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Pinhole Camera in the Wild

     I finally found a way to mount the camera to a tripod securely and managed to get it out of the house. My initial tests had unexposed corners and seemed to have a fairly narrow field of view. This second round of tests changed all of that though, as the entire 4x5 frame is exposed (yay!) though the contrast was much, much worse than the first round of tests. The field of view is shown to be very wide in these tests. I haven't done any calculations yet, but upon developing the frames I was shocked. In the second photo I had actually moved the camera part way through the exposure because I was so certain that part of the building was out of the frame. This is really exciting, as having a wide field of view means you can get better pictures up close, and if there's one down side to these shots it's that they're too far away for capturing any reasonable amount of detail. 

     I will have to do some more systematic testing over the next week as I haven't been incredibly diligent about metering or my chemistry. I have been using a light meter app on my phone as it allows for a huge range of apertures, but it has some degree of matrix metering that seems to throw everything off in weird applications such as this. As for my chemicals, I have been using the same paper developer for every frame thus far, and that's perfectly fine---it is meant to be reused over and over---except that I only made up a very small quantity right off the bat. Repeated use wouldn't affect the concentration much for a large volume of developer, but when it is barely covering the paper it might see a rapid decrease in potency. This could be why the contrast is worse than before, though that could also be because I wasn't working in artificial light. To improve contrast however I might try using a normal printing filter from my enlarger. These filters come in a range of strengths, and are often numbered 0-6. In the darkroom, I often use a 2-3 for my prints, so I might want to step it up a little more for this situation as the contrast is pretty low. One thing to consider is that when you go to a 2.5 filter or above, you usually double the exposure of your print in the darkroom. So this might mean I will have to double my exposures for the camera, from about 2 to 4 minutes. Lots of things to consider!

Edit: The swirly edges of the second shot, to me at least, indicate uneven development. The chemicals are probably playing a big role at this point.

Testing, Testing

And we're back

     With the camera body more or less ready to go, it was time to paint. I had an old can of black enamel that I figured would be good at minimizing ambient light, but it took a few days for me to find it and dig out. Enamel paint smells. A lot. So always use proper PPE. 

     A nice, sticky coat of enamel later, things were looking pretty good. Unfortunately the enamel was gloss, which may complicate things if I get any internal reflections. Oh, and did I mention that enamel takes forever to dry?

     Once the enamel was mostly dry I cut down strips of felt pads to frame the film compartment. The strips were furniture pads, so very heavy duty and with low compression. I wanted something a bit more elastic, but I had these on hand and they were the perfect thickness. Felt in place, the film back rests perfectly in the rear frame.

     All that done, I needed a way to secure the film back in place. The felt was a nice touch as a light seal against the film plane, but it won't be of much use if the film back isn't pressed down and against the felt firmly. I caved and bought a few things from the hardware store. The first was t-nuts. They provide a channel in which you can screw a bolt into a shallow surface without bracing on the other side. I then re-purposed a 1" steel bar so that I could lay it across the film back and secure into the t-nuts. 

     I cut additional strips of felt for the bottom side of the steel bars. This meant that as the hex bolts are tightened into the t-nuts, that the steel straps press felt pads against the rear of the film back. This squeezes the film back securely in place and firmly against the light seals on the other side. So the film back is between two layers of heavy duty felt. 

     

     The problem with working with metal is that it is much less forgiving than wood. You can see that my holes didn't originally line up. I then tried to drill a second hole that did. Or so I thought. Neither ended up working, so I had to file down between the holes to make a channel for the hex bolt to move more freely. As the holes on the other side were more accurate, they will hold the straps firmly despite this little accident. 

     And finally, with the film back ready to go, I needed a way to secure the camera to a tripod. I had learned by this point that t-nuts aren't incredibly strong, so they wouldn't be a good idea for securing a heavy load at an angle. I bought a well nut and drilled through another piece of wood strapping. This would be the tripod socket, and this was secured to the bottom of the camera. Unfortunately, the hole I drilled was a little big, so the socket is loose. I'll have to think around this a bit.

Road and wood blocks (Day 3)

     So, melting plastic onto wood doesn't work. I ironed garbage bags together to make blackout curtains for my darkroom and it worked extremely well, but this not so much. I definitely took a coffee break in the midst of troubleshooting this roadblock. 

     I ended up using a cut up door threshold to pinch the duct tape down against the metal plate. 

     Then I figured that I would trim the excess....

     But oh, look at that---it's that poorly placed hole I drilled the other day! So frustrating. I have since cut a vinyl tile and put it under the metal strips. The tile has wider coverage, is definitely opaque, and I drilled a hole in the middle wide enough that it should not interfere with the field of view. We'll see. 

     Next up is filling all of the cracks and painting it. Hoping to be more or less done building this tomorrow so that I can test it over the weekend. And that's it for today. Today's post was brought to you by the Blogger mobile app. Taking my mundane everyday and just making it more tedious to write about. 

The Pinhole (Day 2)

     Today's task involved attaching the front element to camera body. It is entirely possible to skip this step and just attach the pinhole aperture to the original frame, but I took this route for several reasons. The first was that it allowed me to use a smaller metal plate for the aperture. This was seen as beneficial because thin plates are flimsy, and I simply did not have any large sheets of metal that I was willing to part with. The second reason for the large wooden front was that it provided a wide, flat surface for the aperture to be securely attached, as well as the possibility for further securing the metal plate if some sort of strapping were attached to the front.

     Again, you can clearly see where I drilled too far into the front element, and the round edges that didn't get cut out as a result. How hideous! But just wait...

     I reached out via twitter to see what people suggested for making the aperture. You can buy all sorts of laser cut pinhole and slit apertures, but that costs money (remember, I'm trying to do this as cheaply as possible) and it would require me to wait for shipping. One suggestion on twitter was that I heat a metal pin and press it through a pop can. I don't drink pop very often, and was planning to use a deconstructed Tazo Tea tin, but I gave it a shot. And it didn't work at all!

     I made the pinhole by lightly tapping a finishing nail (same type I had used to construct all of the parts) into the metal sheet. Tap. Tap. Tap. And I was through. Barely. One point to consider (pun intended) was that the nail isn't perfectly round at the end. The "pinhole" therefore wasn't very round, and this is probably very bad. I say probably because I don't know! I know lenses don't always have circular apertures---you can find all sorts of shapes: squares, pentagons, hexagons---so I'm not sure this would matter all that much [Aside: if anyone has a square aperture with 500 micron edges, let me know how it looks]. 

     As this is supposed to be a pinhole camera, I decided to stay true to the concept. Once the nail was tapped ever so slightly into the plate and was beginning to pierce through, I switched to a straight pin and carefully pressed it through, spinning it around to round out the hole. The result looks pretty circular. I was hoping for a smaller aperture, but beggars can't be choosers and I will work with what I have.

     I had to affix the aperture plate to the front element, and I did this in a very ugly manner. I used trusty black duct tape to hold it down and center it. While not pretty, it is functional and serving its purpose, which is to simply hold the aperture in place until everything else is taken care of. My plan is to run brackets across the four corners of the plate, and then to lightproof the entire setup.

     A step in the right direction: looking through the pinhole. If you look very, very carefully you may see a point of light coming through the pin hole. This is it, folks. This is the beautiful simplicity of the whole endeavour. With this now taken care of, I have to get the film back to stay in place, and then it's mostly aesthetics from there. My current plan is to wrap the entire camera in garbage bag fabric, which is essentially a thick layer of black trash bags melted onto the surface. I have found this to be very sturdy and lightproof. I do not however know whether this material will stick to the wooden camera very well. I have only tried it with other surfaces. But more on all of that later.

Building a Pinhole Camera (Day 1)

     Today I started construction of my pinhole camera. I had great plans laid out, which I will probably upload later, however I decided that because I am an unemployed student I should rather try building it out of things I had lying around the house first. I began by constructing a rectangular frame for the rest of the construction to be based upon.

     The mitre cuts weren't exact because my saw is missing a guard (don't try this at home!) but it isn't really an issue as the joints would still have to be filled later on. The frame is very square (for something I built), which is probably important. I used one 2x4 I had leftover in the garage for this part, with plenty to spare.

     Next up was some sort of system for getting the film back on. Pinhole cameras don't require anything this elaborate, but I have a half dozen 4x5 film holders and no 4x5 camera to use them in. I thought this would be the perfect reason to dust them off. Film holders aren't very common these days, and you aren't likely to find them at a flea market. But if you keep an eye out on camera classifieds, they do come up quite often and are reasonably priced.

     I used some extra strapping to make a three-sided frame for the film holder. My plan is that there will be screw clamps that come down from the frame that can be tightened to hold it in place. When loosened, the film holder with slide out of the frame sideways. I plan to add a narrow band of rubber weather-proofing to the edge the film holder sits against. This way, the film holder will seal nicely to the camera body when the screw clamps push it into place. This should keep it light-proof!

          Next I had to put some sort of front element on the camera body. I used this old shelf I had taken out of our linen closet and cut it down to size. From here I drilled pilot holes in the middle so that I could hollow out an area for the pinhole to go. My plan was to just hammer a nail just ever so slightly into a tin sheet to make the pinhole, and then to clamp this plate over the rectangular hole on the front element of the body. 

     At this point I started to cut out the middle of the front element, and it split in two. With my saws already packed up and me not wanting to have to start the whole piece from scratch, I defiantly finished cutting out what I wanted (albeit the two drill holes were misplaced and you can still see them), and I will just use some glue to seal up the crack when I put the front element on the body.

     I sanded all of the parts and then went to look for metal I could use for the pinhole. Serious enthusiasts (oxymoron?) seem to use laser-cut apertures, but I don't think I've quite made it to that point yet. I found an old Tazo Tea container in my garage and broke out the tin snips to cut it all up. Now I have some metal plates I can carefully punch pinholes into. It will be delicate work, and I'll probably mess it up a time or two. Then it will be a matter of sealing of the cracks and attaching the pinhole plate to the front. After that I am considering painting it if I can find an appropriate colour, and I will have to add the clamps and maybe a tripod socket. Rough blueprints to follow---it's all in my head right now!

Pinhole Camera Ideas

     My plans for building a pinhole camera all developed around the fact that I have a handful of 4x5 film holders in my basement that I have no use for. I acquired them from the offices of an old newspaper. Here in the digital age many of such business have evolved or gone extinct, and this particular business merged with another a short drive away and abandoned the old buildings, complete with printing presses circa 1880. It was quite the sight (and smell) but I was able to raid the old photographic darkroom for supplies when the building was being sold and vacated.

     A 4x5 camera is what you might see in an old-timey movie. The press cameras with big flashes wielded by men in fedoras, invariably with Chicago accents. As much as I would love one of said cameras, I have yet to take the plunge, but I grabbed the film holders in case I ever got there. Now, it's been a while, with no progress on the camera front, so when I was thinking of how to design a pinhole camera, the spare film holders came to mind.

     

     My idea was that I would build a pinhole camera around the film holders, and I would use photographic paper in the film backs to expose my pictures on. As you might imagine, 4x5 film is quite expensive, but photographic paper is relatively cheap. Paper comes in 8x10 sheets and can therefore be cut into four 4x5 sheets for use as film. And as an added bonus, paper isn't affected by red light, so I will be able to cut and load it under a typical darkroom safelight. I sketched and sketched and came up with several ideas, most of which hinged on my ability to master rabbet grooves on a router. Well, my woodworking skills are fairly amateur, so I eventually steered away from this idea, but these sketches might serve as more precise and capable cameras for me to build at a later date.

8Y08 Introduction

     Welcome to my 8Y08 blog! Here I will be discussing my intentions and progress for the Genius Hour project I will be working on for the coming weeks. But a little background before I start...

     My father was a photographer back in the heyday of photographic film and when he passed away I inherited several nice, but dated, cameras. I didn't think much of the cameras at the time---film was out and digital was in---and they sat in a suitcase neglected for a long time. I'm not sure what compelled me to finally pick them up, but soon I was out trying to buy film and realizing that most people thought it was as passe as I had. I eventually found some, and after a few failed attempts at using the cameras, I got them working again. And suddenly a new issue arose..

     Where can one even get film developed anymore? There weren't many places, and the few that were still around charged through the nose, so I turned to my background in chemistry to help me out. Soon I had a makeshift darkroom in the spare bathroom in the basement. The toilet was broken, so no one objected when I moved in, and maybe they were even happy to see me keeping busy. Even if it was in a bathroom...

     I fumbled my way through learning about film for years, and then found community on twitter. At this point my interest really bloomed and I found so many helpful people and talented artists. But even all these years later, I still knew very little about the technical aspects of photography. Sure, I could use a camera. I could even develop film. But it was like cooking with a  recipe---I would be lost without the detailed instructions.

     So for Genius Hour I want to tackle some of the more technical side of photography. I want to know how a camera works, what film is, and how this all came about. My plan for Genius Hour is therefore to build a simple pinhole camera.

     A pinhole camera is one of the simplest optical devices. It is based on the camera obscura, going back centuries, and requires no lens. By building a pinhole camera I will need to learn more about optics (What is focal length? What role does the pinhole play?), film (What is film speed? How does film work?), and camera design in general. I will get to explore my love of chemistry, photography, and even a little bit of woodworking.

     I love the idea of a pinhole camera because I think it is a project a student could do. Pinhole cameras can be made from the simplest materials, even cardboard boxes or coffee tins, and could be an integrated project tackling science, math, and art.

     Follow along as I explore this idea further!