Curse you APUG (Pinhole)

[Jeff Searust]

Also, several Polaroids found in an abandoned house in the desert...

that's sort of creepy

[bowzart]

Just because your eyes are closed, doesn't mean the lights in the darkroom are off.

Astute.

[BetterSense]

How would you make a pinhole passport photo? IOW, how could you get the image that small, put the film really close to the pinhole?

[bowzart]

How would you make a pinhole passport photo? IOW, how could you get the image that small, put the film really close to the pinhole?

Or hold the camera at arm's length and measure the result, moving it this way or that until you could trim it out at the right size. You know, with passport, the size seems to be much more important than the image.

I'm not going to do it tonight. I guess I better shoot one. I'll wear a funny hat, so the gov won't like it. I'll make a passport to some imaginary land!

[SMBooth]

Just like you would in making contact prints with film. You need a piece of heavy glass, or a contact print frame (or, if you really want to go the tech route, a vacuum table!). It sometimes helps to wet the paper negative and the new paper, and squeegee them together to eliminate air pockets and get better contact. You will need more exposure to compensate for the density of the paper base. Try it. It's easy.

But why use paper not film, or is big (8x10 plus) paper a cheaper option then big film? Can u use the same paper for negative as positive.
Can you recommend a decent book on pinhole that proberly the best option.....

I can image you walking up to the passport control centre with a pinhole image ID photo, you will have to keep moving your head around to match the fuzzy image.

Shane

[vdonovan]

I used a 16x20 sheet of photo paper in the camera because that's what was lying around at the time. It created a negative image, obviously. I then just sandwiched it with another sheet of the exact same paper under an enlarger and made a positive. If there was a sheet of 16x20 Tri-X lying around, I would have used that, believe me.

[Joe VanCleave]

The problem with self-portraits using paper negatives in pinhole cameras is the exposure time. I rate my paper negatives' "speed" at EI=3. I use Freestyle's Arista grade 2 RC paper for negatives; a 100-sheet box of 8" x 10" paper costs around $35us. In bright sunlight, a typical portrait may require 30-45 seconds exposure time. So you have the classic problem of keeping your head very still, and keeping your eyes open long enough to register detail. Also, paper, having a blue-only sensitivity, will render skin tones darker than normal, so you want to overexpose a bit to render a normal tone.

You can contact print paper negatives just fine. I like to contact print onto a fiber based multigrade paper; this gives you a fine print quality, and the ability to adjust the print contrast as needed to adjust for problems with negative contrast. I use my condensor enlarger as a light source for contact printing. Heavy sheet of glass to sandwich the two sheets of paper together. I never contact wet the negatives wetted with water, always dry. And I never oil the backside of the negative, or try peeling the emulsion off the paper. I don't see the point; they print fine onto silver paper; perhaps alternative processes requiring UV light may need a more transparent negative, hence the alternative contact printing methods.

~Joe

[bowzart]

But why use paper not film, or is big (8x10 plus) paper a cheaper option then big film? Can u use the same paper for negative as positive.
Can you recommend a decent book on pinhole that proberly the best option.....

I can image you walking up to the passport control centre with a pinhole image ID photo, you will have to keep moving your head around to match the fuzzy image.

Shane

It's been a long time, but I've been out of the country. Yes it is cheaper. Also, some people prefer longer exposures, so the slower time can be an advantage. Reciprocity departure is less a problem. Using vc paper is generally preferable to graded because it has green sensitivity (like orthochromatic) and can produce lower contrast because of that.

Eyes are not a problem in the long exposure self portraits. Do you see a lack of clarity in the eyes in Daguerreotypes? That is because the blink is instantaneous, and the eyelid goes back to the same position -- enough for photography, anyway.

The problem might be to get the gov to accept it. Of course, you could do it really large, then reduce it -- that provides a huge advantage. A pinhole image made on 8x10 with an ideally sized hole and reduced to say 4x5 will be MUCH sharper than a similar image made using a 4x5 with an ideally sized hole.

[SMBooth]

Thank Bowazart, If I made a 8x10 pinhole to use VC paper, what iso for the paper would you give as a starting point. The plan in my head is to start using my existing 4x5 B&W negs to do some contact printing to work out the contact printing sides of thing, then maybe make a 8x10 or next paper up wide angle pinhole to do some landscape stuff. I like to build things.......helps me learn

[bowzart]

I haven't used paper in a camera for a very long time, but I've read comments suggesting that the useful ISO would be about 3. Must experiment. Yes, you can use the same paper. The best book is without doubt Eric Renner's Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a historic technique