Easy pinhole camera with no darkroom for developing

August 13, 2023 2:19 PM

As always, y'all knocked it out of the park answering my question about eclipse glasses. Pinhole cameras were mentioned a time or two in the comments. This is unrelated to eclipse. I remember when I was very, very young we made pinhole cameras out of oatmeal containers. Is there a way to make these without needing a dark room and chemicals? My AskMe-Fu and Google-Fu suggest maybe buying some Polaroid instant film, but that all reads as way above my ability as someone who is just looking to goof around. Hope me, Ask me. What is an easy way to get in to pinhole photography?
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd to Grab Bag (12 answers total)

If you have a removable lens digital camera, and you have the original body cap that came with it, you can make a pinhole digital camera! Cut a large hole in the body cap, then tape some thin aluminum foil over that hole and use the tiniest pin you have to make a hole in the foil. You'll have to learn what exposure times work best but that's what I did many years ago with my Nikon D200 and it worked great. (You could also buy a third-party pinhole body cap, often for sale for most cameras but you may need to hunt around.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:40 PM on August 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

there's the film-less Pinhole Viewer. These probably aren't bright enough to photograph with a mobile phone.

If you have a DSLR (preferably not very new, as this can get dust on the sensor), you can make a decent pinhole camera with a body cap, a drill, a piece of thick foil, glue and a pin. For example, here's one I took in 2007 using a Nikon D70: Ned Hanlan.
posted by scruss at 3:06 PM on August 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I believe I made a pinhole camera that used 110 film back in the day - it’s apparently still available and still commercially developable, so that might be an option?
posted by mskyle at 3:48 PM on August 13, 2023

Best answer: Cyanotypes are generally the entry point for "chemical free" photo work. The chemistry reacts in UV light, so you can set your camera up inside in room lighting, expose it, and then the only development necessary is to rinse the paper in running water to wash off any unexposed chemistry. See here for an example (no idea about this store in particular, but B&H sells their products so they have to be at least reasonably reliable).

Cyanotypes are great for pinhole cameras, especially if you want to do longer exposures - its sensitivity is pretty low, so you kind of need to expose it to light for quite a while. I've seen many artists make beer can cameras and strap them to a tree to capture the arc of the sun over a period of months or more.

The one downside to this method is that the exposed image does not "fix" like a b&w chemistry will, so it will fade over time. This is solved by occasionally taking it outside and exposing it to sunlight again, which will rejuvenate the cyan color.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:51 PM on August 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh yeah, I guess I should say if it wasn't obvious that the cyanotype in your pinhole camera will not work indoors because it requires UV light. So if you're looking to take images of stuff in your home you may also need to invest in a UV lamp.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:52 PM on August 13, 2023

Buh, sorry, got that backwards - putting the paper in a dark room will rejuvenate it. Continued exposure to light will fade it. Carry on.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:13 PM on August 13, 2023

Lack of a dark room shouldn't be a deal breaker here—lots of people use a film changing bag (a light-proof bag with arm holes) to transfer rolls of film to developing tanks, and then process films in the bath or the laundry sink. But! If chemistry really is a deal breaker then you need an alternative.

- Digital: seanmpuckett's and scruss's idea is a good one and I am absolutely going to give that a go with an obsolete DSLR I have.
- Colour film: if you can get your hands on a working film SLR camera, you can manufacture yourself a pinhole camera with alfoil and a pin, take the photos and then send the film away to be processed. Alternatively there are a huge number of etsy and other DIY kitmakers making build-your-own cameras that include a film reel.
- Cyanotype: They're extremely fun and easy to get into, and I've done a lot of them, but as to pinholes, experiments suggest against it. (FWIW backseatpilot, it's the other way around; cyanotype prints fade in the light, but they restore themselves if you put them away in a dark place).
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:18 PM on August 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I actually have a pinhole "lens" that fits onto a canon lens mount that I got from kickstarter infinity years ago. They might actually produce/sell them. But I've also made many over the years from lens caps etc.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:37 PM on August 13, 2023

Best answer: Peggy Ann Jones This woman is a master at working with pinhole cameras, and has a huge body of work for inspiring ideas. I asked her for some help with one of my projects, and she was very helpful and enthusiastic. I hope it's helpful.
posted by effluvia at 5:41 PM on August 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just went to an Ansel Adams exhibition and one of the modern artists they contrasted with (don't know the artist, but perhaps if you look it up on the de Young museum website you'll find it) used a pinhole camera (a camera obscura) to project images on the ground and then took photos of the projection. The combination of pinhole projection and more straightforward long exposure photography might inspire you toward something.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:54 AM on August 14, 2023

@a non mouse, a cow herd, and @How much is that froggie in the window, it's Abelardo Morell who has created pinhole images on the ground within a tent and photographed them. There are several other interesting photographers at that deYoung show. Morell has also done lots with camera obscura images using an entire room as the pinhole camera not to mention his other lovely work with books, paper, and his children.
posted by conscious matter at 9:28 AM on August 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

I made my own pinhole lens for my Canon with an adapter ring, a short length of cardboard tubing, electrical tape, and a piece of aluminum foil that I lightly pierced with a thin needle. You might have to clean the pinhole so there aren't irregular bits of foil that can cause glare. One sunny afternoon I went around a local historic cemetery and took lots of shots. Exposures ranged from 1-5 sec, if I recall correctly, but for most shots I took several different exposures. Desaturating the images to black and white and boosting the dynamic range and contrast produced some delightfully creepy pictures. I also took some pretty pictures of flowers and the pinhole produced a nice dreamy impressionistic effect. However, if don't feel like rolling your own you can search for pinhole lens [camera mount] there are commercial products you can buy that range from cheap plastic caps to expensive machined aluminum. Here's a nice article and commercial product comparison at B&H Photo.
posted by indexy at 11:25 AM on August 14, 2023