Category: Pinhole

TV commercial shot with a pinhole

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Cinematographer Anders Uhl shot a TV spot for Buell with a pinhole on his movie camera. He wrote:

"The Buell spot was mostly 12 FPS, 180 shutter Ilford HP5+ pushed three stops. I initially tested Kodak TMAX in a 535, but the results were not quite as good as the Ilford, which holds up very well at just about any rating. A freak week long rainstorm drove my exposure down and muddied things up a little (too many greys), but you can get some fairly sharp images if you have sharp contrast and strong highlights."

View the spot at Subliminal Pictures (QuickTime required)

From the Cinematography Mailing List

Technical PDF on optimum pinhole sizing

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Excerpt from by "The Pinhole Camera Revisited or The Revenge of the Simple-Minded Engineer", by Kjell Carlsson:

"The image of a point object, the Point Spread Function (PSF),
should be as small as possible to produce a sharp image.

"Geometrical optics approximation: Hole should be as small as possible.

"Fraunhofer diffraction approximation: Hole should be as large as possible.

"No optimum size is found!

"Conclusion: The optimum size is found in a region where neither geometrical optics nor Fraunhofer diffraction is valid!"

For the more mathematically inclined, this paper discusses the preceeding conundrum and has simulated sample images for various pinhole sizes. I can’t follow the math, but I found it an interesting read nonetheless.

Download PDF

Via f295 DIY Photography Forum

Katie Cooke is featured artist at f295

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

pinhole self-portrait by Katie Cooke

The mind-bendingly awesome pinhole/lens photographer/camera hacker Katie Cooke of slowlight pinhole blog is currently the featured artist at f295, a pinhole and DIY photography discussion forum.

Katie writes, "…given that I still don’t have my gallery live, it’s a way of seeing 15 of my pinhole photographs without wading through my flickr stream. It’s a mixture of work, including portraits, self-portraits, and some images from Morocco.

"(f295 has recently launched a DIY forum, too, so it’s not just lensless but covers a wider range of camera, lens, and print hacking.)"

I’d go on and on about how amazing her work is, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t know where to stop. I’ll leave it at this: if you aren’t familiar with it, you’re missing out on something special.

Check it out on f295 and Flickr.

(Full disclosure: I know her online.)

Via slowlight pinhole blog

Homemade anamorphic camera

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

f295 member Andrew has converted his homemade anamorphic pinhole camera—where instead of light going straight through the opening and striking the film head-on, the film is formed into a circle and the light is projected into its center from above—to use a lens, and the results are stunning!

Andrew writes, "To get a lens anamorphic camera with the least possible effort I modified the pre-existing ‘black box of hell’ pincam. The p_p_p_pinhole is mounted in the ‘lid’ so I just made a new lid and mounted an 85mm lens stripped off a dead Agfa Isolette…"

Continue reading and see photos of and plans for the camera here, and photos that he took with it here at the f295 DIY Forum.

Ingo Guenther pinhole/alt process exhibition at NWZ-Galerie im Pressehaus, DE

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This exhibition, "Camera obscura – Bilder von Oldenburg", features gelatin silver, cyanotype, and salt prints of pinhole photography by Ingo Guenther.

The show runs 1 April–28 April, 2006, at NWZ-Galerie im Pressehaus, Peterstr. 28–34, 26121 Oldenburg, DE.

Gallery hours are from Monday–Sunday 9am–6pm.

Opening on Friday, 1 April, 2006 at 6pm.

Via the Spitbite Pinhole Discussion List

“StenEAUpe” pinhole photography show at Centre Culturel André Malraux, FR

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The "StenEAUpe" exhibition features pinhole photography by Claude Cogny, Christophe Frot, Marie-Noëlle Leroy and Erick Mengual.

The show runs from 13 March–2 May, 2006, at Centre Culturel André Malraux, 10 Av. Francis de Pressense-93350 Le Bourget, FR.

Opening

Friday, 17 March, 2006, 7–9pm

Gallery hours

Monday to Friday: 9–12 and 2–6pm
Tuesday and Thursday: til 8pm
Saturday: 9am–12pm

More information at Actuphoto (en Français)

Via the Spitbite Pinhole Discussion List