Pinhole Technique and ULF

[Drew Bedo]

Anyone out thre doing pinhole photography with ULF format materials?

What is your experience?

[Tracy Storer]

I've done pinhole on 14"x17" and 20"x24", both years ago. Worked fine. My goal was never "optimal pinhole size" sharpness, rather, a balance between the infinite depth of field, some weird, short camera geometry imagery, and exposure times somewhere below the punishment threshold.
That said, I did a series of 20"x24" color Polaroids with an artist friend in the 1990's, and the exposures with 1000W hotlights were in the 45-70 minute range (they were still lives). The studio was on the sixth floor of a concrete building, and we worried about vibrations from the streetcar line right outside (Happily, it was never a problem).
I no longer remember the effective f# used.

[Vaughn]

A friend was working with his 8x10 upstairs in an old wooden building slated to be torn down. Right next to the highway as it passes thru downtown, he noticed the building swayed when trucks passed down below. However his images were sharp as the camera swayed with the building.

[Randy]

I guess not ULF - several years ago my submission for World Wide Pinhole Day was shot with my 8X10 camera and a homemade pinhole in a lens-board.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sejrsjnsbbxip66/img509b.jpg?dl=1

[Tin Can]

Like!

[Corran]

Looks good Randy! What was the pinhole size?

I've been wanting to try pinhole for extreme wide-angle on ULF. My one try resulted in underexposure because I calculated something wrong. I would want something like 150-200mm on 8 or 12x20. 150mm f/250 would be a 0.6mm hole. I would love to buy a range of pinholes that could be easily installed on a Copal 0 lens board, perhaps in 0.2mm increments (0.4, 0.6, 0.8?). Would love to know if others are doing something like this on ULF.

I have some issues with bellows interference on my 12x20 with ultra short lenses, so I'm in the process of making a solution to that, then I might try with the ~0.5mm Travelwide pinhole I have here.

[Jim Jones]

In pinhole photography, the choice of pinhole diameter can be surprisingly critical. At best, a pinhole can separate line pairs of the Air Force resolution chart with a spacing of less than the pinhole diameter. This defies logic, but has been verified by tests. For optimum sharpness, I prefer a user constant of about 1.5 in Pinhole Designer. In wide angle pinhole photography, corner sharpness and illumination drop off dramatically in the image corners. The corners also exhibit astigmatism. Increasing pinhole diameter improves the corners, but reduces center sharpness. These qualities can be used to advantage with some subjects.

[Greg]

My 11x14 Pinhole camera is an extra wide angle one. Distance from the pinhole to the film is 5 or 6 inches. Pinhole is 0.0180 inches in diameter and was drilled with a #77 drill giving me a f/335 aperture. Inside of the camera is totally black. Film back off a B&J 11x14 camera. GG replaced with a sheet of plexiglass enabling me to check that the pinhole is not partially or fully blocked before exposing the film. I first drilled pin holes in six different sheets of SS, brass, and sheets of metal from a soda can. Sand each side of the pinhole and re-prick the pinhole with a needle from both sides to remove any burrs. With a black Sharpie, blacken the back of the metal and the inside of the pinhole. Recheck the pinhole with a loupe. Then loaded 3 11x14 film holders with taped sheets of 4x5 (Ilford FP4+) film in the center of each holder. Holder sides are numbered 1 - 6, and the respective film in each punched with a hole punch with 1 - 6 holes. Shoot one sheet of 4x5 film for each of the pinholes. Process the film and contact print the 6 sheets of film. Then sit down and decide which pinhole I want to use in the camera. Most of the time the pinholes produce very similar images, but usually one pinhole just excels over the others, a very subjective choice. Then I make an exposure guide using a Kodak exposure table with respective shutter speeds for each of the lighting conditions pictured. Next time I will attach it to the camera. Last time I used the 11x14 pinhole camera, I placed it on the ground and it promptly blew away.

Initially thought that if I could replace the pinhole with a much larger pinhole, I'd be able to use the GG to compose the image. In practice didn't work, so now use a wire frame to compose the shot with. If it's windy, the camera acts like a sail. If direct sunlight is hitting the pinhole I will get multiple reflection flares on the film. Tried using a black card to shade the pinhole but both times the card was included in the image - I forgot just how extra wide angle the camera was in both cases. Previously I started to constructed a similar 16x20 inch pinhole camera, but it proved too bulky for my taste.

[Randy]

Looks good Randy! What was the pinhole size?

I've been wanting to try pinhole for extreme wide-angle on ULF. My one try resulted in underexposure because I calculated something wrong. I would want something like 150-200mm on 8 or 12x20. 150mm f/250 would be a 0.6mm hole. I would love to buy a range of pinholes that could be easily installed on a Copal 0 lens board, perhaps in 0.2mm increments (0.4, 0.6, 0.8?). Would love to know if others are doing something like this on ULF.

I have some issues with bellows interference on my 12x20 with ultra short lenses, so I'm in the process of making a solution to that, then I might try with the ~0.5mm Travelwide pinhole I have here.

Bryan, for my 8X10 pinhole:
F/L is set at 7" (180mm)
Pinhole (in very thin copper sheeting) Diameter is right at about .5mm, which I calculated to be f/360, which is f2.8 + 14 stops.

Hope this helps.

[Corran]

Thanks! I didn't expect 1mm. I was wondering if that large of a pinhole was practical. I found a supplier on eBay and might order a few pinholes at 0.6 and 1mm and figure out a mounting system.

[Greg]

Thanks! I didn't expect 1mm. I was wondering if that large of a pinhole was practical. I found a supplier on eBay and might order a few pinholes at 0.6 and 1mm and figure out a mounting system.

From past experiences, beware of sellers of pinholes and pinhole cameras on eBay. I've purchased 4 pinhole cameras off eBay in the last few years, and 3 of them proved out to be junk after using them a few times. One of them simply had a pinhole that was simply way too large to produce a pinhole bokeh image with. The camera from a Polish seller was a work of fine engineering and construction. Don't remember the seller, but the camera was a 120 panoramic camera. As far as pinholes also beware. "Laser cut" is a loosely and overused term. Bought 2 of them from one seller and they were obviously made by poking a pin through the sheet metal. Bought some more from another seller and their sizes were nothing like described. Getting a set of micro drills from a hobby store for around $12.00 and you can easily make your own. Metal from the sides of soda cans is great for making pinholes in.

[Tin Can]

Ditto


From past experiences, beware of sellers of pinholes and pinhole cameras on eBay. I've purchased 4 pinhole cameras off eBay in the last few years, and 3 of them proved out to be junk after using them a few times. One of them simply had a pinhole that was simply way too large to produce a pinhole bokeh image with. The camera from a Polish seller was a work of fine engineering and construction. Don't remember the seller, but the camera was a 120 panoramic camera. As far as pinholes also beware. "Laser cut" is a loosely and overused term. Bought 2 of them from one seller and they were obviously made by poking a pin through the sheet metal. Bought some more from another seller and their sizes were nothing like described. Getting a set of micro drills from a hobby store for around $12.00 and you can easily make your own. Metal from the sides of soda cans is great for making pinholes in.

[Randy]

Thanks! I didn't expect 1mm. I was wondering if that large of a pinhole was practical. I found a supplier on eBay and might order a few pinholes at 0.6 and 1mm and figure out a mounting system.

Bryan, decide what size holes you want and I'll make them for you out of my stock, of which I have more than I'll ever use. Probably take me 30 minutes to make good, smooth .6 and 1mm pinholes. You would just have to cut your mounting material (matte board?) for mounting it to your camera. I can post a picture of mine mounted on my camera, but it is all very simple. Let me know and I will work on them tomorrow when it's to cold and windy for me to get out and shoot :(. No charge, I'll just mail them with a stamp.

[Corran]

Interesting! I will PM you Randy!

[revdoc]

I've bought a number of pinholes from fireseller66 on eBay, and the quality has been excellent. I'd recommend them to anybody.

[jon.oman]

For the pinhole cameras I built, I used pinholes purchased from here: https://www.2spi.com/category/grids-cu-aperture/grids-cu/

I would mount one of these to a piece of pop can aluminum that was painted flat black. That was then mounted to the camera. These pinholes are used for microscopes, so are very well made.

There was a guy I knew on the old f295 pinhole site that bought a bottle (contains 100) of each usable size, and parted them out to other people.

[Barry Kirsten]

I bought a few electron microscope apertures of various sizes from Earl Johnson on the old f/295 forum. Since that forum closed I've lost track of Earl. But as pinholes the EM apertures are superb, being laser drilled in very thin copper sheet. I've built three pinhole cameras using them, a 2x3, a 5x7 and a 5x12 with curved film plane. Each pinhole was $1 each posted. The only drawback with them is that they're only 3mm diameter which makes them very fiddly to mount, but not impossible. I believe James Guerin of Reality So Subtle sells these same pinholes mounted in larger discs. It's worth a look at his website: https://realitysosubtle.fr/

[Chuck Pere]

With my 8x10 ultra wide angle (3") I like to overexpose by 1-2 stops to help compensate for the corner light drop off. Something to consider.

[jon.oman]

I bought a few electron microscope apertures of various sizes from Earl Johnson on the old f/295 forum. Since that forum closed I've lost track of Earl. But as pinholes the EM apertures are superb, being laser drilled in very thin copper sheet. I've built three pinhole cameras using them, a 2x3, a 5x7 and a 5x12 with curved film plane. Each pinhole was $1 each posted. The only drawback with them is that they're only 3mm diameter which makes them very fiddly to mount, but not impossible. I believe James Guerin of Reality So Subtle sells these same pinholes mounted in larger discs. It's worth a look at his website: https://realitysosubtle.fr/

Yes, Earl is the guy I bought mine from.

To mount the pinhole to the pop can aluminum, I first drilled a small 1/8 inch hole into the metal, between two boards.
I used 400 grit paper to sand both sides down flat, then painted both sides with flat black paint.
I then drilled a < 1 mm small hole in the center of a 3/4 x 3/4 inch piece of black graphic arts tape.
I put the pinhole on my light table and centered the hole in the tape over the hole in the pinhole.
I applied pressure to the tape, taping the pinhole to it.
Finally, I peeled it off the light table, put the pop can aluminum on, and taped the pinhole down.

The final step was to mount it in the camera. I've used the cameras for years without any problems.

[jon.oman]

Found this recent test of 14x17 pinhole on Photrio: https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/1417-pinhole-test.64308/

Hope you can see it. Gives image and exposure information.

[Tin Can]

Outstanding!

I saw it and I am not a paid up member

but may be soon


Found this recent test of 14x17 pinhole on Photrio: https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/1417-pinhole-test.64308/

Hope you can see it. Gives image and exposure information.