See you …

Ze

If anyone wants me to send them a couple of articles I’ve written for UK photo magazines on pinhole photography then please e-mail me via the link on the contacts page of my website – http://www.stevegoslingphotography.co.uk/contact.htm

I’ll try to answer your questions: -

Sheena – I try to avoid high contrast situations when I can and prefer shooting in overcast cloudy conditions. However the exposure latitude of B&W film does help me to retain highlight and shadow detail. As far as post processing is concerned I keep my work in Photoshop to a minimum – just doing what I would have previously done in a traditional darkroom e.g. controlling overall contrast, selectively dodging and burning, toning and sometimes diffusing the final print.

Richard Ford – for post processing please see above. I use 120 Pan F which is a very sharp film. But the Zero Image 2000 camera I use has a precision made pinhole and this helps with the sharpness; certainly sharper than any other adaptor/body cap device I’ve used so far. I use a Sekonic handheld spot meter for my exposure readings and allow 1 extra stop for reciprocity failure. These photos were taken with a pinhole camera – zone plates tend to give much softer, more highly diffused results.

Jason – you can get pinhole adaptors for Leica M cameras at http://www.leicagoodies.com/ or http://cgi.ebay.com/Skink-Pinhole-Pancake-Lens-Creative-Kit-Leica-M9-M8-MP-/290440321021?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item439f9797fd

Emily – I’m happy to answer any questions you have; just follow the link above to my contacts page.

Andy J – the shot was indeed taken in Dorset, at Durdle Door.

Thanks once again to everyone for the positive response to these.

Build one yourself! Pinhole cameras, or at least lenses, should be home made.

Here’s how to: #1. get the camera body plastic cover #2. drill a hole in the middle of it , anything from 5 to 15 mm diameter. #3. get an aluminum soft drink can or something similar. #4. cut out a piece about 25 mm diameter from the side of the can and flatten it. #5. and this is the only difficult part, make a very small round hole in the aluminum. the hole made by a needle is too large, just use the very end (sharp end) of the needle. # 6. use a good loupe to check that the hole is round and that the edges are sharp – if not try sandpapering the aluminum with the finest sanding paper you can get hold of and check again. perhaps have another go with the nail with do. a rough hole will result in very unsharp pictures #7. attach the aluminum to the outside of the camera body cover. use black duct tape or similar. the hole in the aluminum should be in the centre of the cover. #8 put the camera body cover on the camera. #9 start shooting, use built in exposure meter and 35 mm frames in the viewfinder. the rangefinder will not work ;=))

The focal length is about 35mm and the f-stop is easy to calculate. Measure the exposure of, say, a sunlit wall with a normal lens and note time and f-stop. It is convenient to use f/16 for the measurement. Then measure with the pin hole lens. See what time you get and calculate how many stops that is from the time measured for the f/16. The f-stop of your pinhole lens is as many steps from f/16 as the two measured times were apart. The f-stop range from 16 are 22 – 32 – 44 – 64 – 88 -128 – 176 – 256 and so on. A good pin hole lens should be in the region of 150 plus/minus one stop.

Sorry for the sloppy writing, but my battery is running low and I have to work fast.