Written by Alec Pain (Alastair Place)
I find pinhole photography to be very therapeutic – it slows you down, time is slowed down, the images aren’t just an instant – a 1/125th of a second, they’re several seconds or minutes of real time caught in a unique way.
Most times, the camera has to sit on a tripod, and you also have to invest the time to find a good angle, and then to line everything up in your head, calculate exposure, and, if you are happy with it, take the shot. Even after you or the lab have developed the scans, it then takes some post-production to balance what you have taken and create a final piece of work.
In this article, I’ll go over some basics of pinhole photography and walk through six different pinhole cameras and why I love using them: the Zero Image 2000 (find at KEH Camera or on eBay) (a 6×6 pinhole camera made in Hong Kong); the RealitySoSubtle 6×17 (as the name suggests a 6×17 pinhole camera made in France); the Holga 120WPC (a 6×12 camera made in China); the MIA 6×6 10mm (an ultra wide 6×6 camera made in the UK), the MIA 6×6 35mm; and the MIA 4×5 50mm.
Setting Exposure for Pinhole Photography
When taking pinholes, there are a couple of methods for getting the right exposure. I was taught by Martin Henson (see my last article on the Speed Graphic) to use Ian Barber’s method. It can be found here.
This method uses either your film or digital camera to measure the light at a particular f-stop, a light meter (if you own one) or you can use an app (eg Lumi Light Meter) to measure your scene at say f22. You can even print this out or make your own pocket or phone image to make sure you have it with you.
Importantly, you need to know your pinhole camera’s f-stop too. The RSS 6×17 is f233.
Point the meter or your camera at various parts of the scene to get a reading. For example, in the photo above of the Millenium bridge in London, I measured various parts: the highlights (the lightest part being the sky) and the shadows (the darkest part being the bridge itself) to gauge an approximate reading.
Whilst you don’t want to expose at the very darkest point, you can usually gauge a reading that exposes enough of the shadows to get detail in them. Depending on how you are producing your final image, you can usually bring back some of the highlights through contrast grading to get a balanced picture.
As you can see in the image below, measuring the scene at 1/8 sec gave me an adjusted reading of 14 seconds on Ian’s exposure chart. It takes a little bit of practice, especially if there’s a very light grey sky or bright sunlight, but this meant I had to expose my image for 14 seconds before factoring in reciprocity failure.
Understanding Reciprocity Failure
Your film can fail if the exposure goes over 1 second. This is called reciprocity failure. There’s (of course!) a great article here on Shoot It With Film about it. You then need to use another calculation to work out how much time to add to the metered time.
I use Reciprocity Timer to do this. I shot it with CineStill 50D, and so then selected the film in the app and the exposure time. It gave me a final reading of 18 seconds:
I’m not sure why but after using the above method, I have a little mistrust in the readings that Pinhole Assist give me. But most pinholers I know use it and get excellent results.
It’s very simple to use and has all of the above built in. You simply select the camera you use (or create one if you can’t see it on the menu) and film. (Cinestill 50D isn’t there so I would have simply chosen 50 ASA).
The Holga 120 WPC Pinhole Camera
I love Holgas – I have 52 different ones (one day I will write an article about them all, and one day I might actually use them all!), but I have found that the Holga Wide Pinhole Camera isn’t the best.
Light leaks tend to ruin most of the pictures I’ve taken with this camera. However, I have got some fantastic shots out of it. If we take this roll as an example, you can see the light leaks appear (a sunny day I think is the culprit – along with the shutter itself letting in light).
The first picture is of a willow tree in a churchyard in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire (you will see this tree a few times as I love going back to it). You can enclose yourself under there happily for a good thirty minutes.
The first image below has no light leaks, the second one has a red glow (to the already redscale film!) and a square over the bottom of the trunk. They were both taken within minutes of each other. I think the first image was taken second because there’s been no chance for light to leak onto the picture!
A little further up the road in Bloxham, you can see the same church photographed from the front and one from behind.
Again, I think there’s no light leaks because I actually shot all four on the same day and there’s been minimal opportunity for light to get in:
The last two of the roll fared badly – I think because it was sunnier and because I’d left the film in the camera for probably two months or so – this time I am in Weston-Super-Mare:
Here’s Lomo Purple with the same camera, in Adlestrop, Oxfordshire. Light is leaking in from the right (ie the shutter) on each occasion.
The Holga 120WPC’s pinhole is f133. I measured 1/15 seconds at f22 and that converted to a shot of 2.4 seconds. Whilst Lomo Purple doesn’t appear on Reciprocity Timer, I chose Rollei IR-400 as it seemed a close match – and that made the exposure 3 seconds:
Zero Image 2000 Pinhole Camera
The Zero Image 2000 has an f-stop of f138.
You can see the same tractor here, using the Zero Image 2000 with Kodak Portra 160, and in general they are sharper and lacking in light leaks.
Pointing your camera into the sun with a pinhole does produce a lovely sunburst effect onto them (see second picture below):
Moving to Blenheim Palace, we can see this effect on Rollei Infrared 400 film, with an infrared filter on the front of the camera.
With a filter, you will need to add the required stops to your exposure calculation. Reciprocity Timer, luckily has a feature for adding up to five stops on it:
Taken from the other side of the tree – with the light coming from a different direction removes the beams of light but still a few have appeared:
Here’s another from the same day – a self-portrait – where the sun overtakes the actual visual (I’m there in the picture if you look closely enough!):
I love using Rollei Infrared with the Zero Image 2000 – the sun bursts create a Christmas feel to this one in Witney:
And some beauty to the trees:
Here’s that tree in Hook Norton again with the Fuji Acros II:
There’s a famous “lonely tree” on Llyn Padern in Llanberis in North Wales and here’s a couple of attempts.
For the image on the first image below I metered for the darkest point at f22 and got a reading of 2 seconds. Converting that using Ian’s method I got an approximately 1 minute and 40 second exposure time.
Checking the Reciprocity Timer, Fuji Acros didn’t need to add any time:
Just a mile and a bit up the road there’s a waterfall called Ceunant Mawr:
Here’s some other examples from the Zero Image 2000:
RealitySoSubtle 16×7 Pinhole Camera
The last image of the boat (it’s in Blakeney, Norfolk) can also be seen here with the RSS 16×7. It’s since been upgraded to have 3 pinhole slots – where you can get a different view dependent on the which hole you use. Mine comes with just the one. It’s a little fiddly to load at first but once you have the hang of it, it is relatively simple.
Getting to know your pinhole and how wide it is/what will fit in frame is also key. You can see here that I didn’t get the mast in (on Cinestill 50D):
Here’s that tree again – and it’s a little too close the top of the (Fujichrome EDU II) film!
Trying RSS 6×17 for portraits is also enormous fun. Here’s the tree on the same film and the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford on Fuji Acros II plus two of the mill at Lower Slaughter:
Grading Your Pinhole Shots
Grading your shots is important: the film will capture highlights which you can bring back either in the darkroom or in Photoshop:
Where the Cinestill 50D really shone for me was in the image I showed earlier, and this set of four photos taken on a delightfully sunny late afternoon in London:
I love the cloud movement on this and the two people who stopped for at least a couple of seconds in the fourteen second exposure:
MIA Pinhole 6×6 10mm and 6×6 35mm
I have three MIA Pinhole cameras. The two 6×6 are very different. The 10mm is so wide, it’s incredible. I’ve still not quite mastered it, but you can place the camera extremely close to your subject.
Take this image of the treehouse we stayed in on holiday this year in Northumberland. It seems like it is a long distance away – and look at how the trees bend around it (below it is the shot from my iPhone!). The f-stop for the camera is f100, so this means the shutter is generally open for less time:
Here’s another shot from fairly close:
And one even closer to my feet in the Laconium room:
Here’s a shot from inside my shopping trolley:
And a couple more from very close up, where you can see the detail of the grass close up:
Getting used to exactly how wide it is, is great fun.
Here’s the more “normal” view from the 6×6 35mm on a trip around my local church:
MIA Pinhole 4×5
A 4×5 pinhole gives you a whole bigger film or paper on which to create. The MIA Pinhole 4×5 camera is f169, and I was lucky enough to spend time with Andrea, who makes the cameras at Bicester Heritage.
We took a number of shots there on paper and then used Roba Apposta’s black and white reversal kit – to create 4×5 shots on Harman Direct Positive Paper.
I also tried it with the Lomograflok back (which I taped to the sides of the camera) for an Instax wide shot:
Pinhole Film Photography Inspiration
There’s plenty of brilliant pinhole photographers out there. Here are a few of my favorites:
Ian Barber: https://www.ianbarberphotography.co.uk/gallery/black-and-white-pinhole/
Martin Henson: https://www.martinhensonphotography.co.uk/pinhole-photography
Helen Hooker: https://www.instagram.com/hhpinhole/
Will Gudgeon: https://www.instagram.com/pinhole_life/
John Farnan: https://www.johnfarnan.co.uk/Pinhole
Justin Quinell: https://www.instagram.com/justin_quinnell/
Conclusion
I hope that this guide has inspired you to either try pinhole photography or to dust down one that you may have bought and not got round to using.
Thank you so much, Alec! Alec is a regular contributor here at Shoot It With Film, and be sure to check out his other articles, like Petzval 80.5mm f/1.9 MKII Bokeh Control Art Lens Review: It’s All About the Swirl and From Setup to Shutter: My Lessons from a Graflex Speed Graphic Workshop.
You can also check out more of his work on Instagram.
Leave your questions about pinhole film photography below in the comments.
Shoot It With Film on Instagram
Leave a Comment