Pinhole Camera Pictures

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-02-24 06:36pm

Finally bought myself a scanner so I could start scanning my photo collection. These pictures were taken with a pinhole camera I built as a shop project in highschool. The unique thing about this camera is its infinite depth of field, all objects at all distances are in perfect focus. This is apparent in the first picture where the wooden bench just inches from the camera and the houses & trees in the background are both perfectly focused.

VF5SS · Post by **VF5SS** » 2004-02-24 09:00pm

Those are some excellent shots, Aerius.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-02-24 09:06pm

Pinhole cameras rock. That was probably my favourite section of Photo class.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-02-24 09:31pm

Thanks! Those photos are almost 10 years old now I think and they still look brand new. One more photo for today...

There was fog everywhere which is why you can't see the buildings.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-02-24 10:05pm

God, that's gorgeous. It's got kind of a Maxfield Parrish quality to it.

The pinhole cameras we made weren't as sophisticated as that: just shoeboxes with a copper plate, but I loved the ghostly quality.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-02-24 11:22pm

The cameras we made were just wooden boxes with a small metal plate on one side and a door on another. We put a small hole in the metal plate and then sanded it nice & smooth before mounting it in a small cutout on one side of the box. Sealing the box so it was light-tight was a pain though, half the groups in our class had light leakage problems which took a lot of time to solve. I was lucky, the camera our group built only leaked a bit of light and that was easily fixed by taping some cardboard around the door of our camera.

Lt. Dan · Post by **Lt. Dan** » 2004-02-25 12:01am

Take a pic of the camera, I've never seen one before. And that is a great field of depth.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-02-25 12:15am

Unfortunately I don't have the camera anymore, I'm not really sure what happened to it to be honest. But...picture a wooden box, roughly 12"x10"x10" with a hinged door on one side. Opposite the door side is the metal plate with the pinhole, it's mounted in a small cutout in the wood. All the corners were sealed with caulking and the inside painted flat black. That was it. In a darkroom the 8"x10" black & white print paper is loaded & held in place by holders in the door, the camera closed and pinhole covered, and it's ready to go.

Post by **haas mark** » 2004-02-25 01:36am

Must get one of those...

Excellent shots, dude!

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-02-25 02:15am

Infinite D.o.F.? Crazy!

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-02-25 04:00am

kojikun wrote:Infinite D.o.F.? Crazy!

It's because pinhole cameras don't have a focus, ergo infinite DoF.

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-02-25 04:47am

aerius wrote:Thanks! Those photos are almost 10 years old now I think and they still look brand new. One more photo for today...

There was fog everywhere which is why you can't see the buildings.

A very creepy look. Reminds me of the video tape from "The Ring".

And all the pictures are very good.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-02-25 10:53pm

I've got some pictures itook with an oatmeal tube pinhole camera at a photo class i took a summer or two ago. If i drudge them up i'll scan some in and post it.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-02-26 01:58am

Very sweet pictures.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2007-06-20 11:28pm

Decided to pull the thread up again to fix all the links and add a new picture. This was also taken with the pinhole camera, but I decided to play around with some of the duotone presets in Photoshop for a slightly different look.

Kenny_10_Bellys · Post by **Kenny_10_Bellys** » 2007-06-21 04:35am

All the pinhole camera pics I took during my photography days were utter crap, whereas the pic quality here is almost professional. We just used a shoebox with a genuine pinhole in one side, no wood or metal involved. Consequently it sucked like you would not believe.