Pinhole Technical

Most of the class have had little to no trouble in making a working pinhole camera. An area I'm going to  cover briefly here is using a light meter with pinhole to achieve more reliable exposures. I'd recommend this considering that it's not so simple to reload and re-shoot your cake tins and matchboxes, and it's worthwhile having the confidence to get a shot right first time.

As we know, there are three variables which will determine the exposure of a photograph - the shutter speed (which we can easily control) the ISO (which we know depending on the 'negative' we're using - film/digital back/photo paper) and the aperture (which we need to calculate). This calculation is simple:

• Measure in millimetres the focal length (distance from the hole to the paper/film/sensor). If this is curved i.e. varying focal length then I suggest you take an average. For my cake tin it's about 135mm.
• Measure the diameter of the pinhole in mm. Suggest you use a precise metal ruler with half mill increments to get a good estimate, and hold it up to the light to see the hole clearly. I estimated mine at 0.75mm. 
• Divide the focal length by the diameter, and this is your f number or aperture. So my camera has an aperture of f180. (135/0.75 = 180)

My camera uses photo paper - which generally has an ISO somewhere between 2 and 10. I was using Ilford multigrade and spent a bit of time testing that, and found it to have a sensitivity of about 4. If film it will be whatever the film is: 100, 400 etc. and obviously digital you can alter freely. So now you know two of your variables, you can use those figures in your light meter and the available light will determine the third - shutter speed. 

It gets a bit tricky because most light meters do not go up to such high aperture numbers, so you may have to take a reading and then 'step up' along your f stops, doubling the time as you go to, until you reach your aperture number. For example if I get a reading of 1 sec at f22: f32 is then 2 sec; f45 is 4 sec; f64 is 8 sec, f90 is 15 sec, f128 is 30 sec; f180 is 1 minute, and hence a 1 min exposure. 

An example of an aperture table can be found at the back of the 'Pinhole Pictures' handout (also found in the library) and this link explains the whole process nicely too:

http://www.pinhole.cz/en/pinholecameras/exposure_01.html

Also a video on making a scanner camera - http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/09/weekend_project_scanner_c.html

(cheesey, American and delightful)

Printing

Here's a pinhole picture I made with a four-way camera - holes arranged squarely, and paper coiled round in a circle in the middle. The negative came out like this:

It's then a simple case of contact printing that negative (with a test strip of course) to get your positive picture. Bear in mind that it's a good idea to have your enlarger fairly bright for this to get light through the paper, and you will need glass to keep the negative pressed flat and the image in focus.

Another one I made this time with eight pinholes. 

First Peer Session

Monday 26th April

Today's session was primarily focussed with the street photography pinhole task. There was a bit of discussion around Sean O'Hagan's article, and we had a look at the work of some of the contemporary photographers mentioned in it. Matt Stuart, Stephen McLaren, Stephen Gill, and Paul Graham.

Matt Stuart

Stephen McLaren

Stephen Gill

Paul Graham

Noticeable that the first three all work in London, which I think, as a location for a street photographer to work with, will differ largely from Coventry. Stuart's and Mclaren's work in particular, both deal with 'instant moments' and slim opportunities. They shoot an incredible amount of photographs, of which a very small percentage are shown. Obviously this is not quite viable with pinhole, but we can still draw aspects from their work - the clever composition arrangements, the humour, the reliance on natural light, the display the unusual and the quirky of 'the street' - and then take these further, or in a different direction, with our pinhole format. 

We also had a technical surgery, post to follow on that.

Welcome to 'Working with Light'

To all 'Working with Light' students: this blog will now host weekly posts covering what we go over in our support groups, whether that be technical issues, post-lecture discussion, feedback on peer's work, links to inspiration and so on. This is a space for you all to contribute to, so please get happy commenting with your work/ideas/research etc.. Please note these support groups will take place on Mondays from 10am in the outer darkroom.

Thursday 22nd April

Jonathan Shaw introduced the module, we questioned 'what is light?' (and will continue to do so throughout the term). We started by watching a film by Mike Figgis: Timecode. I enjoyed the film largely for its original format and delivery, more than its plot or message. At first frustrated by its awkwardness, but then soon (as we discussed afterwards) adapting to it by allowing the changing audio to manipulate our selected viewing. I found myself evolving with this process - listening to the conversation of one character(s) and looking to the silent actions of another, to keep track of them all. I also thought that this could be a film to be re-visited - with more to be discovered when the viewer doesn't need to follow the plot and so can look for the finer actions/behaviours of the characters. A point to remember with our photography - can we produce something original which will hold a viewers attention, perhaps even encourage them to revisit it and/or discover more? We all know how easy it is to blitz round a gallery, skimming over others' work.

We were given the article Why Street Photography is Facing a Moment of Truth by Sean O'Hagan. Looking to the quotes of the article, there are some quite useful insights into photographer's attitudes when approaching 'street photography' -

"It's essentially a way of working wherein you have to be utterly open to what happens on the street. So, no props, no models, no setting up of shots, and you always use available light. Then, it's down to a mixture of happenstance, luck and skill." - Matt Stuart

"I'm not really drawn to a lot of the ideas around street photography, the notion of waiting around for something to happen, an accident or a man walking by an odd sign or things like that. What I do is always carried by the subject. In this instance, I was totally reacting to a place that I had stumbled on, and the place completely moulded and shaped the work. I was reacting, really, rather than going out looking." - Stephen Gill

The article also pointed out something of a gap between street photography and its place in the art world, because it is too grounded or authentic in some way. Hopefully we can bridge this gap with our pinhole work. Which leads to the task for next week - to photograph the 'street' using our pinhole cameras, and taking into consideration the points discussed in this article. When we say 'street' what we're really talking about is the public place. I started to question what defines that place - somewhere everyone and anyone has the right to be, and hence where you can expect to meet anyone - an absence of privacy. How does a camera (as an objective viewing tool) fit into such a place? Or how does a photographer (as a subjective 'eye') enter into and engage with it?

I'd mention to students that with this task it's important not to get hung up on the technical restrictions of pinhole, but rather to enjoy them. If all you've got is a bloomin' cake tin then how are you going to get something from it? This task is not looking for perfectly focussed, lit, exposed, framed images, instead it's looking to break the mould, and (pardon the cliché) get you to think outside the box. I think this is what the module is really about, pushing the boundaries, challenging the thinking we take for granted when photographing. And as wise Wonathan put it - "if you're not enjoying it, stop it and try something else."


For those who haven't seen it, here is my post and video of the Camera Obscura I made. Recommend that everyone has a go at this - very simple, very cheap, very interesting, and educational towards pinhole cameras.

See you all on Monday - peer review and guidance for 'street' task, post-lecture discussion, pinhole camera surgery. No hangovers allowed.