Pinhole Photography

Over my sophomore J-term, I took a class in pinhole photography. Besides being an easy class for a month, it re-awakened my interest in photography, and kindled an interest in this most basic type of it.

What is it? Pinhole photography is photography without the use of a lens. The “camera” can be nothing more than a light-tight box, with a tiny hole (about 1/50 of an inch or smaller) at one end. The film must be held between 3” - 5” back from the hole. Closer than three inches will produce a circular image instead of one that covers the hole film (assuming 4” x 5” film). Further than five inches will drastically increase the exposure times. However, placing the film farther back creates a telephoto effect.

Because of the nature of pinholes, the picture has infinite depth of field. That means that everything in the picture is equally in focus. The smaller the pinhole, the more in focus the image will be.

Exposure times: Variable! No two cameras will react exactly the same. My experience, with four and a half inches between film and pinhole, was as follows:

Outdoors, Bright sunlight – between 5 and 15 sec
Outdoors, cloudy/grey – between 30 sec and 2 min
Outdoors, nighttime – only when aimed at lights does this work. It takes between 25 and 45 minutes; however, the light sources themselves register on the film faster than this.
Indoors, with natural light – between 5 and 15 min
Indoors, with artificial light – between 10 and 30 minutes

Because the exposure times are so long, it is absolutely necessary that the camera is set on a steady surface. Otherwise the image will be blurred from the camera's movement. There is an advantage to the long exposure times, though. If the camera shakes a little when you open and close the shutter, that won't affect the image if you have a long exposure time. Also, if someone or something walks in front of the camera, they may not even register on the film.

Focusing:
Obviously, there is no viewfinder to look through to compose the photograph. There are two ways to deal with this. The first is to draw diagonal lines (as illustrated) on the outside of the box from the pinhole to the edges of the film. Do this on both the top and the side. Then once you set the camera down, before you open the shutter, look at the lines and extend them forward in your mind. This will give you an idea of what the camera sees.

The other method is to take a small piece of cardboard and cut out a rectangle the size of the film. Place the rectangle the same distance from your eye that the film is from the camera. What you see through the rectangle is what the film sees, assuming you do this from the same position the camera is (i.e., place your eye where the pinhole is going to be).

Photography Main Page

Home