Two hours

One and a half hours before sunrise:

Half an hour before sunset:

Both images taken this summer with Leica M4P and pinhole body cap 28mm f/128 on Agfapan 100

There’s Something to Digital Pinholes As Well

As much as I love taking my photographs the traditional way, by exposing silver halogenide crystals to light, there are certain advantages to digital pinholery: Modern cams come equipped with a live view screen that gives at least an idea of the framing even in low light (not as helpful as a rangefinder, but definitely better than using pinholes on SLR cameras), and you can more or less freely switch sensor sensitivity to match your needs in terms of exposure time.

Here are two recent examples, taken with a Sony NEX-3 cam (which currently might be the most affordable option to add digital functionality with an acceptable crop factor to an existing range of Leica M lenses) equipped with M-mount adapter plus Pinhole Body cap 28mm (42mm equiv.) @ f/128. The third image shows the making-of of one of the shots in Hamburg’s Planten un Blomen park (cell phone cam).

Dogs Are Not Natural Pinhole Photography Models

Baltic Sea coast earlier this autumn. Leica M w/ 25mm hole and orange filter, rock as a tripod, 2 sec. approx. on Rollei Retro 400 film

When 2.5 hours of exposure still aren’t enough

Earlier this summer we spent a few days cycling along the eastern German Baltic Sea coast. One night on the beach, with nothing more than the stars above us, I used the pinhole-modded Agfa Clack for some long-time exposures of up to 2.5 hours. This turned out to still be way too short though; here’s a first contact scan, heavily adjusted to at least show some structure; on the light table there’s hardly anything to see on the negative at all. – Well, let’s pretend those dust specks I didn’t care to retouch are the stars

WPPD 2010: My Contribution

My son’s soccer team warming up, later to win 7:0. Taken with the modded Agfa Clack on Tri-X 400, using a yellow filter, ca. 1sec exposure. Clicking the image leads to the official gallery.

Don’t forget: April 25 is Pinhole Day

Well, the headline says it all… This year’s last April sunday marks pinhole day’s 10th anniversary. Let’s all go out and find a great spot to photograph through a small hole! (If I’m not mistaken, this year will see my fourth contribution.)

Getting Rid of the Dust on Your Scans

It’s not just the act of taking the photo that’s slowed down by exposing through a pinhole; here I’m also encountering certain specific difficulties in postprocessing, namely in undusting pinhole negative scans. That’s because the automated anti-dust routines in imaging software tend to work best in blurry, out-of-focus areas of an image while pinhole images usually aren’t out of focus. So here’s how I clean up dusty negatives:

Mixing Fringe Techniques

Lately I’m experimenting with two different fringe photographic techniques combined: Shooting pinhole on C41 film, then developing in a special “low color” process. Resulting images are not exactly fine art, but I like what’s happening

Hamburg, Planten un Blomen park, Gingko tree. Captured on Kodak Portra 160NC film w/ Agfa Clack 6x9 pinhole

Point-and-Shoot, 1950′s Style

My pinhole-modded Agfa Clack got a sister a while ago. Looks pretty much like the first one (so no new hardware photo) except for the lens which remains the original 1-element glass. Quite affordable at 5 Euro, even complete with leather bag this time!

Hamburg-Wandsbek. Tri-X at Push +1

With that baby you can happily snap along at 1/35 second and choose between “far” and “close” as well as between f-stops /11 and /13,5. While not as reduced as pinholing, using this tool still feels archaic and out-of-season. More pictures from the first film over at Silberpixel starting here, one per week through mid-December.

Rhythm of the Street(car)

On a streetcar in Gelsenkirchen, ca. 15 minutes exposure time on Tri-X 400 with the Agfa Clack.