contrast of the final image (essentially by making the blacks less black). To an extent, you can fix this if you scan the result and play in an image editor, so you don't have to go out and buy high-grade black velvet plush lining to get an image, but it's better to capture the best image you can to start with. By the same argument, lenses often have internal "baffles" to stop light bouncing around inside and contributing to the image, and the mirror boxes on SLRs get painted black.

 

I hope that helps. Good luck!

The inside needs to be painted black (matte black ideally) or lined with black paper, so that stray light is abosrbed on the first surface it hits, instead of reflecting to interfere with your image.

 

For nice pictures, I would use at least medium format roll film, not 35mm. I have done most of my pinhole with my Century Graphic. On this camera, the lens is mounted on a removable lens-plate, so it was easy to make an extra plate with a pinhole. The big advantage of using an existing camera body is that it gets you out of making a winding mechanism for the film. Also, I get eight pictures before needing to change rolls, and that's easy to do in the field anyway. Developing is just like a normally-exposed film; you could even get it done at a lab.

 

I have also used cameras made from real boxes, or rather tins, from biscuits and toffees. I used these with single sheets of film (4x5 inch or quarter-plate) or printing paper. I didn't have great success with paper, but then I only tried it once, and my paper was long outdated. Choose a tin with a lid that fits on securely, and which is light-tight without needing tape. Try to get one that fits the size of film or paper you want to use without too much extra space around it. If you use a shallow tin, you will get a wide-angle view. I find these pictures more interesting. The edges will naturally fade out, as the edge is significantly further from the pinhole than the middle, and the light thater also falls on the film at a sharper angle.

I drilled a 5-mm hole in the base of the tin, and glued my pinhole plate over it. made my pinhole in some thin aluminium sheet (I have a stock of old 3.5-inch floppy discs with aluminium sliding doors, and I used the aluminium from one of those). For making the holes, there's a good method here: http://www.pinhole.cz/en/pinholecameras/ The same site has a page explaining exposure calculation.

I glued a block of wood to one side of the tin, in whch I had fitted a tripod socket.

I held my sheet of film in the tin lid with a little magnet in each corner. You can use a piece of black tape, or another magnet, over the pinhole as a shutter.

 

I took my film-changing bag out with me, and unloaded each exposed sheet into a little box until I had six; that's a full load for my sheet-film dev tank; if you don't have a tank for sheet film, you can develop it in a tray one sheet at a time. I haven't tried that; I guess it would be awkward in proper darkness. You could use orthochromatic film and do the developing under a safelight.

 

My best pinhole picture are here

Best of luck, and have fun!

Edited March 28, 2018 by Dustin McAmera

Dustin - liked your photos. Seems that you get better results using color that B&W. Do you find that to be the case. As I said above I tried it for the first time last week.

"Also do I have to line the inside of the box with black paper and if I do, why does the paper have to be black?"

 

-Erm, because light reflects from a white surface. This is called 'flare', and would drastically reduce the contrast of any image formed in the box.

 

Why not ask your photography tutor to explain or demonstrate?

Thanks Chuck!

 

Seems that you get better results using color that B&W. Do you find that to be the case

 

Yes, although in defence of my B&W pictures, I uploaded my failures, like the B&W printing-paper pictures, as well as the successes. I guess with colour, the dispersed edges of a red post-box are still part of the post-box when seen against some green bushes, whereas in B&W the blur is all one colour. So maybe colour gives you a better-defined picture. Or maybe bright colours are just attractive in themselves, especially if you're pinholing on a dim, wet day, as Wordwide Pinhole Photography Day often is in the UK.

I believe that: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1435114302/

 

has all the parts ready to assemble, along with a book explaining it.

(That is why it has an ISBN.)

 

If you buy the used one, they are very affordable, though as to be sure that the camera parts are still there.

 

Note that there is an optimal size, based on diffraction, for the pinhole depending on the focal length.

(That is, film to pinhole distance.)