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Pinhole photography uses the most basic concepts of a camera. A lightproof box, an aperture, and light-sensitive material. Light is passed through the pinhole to project an inverted image onto the paper or film on the opposite end of the camera.

With Pinhole Photography the distance between the pinhole and film determines the angle of view. The more shallow the depth, the wider the angle. Most pinholes are wide angle, this is useful as a longer focal length would make it harder to frame your image. The wide angle makes it much easier to frame your image, as much more of the scene is included.

As a beginner, using pinhole can be an exciting introduction to analogue photography as it reduces it to it's most basic elements. There is a mysterious aspect to pinhole photography. Due to the lack of viewfinder, you don't know exactly what you are going to capture. Part of the enjoyment can be that there is an element of the unknown until you see the developed exposure.

Pinhole photography, although simple, is something that requires some thought. Time has to be taken to think about exposures; the movement in the scene; what is static or moving; what will the blur look like? It can be a calming, meditative process. A perfect way to slow down the process of capturing an image, focusing only on the most important steps.

Long Exposures And New Perspectives

Because your pinhole apertures need to be small you will always be working with long exposures, even on bright days. As you are going slow anyway, you can use a low ISO film to get the best detail possible. You won't gain much with a faster speed film except grain. So a slower film will give you a sharper, cleaner image.

You will need a tripod to get sharp images with your pinhole. Ideally, you should also use a cable release. Some of the more advanced pinhole cameras will enable this option. It will help you get the best out of the camera. The more you use your camera the more you will be able to gauge exposure times and results.

If you're just starting out with pinhole photography, or making your own camera and aren't using a tripod you definitely want a solid surface for the camera to sit on. The ground is a good place to start, plus you'll get some interesting perspectives.

Pinhole Cameras

Pinhole cameras are so simple you can make one yourself. All you need is a cardboard box. It will work best if you paint the inside black. This will stop light reflecting inside the camera. A needle can make the pinhole itself and you can tape a flap of card over the hole for your shutter. Find a light-tight space, or changing bag, to tape some film or paper inside the camera and you're ready to go!

Obviously, that makes a very basic pinhole camera. On the other hand, you can pick up a precision made, wooden pinhole. Cameras made by Zero Image have specially cut pinholes for sharper images and accurate exposures. Zero Image cameras can accept 35mm and 120 films, even 4×5 sheet film. Small and light, they are easy to shoot and carry when travelling. You can load them in daylight, which makes them much easier to use. Plus an exposure calculator on the back, alongside a light reading, will help you work out the exact exposure needed.

If you want to try out pinhole photography for yourself have a look at our selection of Pinhole Cameras. Alternatively, for a more simple first step into pinhole photography, have a look at the Solarcan. Create an image over a longer period of time, and capture the path of the sun.

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Pinhole photography uses the most basic concepts of a camera. Light is passed through the pinhole to project an inverted image onto paper or film.

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[An earlier version of this article was available at photo.net in the USA 1996-2016.
An abridged Russian version: Камера-обскура.
The Russian version may also be downloaded inpdf format.
The history section has been translated into Spanish:
Fotografía estenopeica
The history section, slightly abridged,
has also been translated into Portuguese:
Stenoptik - A Optica Estenopéica
The article is now being translated into Polish:
Fotografia otworkowa.] Contents © Jon Grepstad
Introduction

Pinhole photography is lensless photography. A tiny hole replaces the
lens. Light passes through the hole; an image is formed in the camera.

Pinhole cameras are small or large, improvised or designed with great
care. Cameras have been made of sea shells, many have been made of oatmeal
boxes, coke cans or cookie containers, at least one has been made of a
discarded refrigerator. Cameras have been cast in plaster like a face
mask, constructed from beautiful hardwoods, built of metal with bellows
and a range of multiple pinholes. Station wagons have been used as pinhole
cameras - and rooms in large buildings. Basically a pinhole camera is a
box, with a tiny hole at one end and film or photographic paper at the
other.

Pinhole cameras are used for fun, for art and for science.

Characteristics

Pinhole images are softer - less sharp - than pictures made with a
lens. The images have nearly infinite depth of field. Wide angle images
remain absolutely rectilinear.

Exposures are long, ranging from half a second to several hours. Images
are exposed on film or paper - negative or positive; black and white, or
color.

Pinhole optics, by the way, are not only used in photography. There is
one animal in nature which uses a pinhole for seeing - the mollusk Nautilus.
Each eye has an accommodating aperture - the aperture can enlarge or
shrink. In this drawing, originally taken from a book published by Arthur Willey in 1900, the eye is the oval opening to the upper right.
Early Observations and
Experiments
History

The basic optical principles of the pinhole are commented on in Chinese texts from the fifth century BC. Chinese writers had discovered by experiments that light travels in straight lines. The philosopher Mo Ti (Mo Tzu, Lat. Micius) was the first - to our knowledge - to record the formation of an inverted image with a pinhole or screen. Mo Ti was aware that objects reflect light in all directions, and that rays from the top of an object, when passing through a hole, will produce the lower part of an image (Hammond 1981:1). According to Hammond, there is no further reference to the camera obscura in Chinese texts until the ninth century AD, when Tuan Chheng Shih refers to an image in a pagoda. Shen Kua later corrected his explanation of the image. Yu Chao-Lung in the tenth century used model pagodas to make pinhole images on a screen. However, no geometric theory on image formation resulted from these experiments and observations (Hammond 1981:2).

In the western hemisphere Aristotle (fourth century BC) comments on
pinhole image formation in his work Problems. In Book XV, 6, he
asks: "Why is it that when the sun passes through quadri-laterals, as for
instance in wickerwork, it does not produce a figure rectangular in shape
but circular? [...]" In Book XV, 11, he asks further: "Why is it that an
eclipse of the sun, if one looks at it through a sieve or through leaves,
such as a plane-tree or other broadleaved tree, or if one joins the
fingers of one hand over the fingers of the other, the rays are
crescent-shaped where they reach the earth? Is it for the same reason as
that when light shines through a rectangular peep-hole, it appears
circular in the form of a cone? [...]" (Aristotle 1936:333,341). Aristotle
found no satisfactory explanation to his observation; the problem remained
unresolved until the 16th century (Hammond 1981:5).

A photo of the phenomenon observed by Aristotle more than two thousand years ago:

The Arabian physicist and mathematician Ibn al-Haytham, also known as
Alhazen, experimented with image formation in the tenth century AD. He arranged three candles in a row and put a screen with a small hole between the
candles and the wall. He noted that images were formed only by means of
small holes and that the candle to the right made an image to the left on
the wall. From his observations he deduced the linearity of light.
(Hammond 1981:5).
The Renaissance and Post-Renaissance
In the following centuries the pinhole technique was used by optical
scientists in various experiments to study sunlight projected from a small
aperture.

In the Renaissance and later centuries the pinhole was mainly used for
scientific purposes in astronomy and, fitted with a lens, as a drawing aid
for artists and amateur painters.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) describes pinhole image formation in his Codex
Atlanticus (Vinci, Leonardo, Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy, Recto A
of Folio 337), and Manuscript D (Manuscript D, Vinci, Leonardo,
Institut de France, Paris, Folio 8). These descriptions, however, would
remain unknown until Venturi deciphered and published them in 1797. The
following translation from the Codex Atlanticus, in German, is by Eder
(1905:27): "Wenn die Fassade eines Gebäudes, oder ein Platz, oder eine
Landschaft von der Sonne beleuchtet wird and man bringt auf der
gegenüberliegenden Seite in der Wand einer nicht von der Sonne getroffenen
Wohnung ein kleines Löchlein an, so werden alle erleuchteten Gegenstände
ihr Bild durch diese Öffnung senden und werden umgekehrt erscheinen".[1] According to Kim H. Veltman there are no less than 270 diagrams of camera obscuras in Leonardo's notebooks.

In 1475 the Renaissance mathematician and astronomer Paolo Toscanelli placed a bronze ring with an aperture in a window in the Cathedral of Florence, still in use today. On sunny days a solar image is projected through the hole onto the cathedral's floor. At noon, the solar image bisects a "noon-mark" on the floor. The image and noon-mark were used for telling time (Renner 1995:6).

In 1580 papal astronomers used a pinhole and a similar noon-mark in the
Vatican Observatory in Rome to prove to Pope Gregory XIII that the spring
equinox fell incorrectly on 11 March rather than on 21 March. Two years
later, after careful consideration, Pope Gregory XIII corrected the Julian
calendar by 10 days, thus creating the Gregorian calendar (Renner 1995:7).

Giovanni Battista della Porta (1538-1615), a scientist from Naples, was
long regarded as the inventor of the camera obscura because of his
description of the pinhole (lensless) camera obscura in the first edition
of hisMagia naturalis (1558). His description has received much publicity, as
did his camera obscura shows, but he was by no means the inventor.

The first published picture of a pinhole camera obscura is apparently a drawing in Gemma Frisius' De Radio Astronomica et Geometrica (1545). Gemma Frisius, an astronomer, had used the pinhole in his darkened room to study the solar eclipse of 1544. The very term camera obscura ("dark room") was coined by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). At his time, the term had come to mean a room, tent or box with a lens aperture used by artists to draw a landscape. The lens made the image brighter and focused at a certain distance. (Adding a bi-convex lens to the camera obscura had been suggested by Girolamo Cardano in De subtilitate libri around 1550.) Thus this type of camera differed from the pinhole camera obscura used by Frisius in 1544. In the 1620s Johannes Kepler invented a portable camera obscura. Camera obscuras as drawing aids were soon found in many shapes and sizes. They were used by both artists and amateur painters.

During the 19th century several large scale camera obscuras were built
as places of education and entertainment. The meniscus lens, superior to
the bi-convex lens, improved the quality of the the projected images.
Some buildings or towers with camera obscuras from this period remain today: The Camera Obscura at the Royal Mile, Edinburgh built in the 1850s; the 1836 camera obscura at Dumfries, Scotland; the Clifton Observatory at Bristol, England from 1828; the camera on the Mount Oybin in Germany, wich dates back to 1852, and others. The camera obscura at Eger, Hungary, was opened around 1780 and is one of the oldest cameras obscuras that can still be visited in Europe. It got new optics in the 1850s and the 1960s, but the original mirror is still in use.
The First Pinhole Photographs
Quite a few room-sized camera obscuras have been built in the 20th century, for instance, the Eastbourne Pier camera obscura in East Sussex, Britain, which dates back to 1901; the Kirriemuir Camera Obscura, Scotland, built in 1929; the Giant Camera at Cliff House, San Francisco, constructed in 1948-49; the camera obscura at Santa Monica, California, established in 1955, with a mechanism from around 1900; the Torre Tavira camera obscura in Cádiz, Spain, which opened in 1994; the camera obscura at Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon, inaugurated in 1998; the camera obscura at Plaza Vieja in Havana, Cuba, finished about the same time. The camera obscura installed in 1992 in the Broich Watertower in Mühlheim an der Ruhr in Germany claims to be the largest walk-in camera obscura in the world, whereas the camera obscura in Perdika (Aegina island), Greece, installed in a cylindrical WWII gun emplacement in 2003, claims to be the only camera obscura that produces a 360° panorama. The panorama is split up in twelve individual images, upside down and reversed, on a circular, semi-transparent screen, hanging down from the ceiling. One of the most beautiful modern architecture camera obscuras may be the camera obscura at Trondheim, Norway, which was opened in December 2006.

Sir David Brewster, a Scottish scientist, was one of the first to make pinhole photographs, in the 1850s. He was also one of the first to use the word "pinhole" in this context, or "pin-hole" with a hyphen, which he used in his book The Stereoscope, published in 1856. However, in 2009 Sam Morton, an 18 year old Scottish student, discovered that the word "pin-hole" was used in a similar optical context as early as in 1764 by James Ferguson in his Lectures on select subjects in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, and optics. Joseph Petzval used the term "natural camera" in 1859, whereas Dehors and Deslandres, in the late 1880s, proposed the term "stenopaic camera" ( "sténopé-photographe").

A linguistic sidestep: In French today "sténopé" (from Greek " stenós", narrow, and "opē" hole) is used for the English "pinhole". The word "stenop" (стеноп) is also used in Russian, as are пинхoл камера ("pinhole kamera") and камера обскура ("kamera obskura"). Czech and Polish use "dírková komora" and "kamera otworkowa" respectively. In Italian a pinhole camera is often called "una macchina stenopeica" or "una fotocamera stenopeica", in Spanish "una cámara estenopéica". In German "Lochkamera" ("Loch" means 'hole') and "Camera obscura" are used. Dutch uses the words "gaatjescamera" ("gaatje" = 'perforation', 'puncture'), "speldenprikcamera" and "pinhole camera". The Scandinavian languages tend to use the English "pinhole" as a model - "hullkamera"/"holkamera"/"hålkamera",
though "camera obscura" is also found, and is the term preferred by myself in Norwegian. ("Camera obscura" may be somewhat misleading, however, since historically camera obscuras were equipped with a lens at an early stage of their development.) In Icelandic the word "opmyndavél" is used. Hungarian, a non-Indo-European language, calls a pinhole camera "lyukkamera"; Turkish, another non-Indo-European language, uses "İğne deliği kamera". Leonardo da Vinci, by the way, in his notebooks referred to the pinhole as the "spiraculo" (aperture, hole), a word related to Latin "spiraculum" (air-hole, opening, oulet) and "spiraglio" (chink, crack) in modern Italian. JG

Pictorialism and Popular Pinhole Photography
Sir William Crookes, John Spiller and William de Wiveleslie Abney, all
in England, were other early photographers to try the pinhole technique.
The oldest extant pinhole photographs were probably made by the English
archeologist Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) during his excavations in Egypt
in the 1880s. Two of Petrie's photographs are reproduced in Renner (1995:39,40). It should be noted that Petrie's camera had a simple lens in front of the pinhole.

By the late 1880s the Impressionist movement in painting exherted a
certain influence on photography. Different schools or tendencies
developed in photography. The "old school" believed in sharp focus and
good lenses; the "new school", the "pictorialists",
tried to achieve the atmospheric qualities of paintings. Some of the
pictorialists experimented with pinhole photography. In 1890, George
Davison's pinhole photograph An Old Farmstead (later called The Onion Field) won the first award at the Annual Exhibition of the
Photographic Society of London. The award was controversial and led to a
schism in the Photographic Society of London (soon to become the Royal
Photographic Society) which resulted in the formation of the well-known
pictorialist group, the "Linked Ring". George Davison's picture is reproduced in Renner (1995:42), and in several histories of photography, e.g. Michael Langford's The Story of Photography (Oxford: Focal Press 1992. p. 106), The Magic Image. The Genius of Photography, edited by Cecil Beaton and Gail Buckland (London: Pavilion Books Ltd. 1989. p. 79), Naomi Rosenblum's A World History of Photography (New York: Abbeville Press 1984, p. 310). and in A New History of Photography, edited by Michel Frizot (Köln: Könemann 1998. p. 298).

In 1892 the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg started experimenting with pinhole photography. About one hundred of Strindberg's photographs are preserved, of these three or four are pinhole images.

Pinhole photography became popular in the 1890s. Commercial pinhole
cameras were sold in Europe, the United States and in Japan. 4000 pinhole
cameras ("Photomnibuses") were sold in London alone in 1892. The cameras
seem to have had the same status as disposable cameras today - none of the
"Photomnibuses" have been preserved for posterity in camera collections.
Some years earlier, an American company had actually invented a disposable
pinhole camera, the "Ready Photographer", consisting of a dry glass plate,
a pinhole in tinfoil and a folding bellows. Another American company sold
" the Glen Pinhole Camera", which included six dry plates, chemicals,
trays, a print frame and ruby paper for a safelight. The very first commercial pinhole camera was designed by Dehors and Deslandres in France in 1887. Their camera had a rotating disc with six pinholes, three pairs of similar sizes. Pictures of these cameras are found in Renner (2008:59-60). In Italy, Luigi Sassi published a 135 page manual on pinhole photography in 1905, La fotografia senza obiettivo.
The Revival of Pinhole
Photography
Mass production of cameras and "new realism" in the 20th century soon
left little space for pinhole photography. By the 1930s the technique was
hardly remembered, or only used in teaching. Frederick W. Brehm, at what was
later to become the Rochester Institute of Technology, was possibly the
first college professor to stress the educational value of the pinhole
technique. He also designed the Kodak Pinhole Camera around 1930.

In the mid-1960s several artists, unaware of each other, began experimenting with the pinhole technique - Paolo Gioli in Italy, Gottfried Jäger in Germany, David Lebe, Franco Salmoiraghi, Wiley Sanderson and Eric Renner in the USA. Coincidentally, many of these artists were working with multiple pinholes. Wiley Sanderson was a professor of photography at the University of Georgia and taught pinhole photography from 1953 to 1988. During that period his students built 4356 pinhole cameras (Renner 1995:53).

Two scientists were also working with pinhole photography, Kenneth A. Connors in the USA and Maurice Pirenne in Great Britain. Connors did research on pinhole definition and resolution. His findings were printed in his self-published periodical Interest. Pirenne used the pinhole to study perspective in his book Optics, Painting and Photography (1970).

In 1971 The Time-Life Books published The Art of Photography in
the well-known Life Library of Photography and included one of Eric
Renner's panoramic pinhole images. The June 1975 issue of Popular
Photography published the article "Pinholes for the People", based on
Phil Simkin's month-long project with 15,000 hand-assembled and preloaded
pinhole cameras in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (People came into the
museum, picked up a camera, made an exposure. The images, developed in a
public darkroom in the museum, were continually displayed in the museum.)

In the 1970s pinhole photography gained increasing popularity. Multiple
pinholes became rare. Many pinhole photographers experimented with
alternative processes. A number of articles and some books were published,
among them Jim Shull's The Hole Thing: A Manual of Pinhole
Photography. Stan Page of Utah, a leading historian of pinhole
photography, collected 450 articles on pinhole photography published after
1850. In the USA, however, critics tended to ignore pinhole photography in
art, whereas Paolo Gioli and Dominique Stroobant received more attention
in Europe. In Japan Nobuo Yamanaki started making pinhole camera obscuras
in the early 1970s. Although pinhole photography gained popularity, few of
the artists were aware of the others' images. A diversity of approaches
and cameras developed.

In 1985 Lauren Smith published The Visionary Pinhole, the first
broad documentation of the diversity of pinhole photography. The first
national exhibition of pinhole photography in the USA was organised by
Willie Anne Wright, at the The Institute of Contemporary Art of the Virginia Museum in 1982. In 1988 the first international exhibition, "Through a Pinhole Darkly", was organised by the Fine Arts Museum of Long Island. Cameras and images from forty-five artists were exhibited. A second international exhibition was organised in Spain the same year, at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Seville, comprising the work of nine photographers. A third international exhibition followed at the Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe in New Mexico, also in 1988. According to Renner (1995:94), James Hugunin's essay "Notes Toward a Stenopaesthetic", in the catalogue of the Santa Fe exhibition, represents the most thorough analysis of pinhole photography in the 1980s. Eric Renner's book
Pinhole Photography - Rediscovering a Historic Technique, published in 1995 (fourth edition 2008), mentions a large number of pinhole artists active in the 1980s and has samples of their work.

According to Renner (1995:90) at least six commercial pinhole cameras
were manufactured in the 1980s. In December 2003, according to my own research, there were at least 48 cameras on the market, from 18 manufacturers in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia.

The Pinhole Resource, an international information center and archive
for pinhole photography, was founded by Eric Renner in 1984. The first
issue of the Pinhole Journal appeared in December 1985. The journal ended publication after 22 years with the December, 2006 issue. Work by many pinhole artists from a number of countries had been published.

With the advent of the World Wide Web pinhole photography went online.
One of the first artists to publish his work on the Internet was Harlan
Wallach. By January 1995 Richard Vallon of Louisiana had established
the Pinhole Resource on the net.

In June 2004 the f295 discussion forum was established with a handful of members. By October 2008 the forum had nearly 2000 participants and over 1GB of stored, fully searchable, online information which included photographs, discussions, detailed plans and diagrams for camera building or modifying, and information on historic processes. The website, which was run by Tom Persinger, was discontinued in December 2015.

The first Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (WPPD) was held on 29 April 2001. 291 participants from 24 countries contributed images. On the second WPPD in April 2002 903 images from as many different pinhole photographers from 35 countries were uploaded to the online gallery. On the third WPPD in 2003 the corresponding figures were 1082 images from 43 countries. In 2007 a total 2943 photographs from 68 countries were uploaded to the WPPD website. Two years later, in 2009, pinhole photographers from 69 countries uploaded 3205 images.

In 2009 Brian J. Krummel published his book The Pinhole camera. A Practical
Guide to Making Pinhole Cameras and Images. It is one of the best English language books on the subject, the authoritative reference work on pinhole photography being, of course, Eric Renner's book.

In 2012 the Pinhole Resource Collection - 100 books, 56 cameras and 6000 photographs - was donated to the Palace of Governors Photo Archives at the New Mexico History Museum. The Photo Archives has already digitized hundreds of the images, which can be searched at http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm/search/collection/pinhole. An exhibition celebrating pinhole photography, Poetics of Light, was opened at the museum in June 2014.
Pinhole Photography in Science
The last years several pinhole photography groups have been established on Facebook.

In the late Middle Ages the pinhole was used to study the projection of
light through a small aperture. In the 16th century and later it was used
in astronomy to study solar eclipses. In the 1940s pinhole cameras found
their way into nuclear physics. It was discovered that pinhole cameras
could be used to photograph high-energy X-rays and gamma rays. Pinhole
cameras were deployed in space craft by the end of the 1950s and beginning
of the 60s to photograph X-rays and gamma rays from the sun. The first
soft X-ray pinhole of the sun was made on 19 April 1960. The photograph is
reproduced in Renner (2008:31). In the 1970s scatter-hole X-ray pinhole
cameras were made. Today's pinhole cameras on space vehicles use multiple
pinhole optics. The last 20 years the pinhole has also been used widely by
nuclear physicists to photograph high energy in laser plasma (Renner
1995:21).

A few links to the use of pinhole cameras in science:

Other Uses of the Pinhole
Pinholes are used in combination with a lens for photographing miniature models, e.g. model trains or architectural models. The pinhole increases the depth of field radically. Pinhole projectors are used for viewing solar eclipses. An image of the eclipsed sun is projected on a piece of cardboard. You can also make a pinhole projector with your hands. Do not ever look directly at the Sun! Some photographers experiment with pinhole enlargers with one pinhole or multiple. And there are pinhole glasses and pinhole eye occluders for vision testing. You may easily make a pinhole eye occluder yourself.

Cameras

Basically a pinhole camera is a light-tight box with a tiny hole in one end and film or photographic paper in the other.

Several commercial cameras are available - e.g. the 4 x 5 Rigby camera, the 4 x 5 and 8 x 10 Leonardo Cameras, the the 4 x 5 and 8 x 10 Lenseless cameras, the Zero Image pinhole cameras (various formats), the Omniscope Anamorph, the Pinhole Blender, the Merlin cameras, and others. Most pinhole photographers, however, make their cameras themselves. The construction is simple. Commercial cameras in hardwood or metal tend to be expensive - some are very expensive - and usually they do not produce better images than a homebrew camera.

Pinhole cameras may differ with regard to (a) focal length, (b) pinhole diameter, (c) number of pinholes, (d) image format, (e) flat or curved film plane, (f) type of light-sensitive material, and (g) other characteristics.

(a) Strictly speaking pinhole cameras have no focal length. They
have infinite depth of field. But for practical reasons the term "focal
length" is used here to refer to the distance between the pinhole and the
film or paper. Pinhole cameras may have short, normal or long "focal
lengths"; they may be anything from ultra wide-angle cameras to long
telephoto cameras. It should be noted that as the focal length increases,
the apertures decreases. In other words, exposure times get longer (see
Formulas below). (The formula for calculating the f-stop is f = v/d, where
f = aperture, v = distance from pinhole to film or paper, and d = pinhole
diameter.) Pinhole cameras produce fascinating wide-angle and ultra-wide
angle images. Unlike lens photographs, ultra wide-angle images remain
rectilinear. Straight lines are not curved at the periphery of the image.
Beginners should start by making a wide-angle camera.

(b) For any focal length there is an optimal pinhole diameter
for image sharpness. A number of formulas and charts have been produced.
Generally a smaller pinhole will produce a sharper image than a larger
one. If the pinhole gets too small, the image becomes less sharp because
of diffraction. See Formulas below.

(c) Pinhole cameras may have one pinhole or several. Multiple
pinhole cameras produce overlapping images or, with certain designs,
panoramic images. Beautiful images made with a multiple pinhole camera are
found in Knuchel (1991: cover, p. 35). The beginner should start with a
camera with a single pinhole. My own experience is from single pinhole
photography exclusively. Some advanced pinhole photographers sometimes use
a slit instead of a pinhole. For a beautiful picture made with a single
slit camera, see Knuchel (1991:53).

(d) Pinhole cameras have widely differing image formats. Cameras
are made from match boxes, 35 mm film canisters, baking soda containers,
oatmeal boxes, cookie tins, bags or suitcases, big wooden cases etc. Vans
or station wagons have been used as pinhole cameras, and rooms in large
buildings.

Some cameras were made to take a 126 film cartridge, a format which was
discontinued by Kodak in December 1999. There are pinhole photographers who use 35 mm film (e.g. by removing the lens of a 35 mm SRL, taping or gluing a pinhole plate to a lenscap, and replacing the lens with the modified lenscap). A cheap 120 twin-lens reflex camera (e.g. a Russian-made Lubitel), an old 120 (non-collectible!) folding
camera, a 120 box or a Polaroid camera may fairly easily be turned into a
pinhole camera. Some pinhole photographers use a large format camera, 4 x
5 in., 5 x 7 in. or 8 x 10 in., and replace the ordinary lensboard with a
lensboard with a pinhole plate. Some make a lensboard with a pinhole
turret, i.e. a disc with a circular configuration of pinholes in various
sizes.

In my view, best results are achieved with medium or large format film
or with photographic paper in similar sizes or larger. In many areas 120
roll film is more easily available than sheet film.

(e) A pinhole camera may have a flat or curved film or image
plane. If the film plane is flat, there will be some light fall-off or
vignetting at the corners in a wide-angle or ultra wide-angle pinhole
camera. The image may be overexposed at the center and underexposed at the
corners. This vignetting, however, may be exploited consciously as an
esthetic effect. If one wants to avoid the light fall-off, the film plane
should be curved so that the film at any point is roughly at the same
distance from the pinhole. A pinhole camera may be made from a round
("cookie") container cut in two to form a semi-circular box.
Film or paper is taped to the circular wall of the box. Many pinhole
photographers also make can cameras with curved film planes. In my own pinhole photography I use flat film planes.

With flat film planes a pinhole has a usable circular image of approx.
125 degrees. The image diameter is about 3 1/2 times of any focal length.
The image will fade towards the edges because of the increasing focal
distance. With curved film planes a pinhole camera may have a larger
circle of coverage (approximately 160 degrees).

Some photographers experiment with complex film planes. Examples are found in Knuchel 1991, which is an interesting source for studying the relationship between image and camera. The film plane, flat or curved, may be radically slanted or angled in relation to the pinhole (anamorphic pinhole cameras). Light falloff will be severe, and the negatives may require burning and dodging in the darkroom or in the digital postprocessing. A simple anamorphic camera is a tube with a pinhole at the end. The Omniscope Anamorph Camera, to my knowledge the only commercially available anamorphic camera, produces a 360 degree anamorph on 120 roll film.

(f) Pinhole cameras may take film or photographic paper. Black
and white film and color film for prints have more exposure latitude than
chrome film. XP2 for black and white (available in 35 mm, 120 format and
4 x 5 in.) has extraordinarily wide exposure latitude and may be exposed
as anything between ISO 50 and 800. The latitude makes it ideal for
pinhole photography. Photographic paper for black and white has a low ISO
rating. In my own pinhole photography I have used mainly Fujichrome 50 and
Fujichrome Velvia, XP2 and Ilford Multigrade RC. Some photographers
recommend mat-surfaced RC paper for curved image planes (paper curved in
a can camera) to avoid a reflected fogged strip. Glossy paper
may be used in cameras with flat image planes, where light will not be
reflected. Some photographers use Ilfochrome paper with great success. An
85B filter (sometimes in combination with an 81 or 82 series filter) may
be used to change tungsten light to daylight. Because of long exposures
reciprocity failure will often have to be taken into account when
calculating exposure both for film and paper.

(g) Pinhole cameras may also differ with regard to other
characteristics.

Many homebrew cameras have only a plastic flap or a piece of cardboard
for "shutter". This is my own choice for most of my cameras.
Hardwood cameras may have a simple moveable shutter. With short exposure
times it is important that the shutter opens easily without vibrations.

Some photographers make a viewing frame, e.g. by cutting a
window the same size as the pinhole image in a piece of cardboard. A wire
frame attached to the camera is another solution. The viewing frame is
held at the same distance from the eye as the distance between the pinhole
and the film in the camera. Pinhole photographers who use a large format
camera sometimes use a larger viewing pinhole when composing the
image. In my own pinhole photography I never use viewing frames. I tend to
work for longer periods with the same camera and find I get a pretty good
feeling of the image field.

Some pinhole cameras are beautiful objects in themselves. The
Swiss pinhole photographers Peter Olpe has made cameras from cardboard in
the shape of small castles and buildings (Olpe 1992). The cameras are
themselves objects of art and have been exhibited as such.

I suggest the beginner starts by making a can camera or a
cardboard camera.
The Pinhole
Making a Pinhole Camera

The most important part of a pinhole camera is the pinhole itself.
Precision made pinholes may be bought. You will find a list of sources for
pinhole sheets here. For most purposes, however, there is no reason why you should not make the pinhole yourself.

The hole is made in a thin piece of metal, brass shim (available in
some car supply stores) or metal from the lid of small box or glass
container (bought at a supermarket ). Some use aluminium foil from a
disposable baking pan. Ordinary aluminium foil is too thin. My own
experience is with brass shim and thin metal from container lids.

If the metal is taken from a container lid, it should be sanded
carefully with ultra-fine emery paper (e.g. # 600) to remove any paint or
varnish and to make it thinner. The hole is made with a needle. The edge
of the hole should be sharp. The optimal diameter depends on the focal
length of the camera, i.e. the distance from the pinhole to the film or
photographic paper. Some formulas and charts are reproduced below. In
general: the smaller the hole, the sharper the image. If the hole is too
small, however, the image gets less sharp because of diffraction effects
(light is bent around the edge of the pinhole).
Can Cameras
Place the piece of metal on top of some hard cardboard. Carefully poke
a hole with a needle taking care that the hole is as round as possible.
The needle may be put through a cork to make it easier to handle. Or you
may put masking tape on the head of the needle. Hold the needle steadily
in a 90 degree angle to the surface. Turn the piece of metal and sand the
back side carefully with fine-grained emery paper to remove the burr or
debris where the needle point has penetrated. (The edges of the pinhole
should be sharp). Then place the metal on the cardboard back side up and
cautiously spin the needle in the hole to make sure the hole is round. The
hole can be checked with a magnifier or an enlarger. You can also use an
enlarger or slide projector to check the diameter of the pinhole. Or you may
use a scanner, but be careful not to scratch the glass.

Pinhole cameras can be made of many kinds of light-tight containers. A cylindrical cardboard container, e.g. an oatmeal box or a herb tea container, is easily converted into a pinhole camera for pieces of 120 roll film or photographic paper.

1. Start by making a cardboard film holder. The film holder is made of
two pieces of cardboard which fit the internal dimensions of the
cylindrical box (Sketch). One piece (A) serves as the back of the film holder. The other piece is cut in two, one small piece (B) which is glued to A and a larger piece (C) with a cut-out window (D) for the film or paper. Use some good tape (electrical tape or other) to attach piece C to B. The film holder will
be loaded in a darkroom by placing a piece of 120 roll film or
photographic paper between A and C.

2. The film holder fits into a groove on either side of the box. The
groove is made by gluing cardboard strips to the insides of the box (Sketch). You may make a supporting back (E) for the film holder by gluing a piece of cardboard in the groove. This will make it easier to slide the loaded filmholder into the groove.

3. Spray the insides of the box (including the lid), and the outsides
of the cardboard film holder, with flat black spray paint. Make sure the
lid is not translucent. If necessary glue some black plastic lining or
cardboard to the lid to make it opaque.

4. Make a hole in the front of the box. The "optical axis" should
extend to the center of the window in the film holder - provided you are
not looking for special off-center effects.

5. Then make the pinhole plate. See above.

6. Tape the pinhole plate to the front of the cylindrical box.

7. Make a simple shutter by taping a flap of black plastic over the pinhole, e.g. plastic from a photographic paper package. The flap may be held in place by tape and a rubber string. When you take a picture you remove the string, open the flap for the necessary exposure and close it.

8. If you want a tripod mount or socket for your camera, use some
araldite to glue a 1/4″ or 3/8″ nut to the bottom of the box.

9. Since this camera has to be loaded in the darkroom, it will be
practical to make several cameras. The cameras are easily carried in a
bag.

10. If you want a curved film plane for your camera, the cardboard film holder is left out. Film or paper is taped to the inside of the camera.

4 x 5 in. Film Holder Cameras
A polaroid picture of some "oatmeal box" pinhole cameras
which I made in 1990, my first pinhole cameras, and a self-portrait made with one
of the cameras on Ilford Multigrade III RC paper. Some descriptions or pictures of "oatmeal box" or "cookie tin" cameras on the net:

Some commercial cameras are manufactured for 4 x 5 in. or 8 x 10 in.
sheet film. In my view, these cameras tend to be somewhat overpriced.

Making a camera yourself is easy. The camera can be made of wood or
cardboard. I build my own cameras from hardwood, mainly because I like
woodworking and enjoy making beautiful objects in wood. Plywood or other
materials may be used as well and require less effort. Cardboard is
probably the easiest material to work with.

A cardboard camera may be made from scratch from sheets of
cardboard cut to the right dimensions and assembled to form a box which
will take a 4 x 5 in. film holder. It may also be made from an already
existing cardboard box. The basic component - apart from the pinhole plate
- is the film holder. The back of the camera is designed to accommodate a
standard film holder. The inserted film holder may be held in place by a
rubber string. Make sure the camera back is light-tight. Near the top the
film holder has a locating ridge which is to fit in a groove in the camera
back. The groove may be made by gluing strips of cardboard to the back.
Some simple sketches of a 4 x 5 inch film holder camera made of cardboard:

I usually use 6 x 30 mm oak strip (1/4″ x 1 1/4″) as the basic material
for wooden cameras for 4 x 5 in. film holders. The strips are glued
together to form 6 mm sheets. The sheets are sanded carefully, cut to the
right measurements and glued together to form a box with a simple spring
back for the film holder. The following is a general description of the
construction of a wooden 4 x 5 in. camera:

1. Get a 4 x 5 in. film holder.

2. Make a box of wood (Sketch 1). The internal width should be about 20
mm wider than the film holder. The bottom piece (A) and the side pieces
(B) should be about 40 mm longer than the top piece (C). Sand the wood
carefully before assembling the pieces.

3. Square moulding is glued to the internal angles in the camera to
make the construction stronger. Sketch x.

4. The back panel (D) is made of plywood. A window (E) is cut in the
back panel, the same size as the film holder's window (dimensions
...).

5. A groove (F) is made in the back piece for the film holder's
locating ridge.

6. Two strips of wood (G), approximately 6 mm thick, are glued to the
back panel, one on the the left side, the other on the right side of the
film holder.

7. Two leaf springs (H) are made of a flexible sink drain (available at
a reasonable price in some hardware stores).

8. Each leaf spring is kept in place by a small piece of wood (I)
screwed on to the side pieces.

9. A hole (J) is made for the pinhole in the front panel.

10. The pinhole plate (P) is attached to the inside of the front panel.
A piece of wood (K) with a hole covers the pinhole plate; the piece of
wood is screwed on to the front piece from the inside.

11. A pressure panel (L) for the film holder is made of wood.

12. Two strips of 1 1/2 or 2 mm brass strip (M), to go under the leaf
springs, are screwed on to the pressure panel.

13. A handle (N) may be attached to the side panel of the camera.

A piece of cardboard is used for shutter, or a moveable shutter is
added (O). For short exposures a cardboard is most practical as removing
the cardboard creates no vibrations.

The same design may be used for a 5 x 7 in. camera or an 8 x 10 in. camera. For an 8 x 10 in. camera 8-10 mm board or plywood may be used as the basic material.
Box Cameras for Photographic Paper
Polaroid pictures of some of my hardwood cameras for sheet film
holders:

A box camera for photographic paper can be made of a light-tight
cardboard box, from sheets of cardboard or from wood. Peter Olpe (1993)
has plans for a nicely constructed cardboard camera.

I usually use wood for box cameras for photographic paper. Most of my
cameras are constructed for the format 18 x 24 cm (approx. 8 x 10 in.).
The focal lengths differ but all are wide-angle cameras. My preferred 18 x
24 cm camera has a focal length of 87 mm. My " Oslo Revisited " photographs were made with this camera.

Although it is easy to make a simple moveable shutter for these cameras
most of the cameras have just piece of cardboard which is taped to the
camera and opened or removed during exposure. For some of my box cameras I
have made a reducing back for 4 x 5 in. sheet film. Sketch of wooden camera:
Camera for 120 Roll Film
Polaroid pictures of some of my cameras for photographic paper or sheet film:

Cameras for photographic paper have to be loaded in the dark or under a
safelight. They usually take only one sheet of paper at a time. This
somewhat laborious process makes photography slow. The slowness may be an
advantage - the photographer tends to plan his images carefully. But if
you want to take more than one picture you will have to bring several
cameras. Sheet film cameras and cameras for 120 roll film are practical
for photographic tours.

Some pinhole photographers modify an existing 120 roll film camera by
removing the lens and replacing it with a pinhole plate. Others make their
own cameras. Peter Olpe (1993) has plans for a cardboard camera for 120
roll film. The text is in German.
Shutters for Pinhole Cameras
In 1991 I constructed a 120 roll film camera made of hardwood. I used
oak bought at a local lumber yard. The camera has a flat film plane. The
negative format is approximately 60 x 70 mm, and the focal length 45 mm. I
usually use the camera for XP2 black and white film or Fujichrome Velvia. My "Pinhole Photographs 1997-98" were made with this camera.

I usually use a piece of opaque plastic or a piece of cardboard, attached to the camera with tape, for a shutter. It may not be a very elegant solution, but it is very practical. More elaborate shutters can be made. The essential thing is that the shutter is lightproof when closed and that the camera is not stirred when the shutter is opened and the exposure is made.
Pinhole Body Caps
Pinhole camera shutters may be divided into different categories: (1) flap/tape/piece of cardboard;
(2) sliding shutters made of cardboard, wood or metal; (3) swinging shutters made of the same materials;
(4) cable release shutters (slide or swing); (5) magnet shutters, and others. If you are modifying a TLR or another roll film camera, you may be able to use the original shutter.

A 35 mm or medium format SLR may be equipped with a pinhole body cap.
You may make the body cap yourself or buy a manufactured pinhole body cap.
There are several on the market, also for some rangefinder cameras.
Some pinhole body caps are dustproof, which is particularly important for digital SLRs.
These body caps have a film base pinhole - the pinhole is not a physical
hole but a perfectly round clear tiny dot on opaque black film. Because it is
not a physical hole no dust can get into the camera. But care has to be taken
to avoid dust when you change from lens to body cap. If you modify a body cap yourself, you may make the pinhole dustproof by gluing a microscope slide "cover plate" over the hole.
More Cameras
My pinhole photos from Rome in 2007 were made with a commercial pinhole body cap on a film based SLR. It was the first time I used 35 mm film for pinhole photography. It made me realize that 35 mm pinhole negatives may be enlarged to a considerable extent and still yield good prints. The quality of the pinhole bodycap was excellent.
Various Types 35 mm Pinhole Cameras Medium Format Pinhole Cameras Large Format Pinhole Cameras Panoramic Pinhole Cameras Multiple Pinhole and Anamorphic Cameras Ultra Large Pinhole Cameras Van Cameras Camera Obscuras with a Lens Camera Becomes Image: Cameras Made of Photographic Paper or Other Light Sensitized Material Other Pinhole Cameras Digital Pinhole Videos on Camera Construction
Links to descriptions and photographs of various types of cameras:

After this, rather long, list of pinhole camera links it may be in place to remind the reader that pinhole images - like other photos - in the final analysis are made not by the camera but by the photographer. Very simple cameras may produce great images, as for instance this pinhole photo, which was made with a matchbox camera by a Polish photographer.

Formulas

According to Eric Renner at least 50 charts suggesting optimal pinhole diameters have been devised in the last 125 years (Renner 1995:118). In my own reading the last fifteen years I have come across about fifteen charts or formulas, a few of which may be derived from the same basic formulas. It should be noted that the diameter of the pinhole is not really critical. But for every focal length there is an "optimal" diameter, i.e. a diameter which produces the sharpest possible image.

The word optimal actually is not a felicitous term, since the pinhole photographer or artist may not be striving for the greatest possible sharpness. There are beautiful pinhole images which are intentionally softer than what is
technically possible. A good pinhole image is something else than a blurred, out of focus, lens image.

Up to a certain point a small pinhole will produce a sharper image than
a larger one. If the pinhole is too small, the image gets less sharp
because of diffraction. The hole should be perfectly round, without ragged
edges. It may be checked with a magnifier or an enlarger.

Joseph Petzval of Vienna apparently was the first, in 1857, to attempt to find a
mathematical formula of the optimal pinhole diameter for the sharpest
definition in a pinhole image. The British Nobel Prize winner Lord
Rayleigh (John William Strutt, 1842-1919) worked on pinhole diameter
formulas for ten years and published his work in Nature (1891). Lord
Rayleigh's formula is still one of the formulas used to today. A number of
others have been published since the 1880s.

Lord Rayleigh's formula for subject distances above 1 meter may be
written as follows:
d = 1.9 * sqrt (l * f),
where d = pinhole diameter, l = wavelength of light and f = focal length or distance from pinhole to light-sensitive material.

For the wavelength of light different average values may be
substituted. Often the value of the yellow-green spectrum is used, i.e.
0.00055 mm.

According to Renner (1995: 117) most formulas used today are of the
following general form:

r = sqrt (l * c * f)

r = pinhole radius
l = wavelength of light
c = a constant, usually a decimal fraction between 0.5 and 1
f = focal length

Platt (1989:73) provides the following optimal pinhole formula:
d x d = f/k, where k is a constant of approx. 1300

Dobson (1991) provides this formula:
d = sqrt (f)/25

Lord Rayleigh's formula and those published by Platt and Dobson all
give somewhat different results. Andrew Davidhazy of the Rochester
Institute of Technology lists several other formulas in a posting on the net.

Four, slightly different, charts of optimal pinhole diameters are
reproduced below. Some of the charts have been simplified by leaving out
references to needle numbers. Holter's chart, published in Norwegian, has
been translated by me. Platt's chart differs from the others by
consistently giving smaller apertures.

Bogre (1988)

Focal length

Best aperture diameter

Equivalent f-stop

Exposure factor for f/22

Platt (1989)

Holter (1990)

Fuller (1992)

It should be borne in mind that for most purposes the diameter is not
really critical, as the different values in the charts above may
demonstrate.

Postscript

Photographers photograph in varying degree for (a) the experience or
for (b) the images. When you photograph for the experience, the emphasis
is on the process itself - the pleasure of the making a pinhole
camera, the pleasure of planning pictures, and the pleasure of making
pictures with a simple device. When you photograph for the images, the
emphasis is mainly on the result. The pinhole camera is basically
an imaging device with potentials which other cameras or techniques do not
possess, e.g. softness of definition, infinite depth of field,
rectilinearity.

In photography certain subjects may be better suited
for a particular technique than others. Photojournalists, for example,
normally use 35 mm SLRs in their work. Portrait photographers often use
medium format cameras. Architecture is best rendered by large format
cameras. Also in pinhole photography some subjects are better suited than
others. Long exposures exclude certain subjects, softness of definition
exclude others. Infinite depth of field and rectilinear ultra wide-angle
images represent a special potential.

Note:
[1] English translation: "If the
facade of a building, or a place, or a landscape is illuminated by the sun
and a small hole is drilled in the wall of a room in a building facing
this, which is not directly lighted by the sun, then all objects
illuminated by the sun will send their images through this aperture and
will appear, upside down, on the wall facing the hole". (Eder, 1945:39).

Literature
1 History
The following bibliography is basically a list of some of the literature I used when I wrote the first version of this article in 1996. A few entries have been added.

Aristotle. Problems. I. Books I-XXI. With an English translation
by W. S. Hett, M.A. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936.

Eder, Josef Maria. History of Photography. Transl. Edward
Epstean. New York: Columbia University Press, 1945.

Hammond, John H. The Camera Obscura. A Chronicle. Bristol: Adam
Hilger Ltd., 1981. 182 pages. ISBN 0-85274-451-X.
2 General (Including Cameras and Formulas)
Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography. Rediscovering a Historic
Technique. Boston and London: Focal Press 1995. 176 pages. ISBN
0-240-80231-4. Third edition 2004, 272 pages, ISBN 0-240-80573-3. Fourth edition 2009, 259 pages, Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application. ISBN 9780240810478

Adams, Ansel. The Camera. Boston, Toronto, London: Little, Brown
and Company 1991. pp. 3-6.

Bogre, Michelle. "Pinhole Revival". Popular Photography, January
1988, pp. 46-53.

Bogre, Michelle. "A Small Window of Opportunity. Pinhole Photography
reappears after 50 years". American Photographer, December 1987, p.
18.

Brenner, Paul. "Making your own Pinhole Camera". View Camera,
July-August 1996, pp. 58-59.

Brenner, Paul. "Pinhole Cameras". View Camera, September-October
1995, pp. 44-46.

Campana, Irene. La fotografia stenopeica. Storia ed evoluzione di una tecnica. Università di Bologna 2004

Clerc, L.P. Photography. Theory and Practice. London and New
York: Focal Press 1972, pp. 61-62.

Dobson, Michael. "Pinhole Power". Amateur Photographer, 23 March
1991, pp. 52-53.

Eastman Kodak Company. How to Make and Use a Pinhole Camera. 1968. 12 pages.

Evans, John. "Custom Cameras. Spare Parts". Amateur
Photographer, 9 December 1995, pp. 46-48.

Evans, John. Adventures With Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras.
Rotovision 2003. 144 pages. ISBN 2880467144

Fuller, Tom. "The Pinhole Resource: At the Point of Lensless
Photography". Camera and Darkroom, February 1992, pp. 44-49.

Holst, Trond Kjetil. "Hvem trenger elektronikken?" Fotografi, 5,
1990, pp. 48-49. Oslo 1990.

Holter, Tore. "Bygg ditt eget kamera av en kakeboks". Fotografi,
5, 1990, pp. 44-47. Oslo 1990.

Howard, Dave. "Painless Pinhole. Small Format Photography Gets Off The
Sidelines." Shutterbug, June 1998, pp. 42-48.

Joseph, Cathy. "Through the Pinhole". Amateur Photographer, 8
January 1994, pp. 20-21.

Keeney, Chris. Pinhole Cameras. A Do-It-Yourself Guide. New York: Princeton Architectuaal Press 2011. 191 pages. ISBN 978-1-56898-989-1

Krummel, Brian J. The Pinhole Camera. A Practical How-To Book for Making Pinhole Cameras and Images. 2009. 210 pages. ISBN 1442187662

Langford, Michael. The Book of Special Effects Photography. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf 1981. pp. 32-33 and 146.

Laverrière, Sophie. Chasseur d'images. Paris: Editions Gallimard
1974. pp. 88-93.

Laverrière, Sophie. Fotografering er gøy. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk
Forlag 1975. pp. 88-93. (Norwegian translation of the preceding.)

"Make a Pinhole Camera". Photography, August 1954, pp. 46-49 and
90-91.

Martyn, Roger. "A Hole in One". Practical Photography, August
1992, pp. 58-61.

Marzocchini, Vincenzo. La fotografia stenopeica in Italia.
Storia tecnica estetica delle riprese stenoscopiche. Bologna: Clueb 2006. 127 pages. ISBN 88-491-2622-0

Merz, Reinhard / Findeisen, Dieter. Fotografieren mit der
selbstgebauten Lochkamera. Augustus Verlag 1997. ISBN: 3-8043-5112-3

O'Brien, Renee Creager. The Post-Romantic Vision of Contemporary Pinhole Photograpers. PhD thesis. New York University 1998. 311 pages

Olpe, Peter. Die Lochkamera. Funktion und Selbstbau. Lindemanns
Verlag 1993. 48 pages. ISBN 3-928126-62-8

Platt, Richard. The Professional Guide to Photo Data.
Manchester: Mitchell Beazley, 1989. p. 73.

Quinell, Justin. "Make your own 126 pinhole camera". Amateur
Photographer, 8 january 1994, pp. 23.

Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography. Rediscovering a Historic
Technique. Boston and London: Focal Press 1995. 176 pages. ISBN
0-240-80231-4. Third edition 2004, 272 pages, ISBN 0-240-80573-3.
Fourth edition 2008, 272 pages, Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application. ISBN 9780240810478

Resnick, Mason and Wolff, Ilan. "Persistently Pinhole". Modern
Photography's Film Guide, 1989, pp. 48-49 and 94.

Sassi, Luigi. La fotografia senza obiettivo. Milano: Ulrico Hoepli 1905. 135 pages.

Schmidt-Ploch, Ulrich Clamor. Die Lochkamera. Abbildungsoptimierung. Physikalische Hintergründe. Freibrug i.Br.: SP-Verlag.
155 pages. ISBN 3-8311-1261-4

Schriever, J.B. Complete Self-Instructing Library Of Practical Photography.
American School Of Art And Photography 1909.
Part III: Volume 3 Chapter XXV Pin-Hole Photography

Shadeck, John. Pinhole Photography in Art Education. Marston Gate 2010. 71 pages. ISBN 978-0-557-42016-2

Shull, Jim. The Hole Thing. A manual of Pinhole Photography. New
York: Morgan & Morgan, 1974. 64 pages.

Shull, Jim. The Beginner's Guide to Pinhole Photography. Amherst
Media. Inc., 1999. 80 pages. ISBN: 0-936-26270-2

Smith, Lauren. The Visionary Pinhole. Salt Lake City: Gibbs M.
Smith, Inc., Peregrine Smith Books, 1985.

Springer. J.F. "Pin-Hole Photography". Scientific American, No. 21, 1920. New York, N.Y. 1920. [ Page 574] [ Page 584] [ Page 586]

Talén, C.W. Amatørfotografen. Kristiania (Oslo): Steen'ske
Bogtrykkeri og Forlag 1901. pp. 7-10.

The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. Desk Edition. London and
New York: Focal Press, 1969. pp. 1124-1125.

Vogel, François. Nouveau traité du sténopé / A New Treatise on the Pinhole Camera. Angers 2011. 160 pages.
ISBN 978-2-911991-51-6

Voog, Geerlig. "Back to the basics. Drie Pinhole camera's van de
Lensless Camera Manufacturing Company of Santa Barbara." Camera, 1,
1995, pp. 50-53.

Wernersson, Mats. "Ta bilder utan objektiv". Aktuell fotografi,
5, 1993, pp. 60-62. Stockholm 1993.

Wiklund, Peter. "Den hålögda kameran." Fotografi, 6, 1994, pp.
42-46. Helsingborg 1994.
3 Images and Portfolios
Young, Matt. "The Pinhole Camera, Imaging without Lenses or Mirrors." The Physics Teacher, December, 1989.

Bachler, Thomas. Arbeiten mit der Camera Obscura. Lindemanns
Verlag 2001. 95 pages. ISBN 3-89506-222-7. Text in German and English.

Baldassari, Luca. Un foro stenopeico a NordKapp. Blurb 2016. 106 pages. ISBN 978-1-36-788424-3

Derleth, Günter. Venice : Pinhole Camera Photographs. Zürich - New York: Edition Semmle 2000. 120 pages. ISBN 3-908163-21-8

Ess, Barbara. I Am Not This Body. New York: Aperture 2001. 96 pages. ISBN 0-89381-936-0

Fuss, Adam. Pinhole Photographs. Washington and London:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. 64 pages. ISBN 1-56098-622-0

Galley, Jean-Michel et Elisabeth Towns. Le sténopé. De la photographie sans objectif. PhotoPoche, [Arles:] Actes sud 2007.n.p. ISBN 978-2-7427-7015-1

Gosling, Steve. Lensless Landscapes. Papero Publishing, North Hampshire 2008. n.p. ISBN 978-0-9560175-0-5

Grepstad, Jon. Pinhole Images 1992-2014. Oslo 2014. 79 pages. ISBN 978-82-993938-3-6

Jasud, Lawrence. "Tom Harding - Through a Pinhole Brightly". View
Camera, September-October 1995, pp. 4-8.

Johnson, Lizabeth A. "Rebecca Sexton Larson - Visual Diaries". View
Camera, September-October 1995, pp. 22-28.

Kemp, Gregg D. The North Carolina Outer Banks. Pinhole Photographs, 2003-2007. Blurb.com 2011. 28 pages

Knuchel, Hans. Camera obscura. Baden: Verlag Lars Müller 1992.
72 pages. ISBN 3-9067700-49-6

Kuzmickas, Darius. Ocean Pinholes. Las Vegas: KuDa Editions 2006. 36 pages. ISBN 0-9778959-1-2

Levinson, Edward. Timescapes Japan : A Pinhole Journey. Nippon Camera Publishing Co 2006. 108 pages. ISBN 4-8179-2098-X C0072

Morell, Abelardo. Camera Obscura. New York - Boston: Bulfinch Press 2004. 112 pages. ISBN 0-8212-7751-0

Pinhole Journal. Published by Pinhole Resource (San Lorenzo, N.M.) 1985-2006. Edited by Eric Renner and Nancy Spencer

Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography. Rediscovering a Historic
Technique. Boston and London: Focal Press 1995. 176 pages. ISBN
0-240-80231-4. Third edition 2004, 272 pages, ISBN 0-240-80573-3.
Fourth edition 2008, 272 pages, Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application. ISBN 9780240810478

Renner, Eric and Nancy Spencer: Poetics of Light. Contemporary Pinhole Photography. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press 2014. 209 pages. ISBN 978-0890135884

Seeberg, Mikkel. Italien - Udvalgte byer. Italy - Selected cities. Denmark: Forlaget 191, 2005. 60 pages. ISBN 87-991-0530-6

Smith, Lauren. The Visionary Pinhole. Salt Lake City: Gibbs M.
Smith, Inc., Peregrine Smith Books, 1985.

White, Garrett. "Yasu Suzuka. The Horizon of Time". Camera and
Darkroom, June 1992, pp. 34-39.

Wolff, Ilan. Camera obscura. San Sebastian: Kutxa fundazio / Fundación Kutxa 2008. 144 pages. ISBN 978-84-7173-516-4. Text in Basque, Spanish, French and English.

Zwichenzeit. Camera obscura im Dialog. 20 Fotograf/innen und 7
Textautor/innen äussern sich zum Thema Lochkamera. Siegen 1993. 125 pages. ISBN 3-928126-60-1
Blogs, Forums, General Pinhole Sites and Galleries Individual Photographers
Some Pinhole Photography Links

First published 1996. Last updated 28 September 2018.
© 1996 Jon Grepstad
jon.grepstad (at) getmail.no

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Pinhole Photography - History, Images, Cameras, Formulas

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An earlier version of this article was available at photo.net in the USA 1996-2016. An abridged Russian version: Камера-обскура. The Russian version may also be downloaded in pdf format. The history section has been translated into Spanish: Fotografía estenopeica The history section, slightly abridged, has also been translated into Portuguese: Stenoptik - A Optica Estenopéica...

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Seven pinhole photographers

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Lead photo by Kenneth Leishman. All images used with permission in our interviews.

Pinhole photography: it's arguably one of the oldest forms of photography and the art that's been available. These days, it's used in digital variations but by far many of the best pinhole photographers these days shoot film. So in celebration of the upcoming World Pinhole Day this year, we've rounded up a number of our favorite pinhole photographers we've interviewed.

Alan Thoburn

Excerpt from our feature:

"I always used a tripod and an exposure calculator (I think it came with the camera, and was based on the size of the pin hole) Basically, it allowed you to take a conventional lightmeter reading, and adjust it using a special chart." says Thoburn. "I've always been strict about technique, and wanted my exposures to be correct, sad I know! I used a slow black & white film, either Ilford Pan F or Ilford FP4, processed at home."

Check out Alan's website.

Benjamin Postwalt

Excerpt from our interview:

"Pinhole photography means slowing down. It means achieving a personal peace when there's nothing left to do but lose myself in the horizon and the changing tide of a coastal scene as I wait for the camera to finish an eight-minute exposure at dusk. It means maybe making only two or three frames of film count for an entire day. It's beautifully primitive and simplistically pure. I feel unbridled. I no longer fret about battery life or memory cards or spend a minute debating what lens to use next. It's just a little wooden box, unfiltered, absorbing the world. And I'm by its side doing the same."

Check out Ben's website.

Matthew Pringle

Excerpt from our interview:

"There is certainly a degree of guess work and unpredictability with regards to pinhole photography and that is part of its charm for me. You're never entirely sure how things will turn out and that can sometimes work in your favour. Understanding exposure times and metering is vital if you want to obtain an image with a good balanced exposure. However, there have been times when I've horribly under-exposed a pinhole shot and the resulting darkness of the image has added greatly to its atmosphere and feeling."

Check out Matt's website.

Marcio Faustino

Excerpt from our interview:

"When I got into photographing as much as possible with my pinhole camera, I saw the long exposure portraits had a kind of movement on it. For some reason this little movement that the body has, while posing for the long exposure, makes my images look more alive and subtle to my eyes. This is why I don't see the need or reason to trying make everything sharp with a pinhole camera (or long exposures), because with portraits it always will have some small motion anyway, which I think is much more appealing and interesting than trying motion effects."

Check out Marcio's website.

Kenneth Leishman

Excerpt from our interview:

"I was burned out from the digital world. Don't get me wrong I still shoot with them as well, but in the landscape photography world, everything was vibrant and sharp and I wasn't really drawn to that anymore. I came across some great pinhole work online and right away fell for it. loved how it gives a dreamy soft feel to it. I said to myself ok I'm going to learn this. That was in December of 2014."

Check out Ken's website.

Steven Dempsey

Excerpt from our interview:

"I knew about pinhole photography for years but never thought of trying it on a digital camera. Part of my resistance was the less than inspiring digital pinhole imagery I saw online. The analog/film pinholes I saw, on the other hand, were really impressive but I didn't want to get into buying and processing my own film. I was determined to try digital pinholing for myself and squeeze everything I could out of the format."

Check out Steven's website.

Tomasz Cuncvir

Excerpt from our feature:

"I wanted to present you some of my work I did back in 2010/2011 with a similar design. I have updated it since to make it a SLIT SCAN MATCHBOX PINHOLE CAMERA! (world's first, perhaps) 🙂"

Check out Tomasz's website.

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7 Pinhole Photographers to Inspire You for World Pinhole Day

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Lead photo by Kenneth Leishman. All images used with permission in our interviews. Pinhole photography: it's arguably one of the oldest forms of photography and the art that's been available. These days, it's used in digital variations but by far many of the best pinhole photographers these days shoot film.

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International exhibits of Pinhole photography, from of hundres of artists from around the world. A directory of web sites and resources related to pinhole...

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Justin Quinnell is a master at making weird and wondrous pinhole photographs. He recently worked as the Pinhole consultant for the movie 'The Brothers Bloom' and his cameras are featured in the film. We took the opportunity to talk to him about his Hollywood experience and fascination for pinhole photography.

Louis (Getting to know Dad)

How did you first get introduced to the world of pinhole photography?
I'm not sure if this has much relevance but when I was 4 I had several operations on my eyes to sort out something. I remember having a patch on one eye with a small hole to see through. I also remember a fairly unsuccessful experiment when I was at school. It was well after my degree however that I got hooked. I was head of the photography department at a non-too affluent area of Bristol, the kids couldn't afford cameras, (but could afford several cans of coke every day) so I got them to make cameras out of their drink cans and got hooked myself. It was all pre Internet, so apart from the pinhole journal and a few obscure magazines I didn't know anyone else who was doing that kind of work.
What is it about pinhole photography which most fascinates you?
There is no viewfinder, it clashes art and science after a 150-year schism, a lot happens in pre-visualising the images, elements of time, astronomy, wonder etc. etc. etc. (This is what I go on about for hours in my lectures!). It's also cheap, and it's anti-commercial. I am involved with the Green Party and was getting disillusioned with photography and the amount of destruction it can cause - pin-holing gets around this.

It's also delving into the unknown, a bit like riding a unicycle - It feels like you are constantly falling, I quite like that!

Seaside, Breakfast, Royal Crescent - Bath, Clifton Suspension Bridge
We hear you worked on the recent film 'The Brothers Bloom' as 'Pinhole Consultant' - Could you tell us a little about it?
I had a phone call from Belgrade whilst on a train from the University of Falmouth where I teach part-time. It was from a researcher who said the writer and director of a film wanted to use my photos. My brother had just died so I didn't really know what it was about until a few weeks later I found myself emailing with Rian Johnson. I ended up in CA with my family for a month and having a ball! The film is great but a few of the pinhole bits got edited from the UK version. Its release was also delayed for ages, which didn't help. His next film 'Looper' has Bruce Willis, no pinhole though!
What's your favorite Pinhole photo you've ever taken?
The Royal Crescent - Bath. It was one of my first successful color images and taken in 1991 when you had to wait for 4 days till your film was processed! The one I'm most sorry didn't come out was a mouth photo of my son Louis when he was being born.

Two of Justin's Pinhole cameras which feature in the film 'The Brothers Bloom'

Any tips for people new to Pinhole photography?
Don't think too much, just do stuff.
What do you do when you're not taking photos?
Family stuff (I have a beautiful wife and two equally fab kiddies), bird watching, slobbing around in a pub, mending the leaks in our motorhome (usual stuff)! Currently, I am trying to get a slipped disc sorted. The MRI scan almost messed up due to a pinhole camera I had in my pocket!

See more amazing Pinhole photos by Justin on his website. Want to learn how to make a Pinhole camera at home? Watch this video featuring Justin!

written by tomas_bates on 2011-04-19 #lifestyle #interview #photography #justin #wizard #quinnell #lensless #pinhole-masters-and-magic

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Lomography - A Conversation with the Pinhole Wizard Justin Quinnell

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Justin Quinnell is a master at making weird and wondrous pinhole photographs. He recently worked as the Pinhole consultant for the movie 'The Brothers Bloom' and his cameras are featured in the film. We took the opportunity to talk to him about his Hollywood experience and fascination for pinhole photography.

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Introduction: How to Make a Pinhole Camera

Make your own camera out of materials around the house and take black and white photos with it.

Step 1: Gather Materials

You will need a box, photo paper, thin piece of metal like a can or brass shim, tape, xacto knife, needle, and sand paper.

Step 2: Make Pinhole

The pinhole is like the lens of the camera. Poke a tiny hole in the brass shim with a needle and sand it smooth. Trim the shim so there is a little space around the hole.

Step 3: Make Camera Box

You can use a shoe box, oat meal box or whatever. The box must be light proof. When the lid is on and the shutter is closed the inside is completely dark. The only light comes through the pinhole. Make sure there are no holes or openings in the box. Seal it and paint it flat black. Cut a small square opening in the box for the pinhole to go in.

Step 4: Put in Pinhole and Make Shutter

Tape the pinhole behind the square opening. I use electrical tape. Center the pinhole in the square. Then make the shutter which is just a flap that covers the pinhole from the outside. It can be made from some more tape.

Step 5: Load the Photo Paper

This must be done in complete darkness. You can make a darkroom in a bathroom or closet and use it for developing and changing paper. Tape a piece of photo paper to the inside of the box across from the hole. Put lid on and make sure the shutter is closed. Now you can go out in the light.

Step 6: Taking a Picture

Point the camera at what you want to shoot. It works best when it is bright and sunny. Depending on lighting and clouds hold shutter open for 30 seconds to 4 minutes then close. Everything has to stay perfectly still. Go back to the dark room and take paper out to develop.

Step 7: Developing

You will need developer, fixer, water, tongs, towels, and a safe light in you dark room. It must be pitch black when safe light is off. I found out you can use orange LED halloween lights as a safe light. It is cheaper and you get more light than a small red darkroom bulb. The paper from the box will be a negative to make the positive put another piece of photo paper under the developed negative face to face. The negative must be on top. Use a piece of glass to press them together and turn the lights on for a few seconds. Make sure your extra photo paper is safe and covered or it will all develop black. Now develop the positive. It goes in the developer then water then fixer then water then air dry.

3 People Made This Project!

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Make your own camera out of materials around the house and take black and white photos with it. You will need a box, photo paper, thin piece of metal like a can or brass shim, tape, xacto knife, needle, and sand paper. The pinhole is like the lens of the camera.

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Happy Pinhole Camera Day to All.

Below you will find 23 Pinhole Cameras that you can build at home.

Small, big, paper, plastic or tin, Two things in common:

1. They are all free

2. they all have build instructions so you can build them yourselves.

Learn more about Pinhole Camera Day here.

Corbis Peyota

Janne In Osaka's Photo Paper Pinhole

High Capacity Panoramic Pinhole Camera

Best Paper Fold Pinhole

World Pinhole Camera Day

The Dirkon

Prophotolife's Tin Box Pinhole [+ video]

Peanut Pinhole

Matchbox Pinhole

Cigar Box Pinhole

Pin Origami

Soup Can Cyclops

Pinhole Camera Design Calculator

Juice Box Pinhole Camera

The Pablo

Coffe Can Pinhole

DSLR Pinhole

Happy Little Mac Pinhole Camera

EOS 5D Camera Obscura

FI1-01 Self-Contained Matchbox 35mm Pinhole

Spam Pinhole

Lomo LCA Home Made pinhole

8X10 Foldable Pinhole

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23 Pinhole Cameras That You Can Build At Home - DIY Photography

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Happy Pinhole Camera Day to All. Below you will find 23 Pinhole Cameras that you can build at home. Small, big, paper, plastic or tin, Two things in common: 1. They are all free 2. they all have build instructions so you can build them yourselves. Learn more about Pinhole Camera Day here.

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No lens, no problem - that's the main thesis of pinhole cameras. You just need a lightproof box with a tiny hole in it and some film to make images. Sounds simple right? Well, it is but there's lot more to it than just that. Modern photography has a lot to thank the pinhole process for and the same goes for you simply because it paved the way for modern cameras and techniques that we all enjoy today as photographers.

Kidz Labs pinhole camera © Mike via Wikimedia Commons

Brief History

We'd have to take a step back in time to truly understand how the pinhole process works and how it was developed.

Records have it that scientists and philosophers have attempted to explore the idea of imaging through light as early as 4 BC. Chinese philosopher Mo Ti and the famous Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle are tagged as one of the first minds to tackle the idea. Mo Ti recorded the formation of an inverted image using light while Aristotle ruminated on how sunlight created round images instead of angular ones when it passes through foliage or holes.

Camera obscura via Wikimedia Commons

Another brilliant mind who studied the phenomenon was Arabian physicist and mathematician Ibn al-Haitham (also known as Alhazen.) He studied the reverse image formed on the wall by a tiny hole. The term "camera obscura" (literally translates to dark room in Latin) still wasn't used during the time but the idea was clear - it was possible to project an image into a surface with nothing but a light source and a hole that serves as a focal point. English monk and scholar Roger Bacon was also familiar with the concept of the camera obscura during the middle images but it was Leonardo da Vinci's book titled Codex Antlanticus that really went into detail describing the pinhole camera.

Nowadays when we hear pinhole, we usually just associate it with taking photographs but it was also used for science, medicine, and art. Pinhole applications included studies about laws of projection, photographing focal spots of an x-ray tube, and tracing the outlines of scenery for souvenirs. The process was a lot of things and people in the old days used them to further their craft, studies about eclipses, and so on.

Lensless Photography in Practice

Although there were advances to pinhole photography like converging lenses in the earlier days, there were still a lot of practitioners of the lensless technique.

Quirky pinhole cameras including LEGO Pinhole by Ryan Howerter, DIY concrete pinhole camera, Homemade SPAM pinhole camera by scootiepye, and Disposable camera turned pinhole by iloveyousummer

Staying clear from clearer and sharper images that pinhole cameras with lenses offer, these people preferred the softer focus and lines that traditional pinhole cameras produced. Some even went as far as creating awe-inspiring pinhole cameras by transforming rooms and buildings into camera obscuras. These places often served as venues for learning and entertainment as they provided both to the public. All these things done with nothing but darkness, light, and a converging point.

Pinhole cameras via Kwanghun Hyun, ONDU, James Guerin, and Kelly Angood

One of the first to make pinhole photographs was Scottish scientist Sir David Brewster in the 1850s, and Sir William Crookes, John Spiller, and William de Wiveslie Abney from England. Around the 1880s, the Impressionist movement in painting experienced a significant rise in popularity but there was a divide between traditional painters and the "new school" of painters known as the "pictorialists." The older generation of painters preferred sharper images while the younger group went for softer lines, and moody effects to add more style to their work. Some of the pictorialists used pinhole photography to develop their own style of painting.

Pinhole photography was popular in the 1890s due to commercial pinhole cameras that were being sold in different parts of the globe. They were often single use cameras that offered novelty to those who could afford it. 4000 Photomnibuses were sold in London alone in 1892 according to a resource. Its popularity waned after a few years especially when other types of cameras were developed and were easily mass produced in the advent of the 20th century.

Holga 120 Pinhole, Diana Multi Pinhole Operator, This Book Is A Camera, and Pinhole Art DIY 135

Fast forward to today - pinhole photography survives. How could it fade away when it's probably one of the most straightforward forms of photography out there? People kept on making their own version of the pinhole camera using different materials and designs, they created images according to their liking, and so on.

It's this type of freedom associated with a humble black box that paved the way to the establishment of "World Pinhole Photography Day." The first one was held on April 29, 2001 with 291 participants from 24 countries. They shared images they made with their pinhole cameras and it's been the same thing year after year only with more participants and a renewed interest for this lensless technique.

All information used in this article was sourced from John Grepstad's extensive research on pinhole photography, Pinhole CZ, and Alternative Photography.

2018-04-30 #culture #pinhole-photography #world-pinhole-photography-day

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Lomography - Pinhole Photography - The Quick History

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No lens, no problem - that's the main thesis of pinhole cameras. You just need a lightproof box with a tiny hole in it and some film to make images. Sounds simple right? Well, it is but there's lot more to it than just that.

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Artist page for Steven Pippin (born 1960)

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On a recent visit to the Welsh borders I began to experiment with making sound recordings of the same length as the exposure time of the photograph. The descending flood waters combed all the strands of grass in a strange and uniform direction back towards the racing current. On a dull day using paper negative in a beautiful little oak camera, four minutes was required. Listen to the environmental sounds of the exposure below.

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On a recent visit to the Welsh borders I began to experiment with making sound recordings of the same length as the exposure time of the photograph. The descending flood waters combed all the strands of grass in a strange and uniform direction back towards the racing current.

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A collection of photographs by photographer Thomas Hudson Reeve