Last Sunday (30th April) was ‘World Pinhole Day’. So I decided early on that my photo story this week would be about pinhole photography. Initially, I’d planned to take and show some pinhole photographs. But as I played with the idea, I realised that the more interesting story was about the making of the pinhole camera. So think of this as a DIY Photography story.
Sadly, connoisseurs of pinhole photography are about to go apoplectic.
Rather than build a film camera, I decided to use my digital camera and convert it into a pinhole camera. Here’s the step-by-step.
Step 1: Get your materials together
Step 2: Create your pinhole
Step 3: Check your work
Step 4: Build your camera
This is easy. Just put the body cap on the camera and voilà!
Step 5: Take photographs
Now for the fun bit. Here are some images I took using this set up. I discovered that the best pinhole images need really bright days with lots of hard shadow. One advantage of using a digital camera is you can boost the ISO sensitivity and hand hold the camera (not really possible with film pinhole photography).
Pinhole tribute to Henry Fox Talbot
The image below left is a photograph (‘The Open Door’) taken by the inventor of photography, Henry Fox Talbot. (Unless you’re French, in which case you mistakenly think Louis Daguerre invented photography). I thought it would be fun to recreate Talbot’s image with the pinhole. My attempt is on the right (there’s a larger version at the top of this article).
About the Author
David Travis is a portrait and editorial photographer based in Staffordshire, UK. In 2017, he publishes a photo story each week, and you can check out the project here. For more of his work, visit his website, follow him on Instagram and 500px, and like his Facebook page. This article was also published here and shared with permission.
