Category: Blog

We’re currently experiencing a stock out on the discs for the pinholes. Hoping to have them back by 20th February. I’m keeping those I have in stock for the camera builds.

New 6×12 and 6×17 curved film plane panoramic cameras now available to order. The cameras are upgraded from the previous models to include a 3rd central pinhole and 84mm (Cokin P) filter mount. Ergonomics have also been improved – loading is much easier due to the removeable insert.

Mark lives in Hawaii and shoots the RSS6x12, 6×6 , 6x6F and 35R. He shares his thoughts and images on his pinhole photography.

Hi Mark, can you tell us why you shoot pinhole rather than regular
lensed photos?

It probably sounds silly, but I like the challenge of pinhole over regular lensed photos. The first time I saw a well made pinhole photo I was floored by how a lensless camera could take such an interesting photograph. I try to use a mental preview to imagine what the camera will give me. Of course, sometimes I am wrong or surprised by the results which is fun to me.  I also like how I can take long exposures to change an aspect of the scene.

 I feel that trying pinhole photography is an excellent learning experience for a photography journey. It has taught me a lot about reciprocity and even the mechanics of photography, that has improved all my photography. A mentor I found online years ago greatly encouraged me to make my own pinhole. They sent me brass shims and some basic plans to make my own pinhole. Because I didn’t have access to more than an electric rotary tool, glue and some screwdrivers, I decided to hack apart a Holga 120N camera I had lying around and made a camera with some basic research. After learning from my mistakes, I tried again with a RealitySoSubtle professionally laser premade pinhole. All that research taught me what made a good pinhole for my needs. I also learned about exposure circles, patience and a bit of camera design math.  That camera didn’t survive a move across my country, but the experience was worth it.   

Can you tell us about your pinhole photography? What do you look for?
What formats do you like? What film stocks do you prefer?

I don’t know what I can tell you about my photography except that I have been all over the place with my own journey. Since discovering pinhole photography about fourteen years ago, it has been narrowing down to my primary motivator and tool when making photographs. I used to look for movement like waterfalls because it seems like a go to thing in pinhole. Now I use pinhole like I would nearly any camera. I take it on holidays, to birthday parties, shopping, hikes, and even work. Lately I have been experimenting with leaving my camera incognito to capture people interacting in a scene. Their blurred forms leave them anonymous. If I do manage to catch a detailed face, I won’t share. I’m uncomfortable in front of the camera myself unless I am being a blur.

As for format, I really like medium format. Most pinhole cameras seem to be 6×6, but when possible I gravitate towards rectangular formats like 6×4,5, 6×9, 6×12 and so forth. My ideal camera would a 6×4,5 that is more easy to use landscape than portrait. I have tried 135/35mm, but I prefer the resolution of medium format, but the RSS35R has shown me there is potential in 35mm. I have wanted to try large format like 5×7 or 8×10, but it is a huge leap in materials to process and share my results. 

As for film stock, color is so much fun to use. I was a big fan of Kodak Ektar or Portra and even had a phase of E6 slide film like Velvia 50 before the prices were too much for my every day budget. I started developing my own B&W around 5 years ago and that really helps me keep going. To remain budget friendly I use a lot of Fomapan 100 & Kentmere 100 film, but when I have a little extra money, I like Ilford FP4 Plus, Delta 100 and Acros II. 

You use the RSS 6×12 , RSS 6×6, 6x6F and RSS35R to shoot these photos. Can
you talk a little about your experience with these cameras. Do you use
filters when shooting? Do you have a favourite
photo and why?

Yes, the RSS 6×12 and 6x6F were favorites of mine that have had accidents in the field (think falling hard on lava rock), but I would like to replace them sometime. The curve plane and offset pinholes of the 6×12 made for a lot of interesting results.  I did try some infrared filter photography with the 6x6F, but I don’t remember using too many filters otherwise. Spots on a filter are more dramatic on a pinhole exposure than a lensed camera in my experience. I am still learning the RSS35R and how best to use it.

So far it is a nice pocket camera for my workbag and gives the minimalist feel. I would say a camera not mentioned but in high use is my RSS6x6. With two pinholes and narrow profile, it has found itself in my camera bag or sling often. I usually set it up for indoor photography with some easy reciprocity film like Acros to photography my time at the library, museums, and restaurants. 

Do I have a favorite photograph? Isn’t that like asking someone if they have a favorite child? The other photos might get jealous. 

RealitySoSubtle 6×12 with Ektar 100 on a rainy World Wide Pinhole Day. I like how the dash, rain drops and the street are all in equal focus. I was trying to fill my time waiting for a break in the rain. 

 RealitySoSubtle 6×12 with Delta 100. A cheesy water based picture, but I love it nothing the less. I like the light, the pier and the gentle blur of the surf. I live on an island and water is everywhere. 

Thanks Mark! You can find more of Mark’s work on instagram here: @threeeyedmonster

I met Alain a few years ago after he contacted me to meet to talk about my pinhole cameras. Since then we meet up regularly to have a beer and talk photography, go shooting or try out some new technique in the darkroom . He’s extremely knowledgeable on conventional and alternative processes and after 50 years still has a child-like fascination with photography and experimention with the medium.

I’ve included his original words and added an english translation along side. Enjoy!

(click images for larger view)

Pourquoi vous tirez au sténopé ? / Why do you shoot pinhole?

Faire du sténopé c’est remettre en question notre démarche de photographe classique. Cela permet d’aller à l’essentiel sans aucun artifice de materiel ou de post production digitale.

Pinhole calls into question the approach of a classic photographer. It allows you to reach the essence without any hardware or digital post-production trickery.

Juste une boîte, un trou et du film… Avec l’âge et l’expérience, j’ai travaillé beaucoup de sujets avec différents matériels de prise de vue, du tout petit ou très grand format argentique. Mais le sténopé m’offre la possibilité d’explorer des pistes inconnues ou plutôt de retrouver mes yeux d’enfant…

Just a box, a hole and some film… With age and experience, I have worked on many subjects with different equipment, from very small to very large film formats. The pinhole camera offers me the possibility of exploring unknown avenues or rather finding my childhood eyes again…

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes là-dedans ? / What do you like about it?
Souvent les artistes et plus particulierement les photographes ont un ego assez démesuré, beaucoup de“pho(faux)tographes” n’ont jamais entendu parler du Stėnopė par manque de culture. Pour d’autres c’est plutôt la peur de ne pas voir ce que l’on photographie, etc. Le Stėnopė c’est sortir de sa zone de confort, d’avoir une approche plus frugale, plus poétique, refuser la perfection et espérer obtenir des “accidents heureux”.

Often artists and more particularly photographers have quite excessive egos, many “fauxtographers” have never heard about ‘Pinhole’ due to lack of culture. For others it’s more fear not to see what we are photographing, etc. ‘Pinhole’ means getting out of one’s comfort zone, to have a more frugal, more poetic approach, to refuse perfection and hope to obtain “happy accidents”.

Pratiquer le Stėnopė c’est peut-être ne plus rien avoir à prouver à soi et aux autres : la “slow
photography” en quelque sorte…Le sténopé devrait être obligatoire dans les écoles de Photo.

Practicing Pinhole is perhaps no longer having anything to prove to oneself and to others: the “slow photography” in a way…The pinhole camera should be obligatory in Photo schools.

Où tirez-vous ? / Where do you shoot?
Une vie de photographe c’est souvent quelques minutes (l’addition des de centièmes de
seconde…) le Stėnopė par ses poses longues me permet d’allonger ma vie ! Donc, pour
répondre à votre question je fais des photos n’importe où dès que la lumière me le permet.

A photographer’s life is often only a few minutes (the sum of the hundredths of seconds…) ‘Pinhole’ with its long exposures allows me to extend my life! So to answer your question – I take photos anywhere the light allows me.

Utilisez-vous plusieurs caméras ou une seule par sortie ? / Do you use many cameras or just one per outing?
Lorsque je fais une session photo je ne prends qu’un seul appareil en général. Je me dis, aujourd’hui allons découvrir la vie en 6×6, ou bien en 6×9, ou encore en plus grand en 4×5, en 5×7…

When I do a photo session I generally only take one camera. I tell myself, today let’s discover life in 6×6, or in 6×9, or even larger in 4×5, in 5×7…

Parlez-nous de vos appareils photo sténopé. / Tell us about your pinhole cameras.

Je suis un manuel, plutôt un ingénieux qu’un ingénieur Et j’adore donc fabriquer moi-même mes appareils, sans plan et à l’inspiration… J’utilise donc mes propres boîtes, du canister au 8×10. Il y a quelques années j’ai rencontré James, nous étions voisins et nous sommes devenus des amis. Il m’a fait l’honneur de me prendre un peu comme testeur de ses nouvelles créations et l’utilisation de ses modèles est juste du grand plaisir ! Beauté, efficacité et simplicité en quelque sorte, tout est extrêmement bien étudié. Et, cerise sur le gâteau on voit très distinctement les numéros des vues dans les fenêtres de ses caméras ! Je n’ai pas besoin de faire de publicité à James, mais très souvent les gens
m’interpellent pour me demander qui fabrique ces jolis objets.

I’m someone that works with their hands, more of an ingenious than an engineer and so I love making my cameras myself, without a plan and by inspiration… I use my own cameras, from the canister to the 8×10. A few years ago I met James, we were neighbors and we became friends. He did me the honor of using me a bit like a tester of his new creations and using his models is just great fun! Beauty, efficiency and simplicity in a way, everything is extremely well thought out. And, cherry on the cake we can see clearly the frame numbers through the windows of his cameras! I don’t need to advertise James, but very often people call out to me to ask me who makes these pretty objects.

(Don’t get Alain started on the barely visible frame numbers printed on modern films).

Quelles pellicules préférez-vous ? / What film stocks do you prefer?

Je n’ai pas particulierement de préférence, comme je travaille essentiellement en noir et blanc j’aime la Foma en moyen format car on distingue bien les numéros des vues dans la fenêtre rouge… Souvent je charge du film rapide 400 iso car travailler au sténopé sans trépied est un peu contre nature.. mais c’est une transgression que j’aime.

I don’t particularly have a preference, as I work mainly in black and white I like the Foma in medium format because you can clearly see the frame numbers in the red window… Often I load fast 400 ISO film because shooting pinhole without a tripod is a bit unnatural.. but it’s a transgression that I like.

Vous agrémentez souvent vos photographies de dessins, de peintures et d’écritures manuscrites ? / You often embellish your photographs with drawings, paintings and handwriting?

J’ai débuté ma connaissance de la photographie dans des Photo-Club, ou l’enseignement dans les années 70, 80 était très classique et où l’on ne parlait pas du tout de Stėnopė, nous apprenions les règles, le cadrage, la netteté, l’alphabet de la photographie, mais pas la poésie de l’image. et comme j’ai toujours aimé la transgression, ajouter des lignes et des mots imaginaires à l’encre sur mes images c’est est un peu les enrichir d’une nouvelle histoire. Ajouter quelques ratures, pliures et déchirements au tirage lui donne de l’imperfection heureuse.

I began my knowledge of photography in Photo-Clubs, where teaching in the 70s and 80s was very classic and where we did not talk about Pinhole at all, we learned the rules, the framing, the sharpness, the alphabet of photography but not the poetry of the image. As I have always loved transgression, adding imaginary lines and words in ink to my images is a bit of enriching them with a new story. Adding a few scratch-outs, folds and tears to the print gives it happy imperfection.

Merci Alain!

Find more of Alain’s work here: instagram Facebook

Enjoy the fantastic pinhole landscapes of UK based ‘pinholer’ David O’Brien…

(click images for larger view)

Hi Dave! What’s your background in pinhole photography?

I’ve been shooting film pinhole for over 10 years but my passion for photography (and film photography in particular) has been present for over 40 years.  Coming from a traditional landscape genre, I was keen to combine my passion for the outdoors with the way a film pinhole camera could view the landscape.  I was always interested in colour and black and white film photography but seeing the world through the optical quality only an expensive camera lens will bring.

Although, like many others, the clean/sharp images of digital photography had an allure, I was reluctant to abandon the qualities of film emulsions for my landscape work; with differing amounts of grain (depending on one’s choice of emulsion) and a reproduction of colour unique to a film type, I felt digital landscape photography simply couldn’t replicate why analogue photography appealed to me. And, in my mind, there was lots to like!  Film pinhole photography was a natural evolution of my interest in capturing the landscape in novel ways; a film pinhole camera will always be in my bag.

But why pinhole photography and film pinhole photography in particular?

With no lens or viewfinder, film pinhole is perhaps the simplest form of photography; the capturing of light in a light-sealed black box.  Unlike with digital cameras, there is no immediate feedback  – the delayed gratification of seeing the film negative results still creates a buzz today. 

With a wider field of view, image framing is much more difficult – the pinholer’s mantra of “Get Closer!” is very true, and particularly for landscapes.  An exposure of several seconds or, in fact, minutes, can transform the landscape. Pre-visualising that final pinhole image and getting everything right in-camera is always an enjoyable and challenging part of my image-making process – the movement of clouds and water look very different, of course, when exposures stray beyond a couple of seconds. With many film pinhole cameras having a flat image plane, image vignetting as a result of light fall-off is likely and another pinhole quirk to be embraced! It is all a continuing learning process where patience, practice and experimentation can pay dividends and, in time, predictable and consistent results can be obtained.

Can you tell us a bit more about your landscape photography?

Although I am in awe of many other pinholers and their unique way of seeing the world with their pinhole camera, I settled, almost exclusively, on using my pinhole cameras for landscape and seascapes.  As we know, film pinhole photography will not generate a “sharp” image (there is no lens) but it is this dreamlike, almost impressionistic analogue “look” that has drawn me into this particular branch of film photography and which gives film pinhole imagery an unique feel. 

I already owned a Hasselblad 501cm, so I had gotten used to seeing the world in square. But adding all the variables of pinhole photography added to the challenge. The enjoyment stems primarily from finding solutions as to how to present a landscape image but the lack of predictability of film pinhole and how a multi-second or minute exposure can “translate” the view in front of me adds to that initial difficulty of even finding the right composition!

Where do you shoot – do you travel or shoot close to home?  Which cameras do you use and do you have a preferred film stock?

I am fortunate to travel regularly with my film pinhole cameras to capture the wonderful coastal landscape, both at home in the UK and occasionally abroad. Coming from a traditional landscape genre, I aim to produce images with a strong composition but enhanced by the unique way a film pinhole camera views the world.  Whether it is recording the fading Victoriana of our seaside resorts or the protected remnants of our industrial heritage, there are plenty of subjects which are well-suited to the “look” of pinhole photography. The coast of Northumberland features heavily in my portfolio – a family favourite, many of the images remind me of the highly enjoyable family holidays we have spent there over the years.

When on a landscape shoot, I take too many cameras! I just can’t help it.  But my workhorse film pinhole camera is the robust RealitySoSubtle 6x6F, a camera which can withstand all the elements of the UK weather and with the sweetest “pin” that gives me the desired sharpness (or lack of it) for my landscape work.  I will regularly work at the coast in the rain (we have no choice in the UK!) and this camera allows me to do so.  I will regularly use the filter holder (mostly for ND filters) to extend exposure times.  On occasion, I will use the RealitySoSubtle 6×17 but I am envious of the fantastic work which John Farnan manages to pull from this camera! I am yet to “get my eye in”.

Film stock is almost exclusively Ilford Delta 100.  I sometimes use Ilford Pan F and for colour work, Kodak Portra 160. But for exposure latitude and fine grain, I find Delta 100 to be the most suitable for my landscape needs.  I process all my film at home using either Kodak or Ilford “soups” and use a Canon Pro-1000 printer to print the finished work.  Controlling the workflow from image making to final print gives great satisfaction.

Thanks Dave!

Website: www.filmpinholephotography.com
Intragram: @filmpinholephotography
Instagram: @dobphoto

Spotlight on Dutch pinholer Danny Kalkhoven – I’ve known Danny online since 2006 when we used to frequent the F295 Lensless Imaging forums.

(click images for larger view)

Hi Danny, can you tell us why you shoot pinhole? 

Back in 2002 I attended a photography course, the teacher spotted my G.A.S. and challenged me to try pinhole to make me concentrate on content rather than technical stuff. I didn’t know what pinhole photography was and had to look it up. I built my first pinhole camera out of an old Agfa Silette 6X6.

That approach to photography immediately suited me and my interest in “what to photograph”: mundane everyday thing and situations viewed a bit different than normal…or something like that. Anyway, from that moment on I was hooked on pinhole. In a year or two all my lens cameras were traded in for pinhole cameras, books, lots of film supply etc. I never looked back, although I regret a bit that I even sold my Hasselblad 500C (it was bought secondhand). G.A.S. is not completely cured, I have about 10-15 pinhole cameras in all formats including anamorph…but at least it is a lot cheaper than lens gear. Somehow the unique properties of pinhole fits me like a glove. The ultrawide angle, the endless depth of field and especially the long exposures and the unpredictability of the process attract and amaze me time and time again. In my old “lens days” I hated to lose control but with pinhole I welcome it. I think the English word is ‘serendipity’.

What do you like most about pinhole, do you think it is suitable for all kinds of photography?

After twenty years of pinhole photography I am still not sure if the pinhole effect should be very prominent in the image shouting out to the viewer, or a subtle effect that gives a mysterious extra to the image. Sometimes I like it when the movement of people or water immediately show “it’s pinhole!”, but not always.

Pinhole can be used for every type of photography, from landscape to portraits. But it always challenges the photographer to really think about what you want to show. And in way, for me, that is why pinhole has brought me so much: concentrate on content, on the story you want to tell.
In the beginning I used pinhole mostly on objects and still life situations, but in recent years more and more people come into the pictures. And often I pose myself, as a partially transparent ghost in the picture. I know that when you are static for about half of the exposure, you will become a ghost. 

Which formats do you use, and what is your workflow?

My favorite cameras are the RSS66 with two pinholes, a 6X12 camera from a long gone brand, and the anamorphic cameras. Occasionally I use the RSS35R (it works great with that clicker) and sometimes a 6X9 camera made out of driftwood. I also have a RSS 617 with curved plane, but that isn’t used much, although it gives great panoramic images. Maybe I should take it out more?

Almost always I use color film and have that developed by the lab. Then I scan the negatives with my Epson V600, and do a little processing in Photoshop Elements. Mostly things like “auto color correction” and “auto levels”. I’m not that great with Photoshop, in my day job I am working with computers and software and processes a lot, so I want to keep it as simple as possible.

How do your family react to your pinhole photography? in both the making/taking and
them seeing the results.

“Dad has a hobby, but it’s not dangerous”. That is the attitude in the family HaHaHa. But they can appreciate what I’m doing and they show up when I have an exhibition. Two images have made it to the walls of our living room, printed on acrylic glass. That really makes the images stand out. One is a square RSS66 shot of people entering a attraction at a pier and the other is an anamorphic image of a library hall.

Why did you choose the RealitySoSubtle cameras? What do you like about them and
what would you like to see improved?
My first RSS camera was the 617. Beast of a machine but I don’t use it enough. After my first home made 6X6 camera became a bit shaky at the tripod connection I needed a new go-to 6X6 camera.
I ordered the RSS66 camera. That camera has not let me down. It is compact and sturdy, the film transport is good, and the extra pinhole is very convenient. I love the wide-wide-wide angle. Images come out fine, so nothing left to wish for…the only thing is the shutter, I sometimes get fiddly with opening/closing it with short exposure times (1-3 seconds). Nowadays I simply open the shutter with my finger in front, then position the camera, and use
my finger as the shutter. Works fine!

Thanks Danny!

His website is www.lensloos.nl and his instagram is @danny59utrecht