|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Upload your random pictures
|
|
|
William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 08-15-2003 02:47 AM
quote:
Unless this is one of those high-school projects where you use a large box with basically a pinhole cut into it and leave it sit for a long period of time.
Buffoon! Can't the doctors control your doofusness with drugs or something? These photographs were made with newly-designed, precision, handcrafted instruments.
An historical photographic example of an architectural subject:
This is the reconstruction of the Dock Street theater in Charleston, South Carolina, the first theater built in what became the United States. Looking at the building's facade, what is the first thing we notice? "Damn, that street is narrow! He had to back way down to get the photo!"
A few years ago, my intervertebral disks began popping like bubble wrap & I was looking for a basket-weaving project. Considering the problem of needing to get wide photos & that hauling the big Calumet 4x5 around was usually out because 1) weighs a ton 2) people say "Hey, what are you doing, you can't bring that in here" when you show up to do casual photography. So okay, pinhole photography is famously wide & looks like a possibility. But the resolution is also low, so generally the photographs are taken on 120 or huge sheet film. The two problems with that are 1) some really stupid box to put the film in 2) higher-cost processing or having a darkroom. Okay, everybody's had a darkroom as a kid & most have passed that stage & are happy now living without the smell, trays, bottles of chemistry, mixing junk, glassware, burning time, & all the appurtenances & crap. And the pinhole camera designs: Oatmeal boxes, hat boxes, shoe boxes & similar things - do you WANT people to call the police when it looks like you may be showing up with a box full of pigeons or rats or who knows what? It's not just socially impractical, it's silly.
Okay, so you'd need 1) easily processed film like at 35mm places or whatever & 2) a non-psycho looking thing to carry the film. that meant 35mm film, & there are already cameras which hold that format. What's the resolution going to be on a 35mm format pinhole photo? Probably not much worse than a lot of really grainy early photos.
If using 35mm film & all you want is the box to hold the film & the film transport mechanism - there are BILLIONS of subjects out there for horrible experimentation. Cheap plastic throwaway cameras to be hacked & mutilated. They can be found stacked in bins at Goodwill & bargain stores.
Here are some of the "surviving" cameras which, thinking they were being saved from dumpsterization at Goodwill, sadly fell into my clutches. Many were mangled & tossed. Basically, you do some disassembly, pull out the shutter, & put a pinhole in there. The 3 critically nasty parts of the design are 1) a very good pinhole with no aberrations 2) a new shutter design to keep light off the film when not taking a photo 3) minimizing camera shake - essential because of longer exposure times.
Originally, I thought the best path would be with modifying the plastic cameras with little sliding doors over the lens. They actually had two deficiencies 1) they are lightest in weight & most susceptible to camera shake 2) the openings in the at the little door are small & occlude the wide image taken by the pinhole.
The best bodies turn out to be the type of plastic fake SLR's best known as the cameras of the type that were heaved out in truckloads as premiums for getting a subscription to Time magazine. There are others of similar design, & even the Time cameras had apparently 3 different designs & manufacturers. But they all have 1) a big chunk of pot metal in the bottom to make them feel heavy, that makes them sit steadily when you open the shutter 2) whent the big lens/aperture structures are removed to install the pinhole, the opening is pretty wide.
If you just disassemble the front, scoop out the shutter, & mount a pinhole on the plane where the shutter was, you get something around the equivalent of a 35mm lens. Then the problem of the shutter. It's neccessary to keep the pinhole covered, then to remove the cover with ZERO shake. The best solution was found to be cutting the lid & wide threaded neck from a big vitamin jar (opening about the size of the front of the camera), taping it with black gaff tape to the camera, keeping the lid screwed on when not making an exposure. To make the exposure, the camera is set down, the lid unscrewed to the end of the thread but still over the unthreaded section of the neck & not admitting light, then carefully removing the lid entirely without moving the camera. The 2nd best solution was found to be to replace the original fascia which supported the rotating aperture ring, covering the hole in the aperture ring on both sides with black gaff tape, & using its "loose fit at top, snug fit all the way down" characteristic in a similar way as the jar lid.
Get the pictures done at Wal-Mart 1 hour, where they only charge for the pictures that turn out, & will probably lose money when you show up.
If you pull out the original plastic divider where the shutter was mounted & mount the pinhole closer to the film, you get a hugely wide image - but come up against the problem again of occlusion by the camera body.
A typical problem is different kinds of aberrations in the pinhole causing aberrations in the photo, as in the auditorium picture. Couple it with a too-small front opening for compound problems that make the photo counter people look at your pictures with squinty eyes & confused faces.
There is something strangely voyeuristic about the pictures that are like looking through a hole. Are you looking into some strange, horrible new world, or out of one?
Absolutely still subjects are best: interiors, architecture, etc. If there is any movement, it blurs & has weird appearances - running water looks like a river of frozen sputum, trees look like they've got fuzzies on the ends of their branches. Even if they're still, landscapes are wide & strangely bleak looking. But the cameras excel at low-light & night photography. Just take them outside & come back in a couple of hours.
The worst part about the cheapo plastic cameras is their film transports break apart and/or scratch film. I've been through tons of those cameras which broke their transports, & I'll bet that rathere than introduce people to the Wonderful World of Photography, it P'd them off & finished it for them.
The best part is taking horribly screwed up photos & seeing the look of fear on the faces of the photo counter people when you approach. The 2nd best is keeping an envelope of the last screwy pictures handy so that when others pull out their boring photos & exert social pressure for you to look on & approve, you can say "I got some of my pictures back, too!" & pull out strange, aggravating pictures. Watch people as they squint at them & desperately try to figure out what it is, what went wrong, why the hell someone has these pictures.
Things are equally in focus from a millimeter in front of the lens to infinity. Using the slowest film available (usually 100 ASA) exposures are 3 to 5 seconds outside, 50-60 seconds inside. With a good pinhole & fine grained slow film, the pictures can be pretty sharp! With long exposures, people & traffic going by usually don't even show up.
In low light situation, just set it down & come back hours later.
If there is almost NO light, you can't see hardly anything, the camera will find it & suck it up. It's interesting how the night really is blue.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Topic Closed
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Actually, I don't have time to play with member photos right now ... I'm too busy with Cinematour. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic