First Pinhole Photograph!

[stew]

Using my Digital Rebel, I altered my dust cap to make a pinhole camera. I am excited and went around snapping more than a few this morning. This is one from the park across the street.

I can already tell it's going to take a while to understand how to shoot with this new "lens". I like the mystery feel that it can produce (not sure if that's captured here), but somehow the images even after some tinkering appear a little "off" to me. Maybe i'm just used to the sharp contrasts of a standard b&w, or maybe I need to improve my exposure. We'll see.

Anyways, I would very much appreciate your thoughts, comments, critiques, suggestions!

Thanks, Stew

[mtbbrian]

Tell us more about your digital pinhole Stew..
Exposure, othere technical aspects, etc..
How did you frame this image?
I like the repetition of the benches and the stairs in the background.
Brian

[stew]

For the pinhole itself, I cut about a 1/2 inch diameter hole in the center of the dustcap. Then, put a piece of tinfoil on top of it, and taped it on all four sides to keep all the light out. Finally, took a sewing needle and jabbed a small hole near the center, as near as I could reckon. My quick measurement reveals that the pinhole is about 0.5mm diameter, but it isn't perfectly round shaped. Didn't do anything about the edges of the hole (no sanding or trimming).

The exposure here was 0.8 sec at ISO 200.

I put the camera right on the ground, hand-held it there, tilted it up slightly to get the composition right.

[Young Shooter]

Very cool, interesting im going to try this out, but im not going to waste a dust cap im just going to do ur idea of the tin foil, but its a realy cool idea thanks

[Tuna]

A DIGITAL pinhole!!?? The method of capture alone deserves merit. However the image also has it's strengths in perspective and composition. I wonder if moving the plane of the tinfoil closer to your chip (minus the dustcap as Young Shooter mentions) might help retrieve some sharpness.

Nice job.

Tuna

P.S. I am horrified to even change lenses for fear that dust will land on my chip - I hope you are being careful...

[Seb]

Using my Digital Rebel, I altered my dust cap to make a pinhole camera. I am excited and went around snapping more than a few this morning. This is one from the park across the street.

I can already tell it's going to take a while to understand how to shoot with this new "lens". I like the mystery feel that it can produce (not sure if that's captured here), but somehow the images even after some tinkering appear a little "off" to me. Maybe i'm just used to the sharp contrasts of a standard b&w, or maybe I need to improve my exposure. We'll see.

Anyways, I would very much appreciate your thoughts, comments, critiques, suggestions!

Thanks, Stew

Kudos for the idea Stew!

I never heard about anyone trying this before. As for the picture, you have a good composition going on and I enjoy the overall feel of the picture. Could it be improved? I have no clue. I am not into pinhole myself but further experimentation can't hurt.

The picture doesn't feel digital at all. You could have told me that it was a conventional pinhole camera and I would have been totally fooled.

Seb

[gahspidy]

This is a good image, Stew. It has mood thanks to a good composition. Your idea has lots of potential and you should keep at it.

[Young Shooter]

well i tried this idea to do it on a digital and unfortunatly all my pictures are out of focus, i dont know why, im holding my camera still but it seems to be all blurry

[mtbbrian]

well i tried this idea to do it on a digital and unfortunatly all my pictures are out of focus, i dont know why, im holding my camera still but it seems to be all blurry

Are you using a tripod?
I'd strongly suggest using one.
Brian

[mjs1973]

Hey Stew. This is a really cool idea. I have seen it done before, but haven't given it a try yet myself. When you say "dust cap" do you mean the lens cap, or the cap that fits on the camera body it'self? I have seen it done both ways. Just wondering what method you used.

[Young Shooter]

no im not using a trypod i can hold it still for like 1 or 2 seconds but its not the movement
when i look threw the view finder of my d70 it looks like all blurry i dont know why or if i did something wrong with the pin hole camera

[mtbbrian]

no im not using a trypod i can hold it still for like 1 or 2 seconds but its not the movement
when i look threw the view finder of my d70 it looks like all blurry i dont know why or if i did something wrong with the pin hole camera

I would still recommend a tripod..
Good Luck!
Brian

[CarbonTerry]

"no im not using a trypod i can hold it still for like 1 or 2 seconds" !!!!!!
Quite an accomplishment!!!!
Reminds me of when I was in college one of my photo instructors was doing a "long" exposure experiment. he would set up a camera on a tripod and set the exposure to bulb and use enough neutral density and other factors to where the exposre would be several hours. He would then place a note telling everyone to not move the camera. After one days shoot he came back to the room to find another note placed by the housekeeping staff. It read, "I had to move your camera to clean but I put it back EXACTLY where I found it!!!!"
Keep working on your experiment.
I made a pinhole camera out of a watermelon and used sheet film to capture the image. You can buy laser engraved pinhole apertures that will give you a much sharper image.

[stew]

A DIGITAL pinhole!!?? The method of capture alone deserves merit. However the image also has it's strengths in perspective and composition. I wonder if moving the plane of the tinfoil closer to your chip (minus the dustcap as Young Shooter mentions) might help retrieve some sharpness.

Nice job.

Tuna

P.S. I am horrified to even change lenses for fear that dust will land on my chip - I hope you are being careful...

Tuna,

Thanks! I am thrilled with the possibilities of this idea. It was new to me too, but I did get the idea off of a website a few days ago (so it's not mine). I don't remember the website now, but my method was directly from it. My hole is not perfect, and I believe that contributes to its lack of sharpness, but frankly that is giving it a quality that I find very desirable. I will be experimenting more though. Yes, I am being very careful about dust. A note about that, I had to photoshop out a lot of dust particles that made its way inside. I am removing my cap and blowing some air onto the sensor every so often to keep dust out as much as possible. Another idea I have (but have not yet tried) is to tape a thin, clear piece of plastic over the pinhole itself to actually seal it completely.

-Stew

[stew]

This is a good image, Stew. It has mood thanks to a good composition. Your idea has lots of potential and you should keep at it.

Thanks Gary. I am also quite pleased with the mood, and that has made me very excited about this pinhole thing. I will be experimenting quite a bit with it. I have also attached the color version of it, which I am starting to prefer to the B&W. When printed out full size (I have the epson photo 1280) it has an incredible feeling of a painting, not a photo. That has me even more psyched.

Cheers, Stew

[stew]

Hey Stew. This is a really cool idea. I have seen it done before, but haven't given it a try yet myself. When you say "dust cap" do you mean the lens cap, or the cap that fits on the camera body it'self? I have seen it done both ways. Just wondering what method you used.

Well, in my case this is the protective cover that snaps onto the body itself when no lens is present, to keep dust out. So, to be clear, when I'm doing the pinhole, I have removed the lens, and instead put this plastic cap with the pinhole onto the body itself.

[stew]

no im not using a trypod i can hold it still for like 1 or 2 seconds but its not the movement
when i look threw the view finder of my d70 it looks like all blurry i dont know why or if i did something wrong with the pin hole camera

I did not use a tripod either, but instead I allowed for the movement of my handholding and just accepted it. For most of the shots, I had put the camera on the ground and just held it carefully with my hand at just the right angle - kind of like using a monopod I guess. I have done this before with regular (non-pinhole) photgraphs and it works well. My exposure times for this first experiment were in the range of 0.8 - 4.0 seconds. I believe the lack of sharpness is inherent in the pinhole itself (but maybe I'm wrong, I'm brand new to this and just beginning to read about it).

I will be using a tripod in the future, but I also like the angle when the camera is on the ground. Keep experimenting and post some of your results, even if they're early on in your experiments!

-Stew

[mjs1973]

Thanks for the info Stew. There was a post on PR a while back that discribes this method. One differance mentioned in that post was the use of a UV filter attached to the cap to keep out dust. Sounds like you have already come up with an idea to keep the dust out tho.

[SmartWombat]

Look for a scientific supplier near you and get some class microsocope slide cover slips.
they're about half inch square and thinner than your thumbnail.
Obviously as they're intended for looking through with a microsocope they have pretty good optical qualities.
Make a ring of putty and use a coverslip on the outside of your body cap to stop dust getting in through the pinhole !

I would not be tempted to put it on the inside, as it's very thin glass and they do break easily. I do NOT want to think about broken glass inside the camera

[Asylum Steve]

Stew, I can relate to your attempt here. Just a week or so ago I bought a "pinhole" lens cap from Calumet for my 10D.

Yeah, I know I'm a weenie for paying the money when I could have easily done what you did for next to nothing. Still, like you, I am really exicted about trying it out.

There are those that shun the new primitive/digital combination as being disloyal to the original processes, but I think that's a close-minded and rather foolish way to look at it.

For me, the final image is what counts, and using digital capture simply makes it all easier and IMO much more fun...

[Old Timer]

Stew I always look forward to opening a post with your handle on it. It's always a treat. This is no exception, wonderful idea and great results. Keep it up and let's see more of your experiments. Thanks for keeping the forum exciting.

[stew]

Stew, I can relate to your attempt here. Just a week or so ago I bought a "pinhole" lens cap from Calumet for my 10D.

Yeah, I know I'm a weenie for paying the money when I could have easily done what you did for next to nothing. Still, like you, I am really exicted about trying it out.

There are those that shun the new primitive/digital combination as being disloyal to the original processes, but I think that's a close-minded and rather foolish way to look at it.

For me, the final image is what counts, and using digital capture simply makes it all easier and IMO much more fun...

Thanks. I thought about buying one too... but frankly, i was too impatient to buy one .

I don't have a strong feeling about film, as I've never used film - even though I am sure that will change some day. Along the lines of your comments about digital, I have seen some beautiful prints that come from digital in some smaller galleries. Also, when mine have been shown, almost everyone expresses surprise that they're digital.

I hope you post some of your pinhole pics. Would be fun to have some more shots posted...

-Stew

[stew]

Stew I always look forward to opening a post with your handle on it. It's always a treat. This is no exception, wonderful idea and great results. Keep it up and let's see more of your experiments. Thanks for keeping the forum exciting.

OT, as always thanks for your kind words! With such encouragement, I will definitely be posting more...

-Stew