Last Sunday was World Pinhole Photography Day. Did anyone else on here take part? Can we see your images?
I started out with a beer can with a pinhole in the far end. I attached it to an old lens mount with duct tape ...
The reason I used the beer can (apart from the pleasure of getting the raw material) was because I’d read somewhere that the optimum size for the pinhole depended on how far it was from the film plane. There’s a formula for it, the further it is the larger it can be. I thought that, with my DIY skills, it would be easier to make a larger hole than a small one.
It turned out have quite a strong telephoto effect. I suppose I should have realised that, remembering my ray diagrams, but it came as something of a surprise.
Trouble was, so little light got in through the pinhole that I couldn't see anything in the viewfinder, So aiming it was a bit hit and miss.
In the end I took the beer can off and stuck some aluminium foil over the lens mount (with duct tape again
) and made a pinhole in that. It was a great wide angle, with an amazing depth of field.
Oh ... yeah ... and one other thing. It shows up every, and I mean
every, speck of dust on your sensor. It's the minute aperture that does it. Gave me quite a bad turn to see how much grot was on mine ...
Interesting. And I learned a lot, too. I'm gonna try this again next year, with a more sophisticated pinhole. Maybe I’ll even get some up on IS. They used to accept them. I don’t know if they still do, but there are a few available if you do a search.
If you want to see more pinhole images, from other people all over the world, the web site is
http://www.pinholeday.org.
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