A few pinhole photography shots from Vinton

[John B]

With lots of that vignetting that Marshall loves; this made physically rather than with a filter, due to the picture being taken without a lens - just a tiny hole in a sheet of aluminum. But yes, a "pinhole" filter on an iPhone will get a lot of the same effect. But a filter probably won't add the specks of dust!

The Vinton depot, from the rail's perspective.



The perspective from the other side of the tracks.

[Marshall]

Oooooh

[jdd2]

luscious

[Tamarack]

Very cool. I will have to try this on some of the historical buildings around here. Maybe at the former county poorhouse cemetery.

[Dub]

Sept 11, 2022 21:01:59 GMT -5 John B said:

With lots of that vignetting that Marshall loves; this made physically rather than with a filter, due to the picture being taken without a lens - just a tiny hole in a sheet of aluminum. But yes, a "pinhole" filter on an iPhone will get a lot of the same effect. But a filter probably won't add the specks of dust!

John, I love these. Thanks for posting them.

Can you describe your camera? Did you build it yourself?

I remember pinhole camera photos from my childhood (early 1950s) taken by a woman who’s camera was a coffee can. Those cans had a detachable key on top that one used to peel a strip from around the top of the can so the lid could be removed. When the lid was replaced it was light-tight. She made a pinhole on the side of the can and, in a darkroom, taped a sheet of 5x7” B&W cut film inside, opposite the pinhole. She would then go outside with her camera while holding a finger over the pinhole. She would place the camera on something solid with the pinhole toward the subject and remove her finger for the necessary exposure time. Then back to the darkroom to develop the negative. I was told she made prize-winning photos this way.

“It’s that good Max’ll’s House coffee, `Good to the Last Drop’ just like it says on the can.” – MJH


.

[theevan]

Those are great

[Marshall]

Speaking of “vignettes”. Sue’s phone screen protector cracked. When we got the new phones we were WAY overcharged for the fancy Zagg screen protector the Verizon guy put on it. But the Zagg comes with a lifetime replacement warranty. I replaced it with a $8 one I had bought on-line. But I decided exercise my warranty and went to the Zagg store and ordered a free replacement unit. . . , only $10 shipping. . . .

But to prove my case I have a photo of the cracked one. So I edited it for clarity and used a mild vignette effect to enhance the drama.

. . . They didn’t ask for proof. They just wanted my credit card info.

[Village Idiot]

Those look really good, John. Great actually. and choosing to depict the straight two parallel lines was perfect for this.

I'm reminded of the camera obscura, which I know wasn't used here, but it did come to mind. Even though I don't get the concept of the obscura.

Pinhole camera has a pinhole, which with the cameral obsura the room has a pinhole is my vague understanding.

But any, what kind of film did you use for this, and how did you develop it?

[John B]

Digital camera all the way. But this is why I wanted the tripod.

The concept is the same as the pinhole camera I constructed out of cardboard 15 years ago. In this case my digital camera has interchangeable lenses, like a 35mm SLR film camera. The lens itself is a piece of aluminum with a 0.14mm hole poked through it, housed in a lens casing. Because the aperture is so small the image sensor (or film) has to be exposed to the image for a decent amount of time. For a digital camera with the lens I have the exposure time is between 2.5-15 seconds or so. When I took the picture below my exposure time was about 60 seconds (counting "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi" etc.). Of course, the fancier the camera the easier things are. With the old camera it used a rubber band to hold a bigger piece of cardboard over the pinhole, and I uncovered it with a guess at how long to expose the film. A digital camera automatically calculates the exposure time and does the "cover/uncover" process. With digital there's no waiting to develop the film. A drawback of the digital system is that any dust particles that have landed on the image sensor are just as in focus as everything else in the frame. Same as any dust on a filter (that I was using to keep dust from getting near the sensor), or raindrops on the filter. You don't have to look too closely to find the dust that appears in the middle of every pinhole picture I took.

Then it's all about framing a shot and trying to get an interesting perspective. I took a bunch of pinhole shots in downtown Vinton that I didn't like. Then a bunch more at the Depot that I also didn't like as much. A few setting the camera down on the other rail, and a few others on the same rail I stuck with.

Old pic, from 2008. A beach at Lake Charlevoix, looking into the sunset.

[Village Idiot]

So how do you increase exposure time on a digital camera? Don't you click and that's it?

[jdd2]

Sept 12, 2022 21:58:07 GMT -5 Village Idiot said:

So how do you increase exposure time on a digital camera? Don't you click and that's it?

If you want to eyeball it, there's a shutter setting "B", which leaves the shutter open as long as you (effectively) have the button down. Using a cable release (electronic with a digital, or maybe being done via a phone/ipad linked to the camera), you can leave the shutter open as long as you want. Of course you'd want a tripod or to leave the camera solidly sitting so that it doesn't move. Alternatively, there may be a "T" setting, which allows you to set the shutter time.

[TKennedy]

Really cool!

[xyrn]

I love the depth of field capable with PHC’s.
A decent “real” camera generally has f 11 as its smallest aperture, good cameras have f16 or f22.
Pinhole cameras average from about f 150 to f 1000 or smaller.

What that means practically is that a pinhole cam sitting on a table at a bistro in Paris could have BOTH a wine cork a few inches away and the Eiffel Tower miles away in sharp focus.

Can do really neat stuff with PHCs, like making pedestrians disappear from a city street scene.