Following the instructions on this website:
http://www.matchboxpinhole.com/
I have made my own matchbox pinhole camera.
I struggled with the clicker and so did a bit of maths and determined I need a minimum of 1.5 turns to ensure I don’t get a double exposure and there is sufficient space between shots. I also have had trouble with the film winding back, tried the suggested method of taping bunched up tissue paper to one side but this seemed to have no effect, instead I plan to improvis with a metal bar that locks the winding motion of the film when not in use.
The aperture on the camera is around f/90, so to work out my shutter speed I can use my light meter to work out the exposure at f/22, then simply move the exposure up 4 stops (f/32, f/45, f/64 and then f/90) to work out the shutter speed I should use as they work in reciprocity. Say my shutter speed was 1sec, at f/22 at f/32 it would be 2 sec, f/45 4 sec, f/64 8 sec and so at f/90 my shutter speed would be 16 sec.
The tutorial says on a bright day that 1 second exposure should be enough.
I am using ISO 100 black and white film, but should still have fairly short shutter speeds on a bright day. The film being black and white means I have a little leeway on exposure times without it completely ruining my film.
The camera is wide angle with a focal length of about 11mm so I expect close up shots to be somewhat distorted, but that fits in with my ideas for the brief. On top of the wide-angle lens distortion, the edges of each frame will most likely not be straight, and may have card board fibers intruding, this might give a softer edge to some of the photos or a scratched look to the film. Any imperfection is just part of the image and adds to the interest, in my opinion, so I am not particularly worried about any mistakes. The only issue is whether the box is completely light tight; although I have done my best to cover the box in tape, I cannot be 100% sure that light isn’t leaking in somewhere.
My images will be square (ish) as I cut a square frame in the box, I’m hoping this will help me keep each image spaced further apart and avoid accidental double exposure, and it might also allow me to take more photos providing I wind on correctly.
I will develop the images myself in the dark room, this will cut costs from using a photo lab, and I will have no worries about the frame spacing being off as I’ve heard that this can sometimes cause problems in photo labs; and, finally, it will save embarrassment if none of the images turn out! I hope to get about 20 exposures on the roll.
Ten shots, the winding mechanism wound more efficiently than I thought so I only got half as many photos as I expected.
I didn't use a light meter when exposing as part of the fun is guesswork. So some are over exposed and some and underexposed. Some are ok though!
The match box is wide angle, and now I have developed the images I can estimate how much of a scene I will capture in future.
Here are two shots of the same set of windows, one taken with a pin hole camera of f/562 562mm (telephoto) and the shot from the matchbox pinhole approx f/90 (wide angle) 9mm
to go to the next post click here
No comments:
Post a Comment