Street photography with a pinhole camera

[@mikebaginy8731]

Love the photos, and Penny Lane! Well done, Ari! Thanks!

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks thanks!!!

[@DrBrianOCallaghan]

Thanks for telling us about Pinhole Assist. I've spent ages trying to calculate reciprocity failure. And I've avoided using Fomapan because reciprocity failure is so great. Maybe now I can return to it for pinhole work. Thanks.

[@ShootOnFilm]

:-) I hope it works for you! I love it!

[@stephenm103]

There's another aspect to pinhole that is really interesting which is the way it "clears out" some of the subjects which are not stationary for an extended period of time during the exposure. Ghost images for the few that are moving slowly or which stop for a moment or two perhaps but every9thing else just vanishes into the noise. . . . . . it can create a bit of an unusual effect where we dont expect to see vacant city streets and sidewalks. The chemistry and physics of reciprocity failure are fascinating. It never occurred to me for many decades but after doing a cursory but "deeper dive" into reciprocity failure, I arrived at the understanding that photography is art created, quite literally, by manipulating individual atoms. And hey - REALLY glad to hear that Lomography did the right thing and compensated you for your opinion - despite the fact that it may not have been one they had hoped for. In return - because of their professionalism and because I choose to support the film arts, I placed my order for one this afternoon! Cheers and thanks again.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Indeed -- the fact that analog photography is so tangible and really goes to the atomic level -- where you as a photographer can manipulate things from your composition all the way to the surface of the film is so fascinating! I hope you are having fun with your Lomo :-) It is, well, not a Hasselblad!

[@distagon6052]

I’ve taken to pinhole 9x12 with zero image and get amazing images. So fun!

[@ShootOnFilm]

I believe you!! Pinhole makes everything beautiful!

[@gary344]

I enjoy the spontaneous approach to this episode. Pinhole camera. Sunlight. A few sheets of film. No tripod. So much creativity emerged. Truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing. 🌿Bless🕊

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks for watching!!!

[@michaelsherck5099]

An interesting and creative way of making use of dull circumstances, thank you! I cant remember where I heard this but someone wrote that the charm of a pinhole photograph isn't that it's sharp, it's that everything is equally unsharp. 😊

[@ShootOnFilm]

I like the definition of the pinhole sharpness. It also makes it very forgiving!

[@davidottman9501]

Thanks Ari. Interesting photos! Foul conditions often bring about better work. Maybe it's because the good conditions are over-done, or maybe we just have to work harder when conditions are poor? Regardless of the reason, it's good to push harder. I had forgotten the "trick" of using extra long exposures when we don't want people in the photos. A few ghostly apparitions add a fun element. Great tips!

[@ShootOnFilm]

yeah -- can be done with a pinhole or, say , with an ND filter :-)

[@danncorbit3623]

That pinhole camera makes really interesting images. The lomography camera seems much better with black and white.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks. Yeah, I'll take a few more rolls of b&w with that Lomo and then judge :-)

[@jasongold6751]

Super images! I made pinhole camera with cigarette box and silver foil for hole! Used paper not film! Your results Bravo!

[@ImperfectPhotography]

Pinhole is always a treat. I need to get mine out, World Pinhole day is near! Great piano playing, btw!

[@ShootOnFilm]

Yeah, it's been a while for me, too. But it was fun. Piano -- well, this time more hammering than playing, i think :-)

[@tobycunningham797]

Thanks Ari another lesson in using unfavourable conditions to challenge oneself to go out and find great images.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks. Yes, it is sometime not perfect out there :-)

[@robertyoung1777]

I like the idea of having a relatively inexpensive camera for use in wet weather situations. The pin hole camera worked well on those wet urban structures. Thanks for creating the high quality show and tell using these cameras.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks thanks! Yeah, you can wipe out the mud from a pinhole camera!

[@chriscard6544]

So I tested MIA pinhole 4x5 modular 35mm yesterday, it's a great camera: very nice vignettings and a splash effect due to wide angle

[@ShootOnFilm]

Vignetting is always a good thing!

[@flyingo]

Wow! Those pinhole photos are fantastic!

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks. And it's always a lot of fun!

[@2252269]

Thanks, your pinhole pictures surprised me, in fact your compositions stand out together with the light condition ans even with yourself on one of them by the wall. Actually I am in a pinhole period myself, 6x6 Ondu + self development. And can we hear the tone of your trumpet in the background one day? Cheers.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks thanks! No trumpet from me :-)

[@rick-fstop-lewis]

A true artist can make art with substandard equipment. You just proved that. I love the pinhole shots....love it when you post a video about pinhole cameras. Actually really liked the 110 shots. Some of them take on that "in a by -gone era" feel to them. Really cool. Have you tried the pinhole with direct positive paper yet?

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks, thanks! Have not shot on direct positive, but often with regular photo paper and either contact print or using an enlarger in the dark room.

[@carbonejack]

Sweet.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks!

[@jimphilpott902]

You survived the train and traffic. I appreciate your efforts.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks. A few closed calls!

[@jeffreystulin8130]

Pinhole cameras are great fun and they certainly give opportunities not available from other approaches. Pinhole Assist is a fabulous app. I don't have the lomo camera but I did buy the "Kodak" half frame (H35N). It will be interested to see how it compares with the lomo. Question: How did you decide on your exposure given the large time difference in the composition? Thank you for this greatly enjoyable video.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Mostly composing so that there is a limited difference in a frame. Or then letting things go the way they go -- for example the bus stop picture -- the edges went totally black. And then, last but not least, stand development evens out a lot of exposure in development time!

[@ejorbe]

I really liked the first picture of the tree. My question is how do you aim the pin hole camera? On video it just looks like a box with no view finder. Also the way you have it propped on the ground or bench how do you know what is in frame? Thanks for another great video! Did you enjoy the cool colored lomography 110 better than the silver one?

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks thanks. So this is how you aim a pinhole camera. You draw lines from the center point of the back of the camera to the front corners of the camera. Some people actually draw the lines with a sharpie -- I just imagine them. And then, just looking along the lines shows you the edge of your frame. Both vertical and horizontal. Sounds maybe a bit sketchy, but it actually works! You can estimate the edges of the frame surprisingly well.

[@qnetx]

What exposure time between 8 seconds and 3 minutes, did you finally decide on for those shots? They turned out well!

[@ShootOnFilm]

Aiming somewhere n between. Depending a bit on what is essential. In the empty bus stop, for example, I simply let it underexpose and measured a faster time from sunlight. Elsewhere I tried to compose so, that the variation was minimized. Then, finally, stand development to even out the extremes in development time.

[@steffenbjoern]

Another great one! I've got my thoughts about automating the light measuring process: "Pinhole Assist" seems to have potentials making the remaining, photographing, half of my existence obsolete, if it will be available for Android. But does it really help me further not to feel the joy of developing reciprocity error formulas, making them calculable with a simple pocket calculator plus measuring the light with the zone system and putting it all together into a single shot that can easily take hours with the mentioned Fomapan 100? I am not too sure. Even calculation or light measuring errors would become scarce experiences. My experience especially with large or medium format photography is that the preparation time including measuring and calculation plus the duration of long exposure times give me irreplaceable mindful moments. And nothing makes me feel more proud than realizing that my formulas for reciprocity error even assure perfectly exposed pictures in low available light situations. Else than working with "Automats" like APPS or modern TTL cameras of the seventies which seduce me to "mass consume" my environment without really arriving in it. By the way: How about making a pinhole camera out of the LOMO 110? This would be a great adventure!

[@ShootOnFilm]

You really made me think. I totally see the value of calculation exposure manually!! Very zen!!! 110 pinhole :-) Maybe not -- i think anything smaller than 4x5 with a pinhole is --- well -- not for me.

[@IainHC1]

It's funny how your favourite coloured camera can improve your photo's! 😀 Great vid Ari 🙂 Love the shots and love pinhole too 🙂

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks thanks! And thanks for watching!

[@virgilFunderburk-r5n]

I've thought about this but i chickened out, why, i was thinking of taking my 8x10 harman titan wth xray film, but now i will give it a go next week

[@tedcrosby9361]

The most expensive films seem to have the best reciprocity failure characteristics! !

[@ShootOnFilm]

True. I wonder if they make an effort to reduce it?

[@hoggif]

I sometimes used to photograph "empty" places with long exposures to make people disappear. (use nd's if needed, works with digital too). Do not make portrait (selfie) with IR film and 15min exposure time due to resiprocity. It is a pain when you realize at 5 mins you are not sitting in a comfortable position. (the rest 10m can be very painful). I never thought of resiprocity depending on brightness of subject. Due to physics it must be. Another lesson leearned. Perhaps long exposures shoud bne N- developed? Pinholes are so nice. I just used my 4x5 with pinhole plate. Composed with a lens and changed to pinhole plate for a photo. (plate=think of a lf lens plate and change the lens to a pinhole)

[@ShootOnFilm]

Like you, I enjoy playing with time. On the one hand, you can take a snapshot of a fraction of the second -- or you can get the shadow of an entire tram into your frame -- several seconds frozen. :-)

[@GrenvilleMelonseedSkiff496]

An hour well spent creating a fine set of images … thanks! 📷🌞 PS: On Monday, April 8th under clear skies, I experienced my first total solar eclipse … that was one day where I was praying for a cloudless sky and we got it!

[@ShootOnFilm]

I've never seen one. How was it?

[@GrenvilleMelonseedSkiff496]

@@ShootOnFilm It was incredible … an experience I’ll never forget! Gazing directly at the sun during totality without the need of protective glasses afforded me a fantastic view of the corona and … I couldn’t believe my eyes initially, a large red prominence in the SW quadrant. How cool is that gazing directly at a massive plasma plume on the surface of the sun!

[@ShootOnFilm]

@@GrenvilleMelonseedSkiff496 I just listened to the New Your Times The Daily podcast from last Monday entitled "The Eclipse Chaser." It was an excellent story!

[@urbanimage]

For a moment there, I thought you were going to say Lomo paid for the Mexico trip 8-)

[@ShootOnFilm]

Close, but no!

[@gary344]

Pinhole Depth of Field not so much focus 🤔 Anyhow, enjoy your videos as always. Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is April 28th !! 🌿Bless🕊

[@ShootOnFilm]

True. That would have been the proper definition :-)

[@chriscard6544]

Tomorrow: pinhole, pinhole, pinhole

[@ShootOnFilm]

:-)

[@gianlusc]

Awesome! Great sources of inspiration as usually 😅👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@ShootOnFilm]

Thanks thanks. And thanks for watching!

[@litticgn]

and no view finder on pinhole cameras makes it even worse. 😮

[@ShootOnFilm]

:-) It adds some complexity, yes.

[@jamesrice670]

I was thinking, if you walked up in front of high rise buildings in America and did exactly what you did to make the photographs in this video, you would likely be surrounded by security and/or police officers who assumed you were a terrorist plotting some heinous act.

[@ShootOnFilm]

Ha haa! Funny. Here the challenge is that people come to talk and ask questions and stuff. I hope Finns were more silent and introverted :-)

[@rossmansell5877]

Its called paranoia! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 In the UK they would trample you and the camera as here they walk around eyes glued to the phones.