Pinhole photography, beloved by many, is the art of shooting in a “lensless” manner; instead, the pinhole is located above the usual lens, creating soft, “pretentious” "clear: both">
Outer Shell Details
Fix the cut parts with glue. The outer shell is ready.
Outer shell
Assemble the rewind head
To do this, you need to connect the tube of a ballpoint pen to part of the reel from the film. Remember that the rewind knob should not be glued. It is fixed only when the outer shell and side are connected to the hole.
Rewind head made of reel and ballpoint pen
Assemble the side with the hole
Cut the front with the hole in the center, the top with two holes, the bottom, two sides, two spacers, a spacer for the pickup spool and two blockers for the film.
Parts of the front of the camera
Connect all the resulting parts with glue. The side with the hole is ready.
Front of the camera
Install the pickup coil
Glue the two film coils by passing one of them through the hole in the upper part of the housing on the right side. Please note that the connected parts of the coils must be sanded so that the gap between the disks is 11 mm. Do not overdo it with glue, the coil should rotate.
Take-up reel made from two reels from unwanted films
Make a hole in a piece of metal
Use an airbrush or intradermal injection needle for this. If there are only sewing needles, select the thinnest and make a hole with its tip. Place something under the metal and use the hammer to make a hole. Many advise a different way: place the needle in the pencil eraser and screw it into the metal.
Sand the edges of the hole. Glue the resulting plate to the front of the camera from the inside between the spacers. The hole in the foam board should be completely covered with metal.
Fabricate and install the shutter
Cut out two curved gaskets, a ring and a valve from the foam board. The valve and gaskets can be cut out of a circle matching the size of the ring.
Shutter details
Glue the gaskets and ring to the body. When the glue dries, try to insert the shutter. If it is too tight, sand the edges with sandpaper.
Camera shutter
Finish pinhole camera
Go to a dark room and check with a flashlight if there are any cracks through which light can pass. Use black paint to fill the gaps.
Film is a fairly sensitive medium that is easily scratched even in serious cameras. If you want to avoid defects in the frame, then attach strips of soft tissue to those parts of the camera that come into contact with the film.
Assembled and ready to use pinhole camera
Now get the reel with the film and get ready to take pictures on your first pinhole.
How to refill the film?
To fill the film, place the pinhole with the hole down, the bottom towards you. Insert the film so that the protruding part of the coil fits between the gaskets and the flat side of the cassette is on top. Pull the film to the take-up reel and secure with tape. Do not forget about the tape when you rewind the film back into the cassette.
Film fixed in the camera
Check if everything works by squeezing the pickup coil a couple of turns. The rewind head should rotate. Connect the front panel to the outer shell of the camera. Pinhole is ready to shoot.
How to rewind the film?
The pinhole lacks a frame counter and a latch that allows you to rewind the frame based on its size. It is necessary to count the limit of the remaining pictures manually, and rewind by eye. Rewinding the frame is approximately equal to one and a half revolutions of the receiving coil. For convenience, you can put a mark on it.
How to determine the exposure?
Anyone familiar with photography knows that the size of the aperture directly affects the shutter speed. The smaller the hole, the longer the shutter speed. When dealing with a pinhole, you should prepare for a long wait: the exposure time will be much longer than usual. Also, the sensitivity of the film affects the exposure time.
Be prepared for the fact that the first film will go to measure the ideal exposure time. You will need a light meter (you can use a light meter built into another camera, or an application on a smartphone), a film (ISO 200 or ISO 100), a visual landscape for experiments, and patience.
You can install one of these applications:
- PinholeMeter. Exposure meter designed to work with pinhole. Select the film photosensitivity and aperture value and point the camera at what you want to photograph. The application will calculate the amount of time required to create a high-quality image.
