You can view my pinhole camera photographs here. Images are being added often. Also, I’ve added a page of cyanotype prints from my pinhole camera negatives!
This is the camera, a ready made pinhole camera with 88.9 mm focal length and a .5 mm pinhole (aperture)
The pinhole camera is a simple light tight box with a tiny hole in one side. The pinhole for my camera measures .5 mm. The tiny hole lets light in to the film and exposes it. That tiny pinhole is the aperture for the pinhole camera. This camera has a film holder in the back, and a simple “shutter” that shuts out the light. Although my pinhole camera lacks the total sharpness of a camera with a glass lens, it still captures amazing detail. It can capture detail far into the distance. It is an amazing photographic tool, and it’s fun to work with! Exposure can range from minutes to several hours, so a tripod is a necessity.
I first used a pinhole camera in 1978 during grad school. I used a converted cylindrical Quaker Oatmeal box for the camera. The pinhole was a sheet of foil with a carefully pierced hole. My major professor, Michael Peven, was using the oatmeal pinhole box project with a beginning photography class. I made a few images. I didn’t take much note of them until I was teaching. Then, I used the pinhole camera for my students’ beginning photography class. We used a commercial litho film, cut to fit, and it was a fun and successful project.
Fourteen years later I purchased a ready made “Leonardo” pinhole camera made by the late Eric Renner. The Leonardo Pinhole camera takes a 4 x 5″ film holder. This large negative held plenty of detail for contact printing. I initially used the Van Dyke Brown processes with those negatives. Those processes need at least a simple darkroom space for the hand mixing and application of the photosensitive material. And sunlight for exposure.
I was working with alternative sun printing processes to print my negatives. I was using Cyanotype, Kallitype and Van Dyke Brown in 1995. Later in 1999 I began working in the Platinum/Palladium process. That process was a step up from Cyanotype, Kallitype, and Van Dyke Brown, both which made excellent Images. But the Platinum print provided highlight detail, subtle grays, and deep blacks that exceeded the abilities of the sun printing processes. I worked with that process for three years until it was no longer possible. I lost my ability to darkroom work in 2001.
As an alternative I began using color transparency film. I used both FujiChrome and EktaChrome films. I had to have them lab processed. Both chrome films made beautiful positive images. They had amazingly good color rendition! But, was expensive, so I only used it on a limited basis. I made color images until 2014, which was the end of that period of working with the pinhole camera.
In early November of this year, 2025, I got the bug to play with film again. I have a 1909 3A Kodak camera that was my grandfather’s. The film for it is no longer available, so using adapters I tried to substitute modern film. That did not have a happy ending.
I had to use a specialty lab to process that film. It came to me, that since I was having film lab developed, why not resume working with the pinhole camera? So, I got a box of Ilford Delta 100 4 x 5 film, and made four exposures. When I got them back from the lab I was quite happy with the results!
This led to a new dilemma, and that was the cost of lab development. I was posed with the question of how to develop my own film. I did some research. I found a developing tank for 4 x 5” film. It looked like it would work for me. It was a simple manual device, and I was skeptical of it. But, seeing no other reasonable choice, I decided to buy it. It has worked well for my pinhole camera work.
The negative for the image below was hand developed by 8.5 minutes with Ilford ID-11. the results were as I had hoped.
You can view my pages from the links at the top of the page.. I hope you will take a little time to explore them. New images are being added often.
January 27, 1996 – I have continued to make negatives and work them digitally. So far, I have been printing with a Canon Pro-310 printer which makes excellent prints, but that’s a digital process. I have been missing darkroom “wet” work, but since I have not had a darkroom I began revisiting the idea of using alternative processes.. As I had worked with sun printing and alternative processes in the past, I began considering Van Dyke Brown, Cyanotype, and Kallitype as they have low sensitivity. All of these processes need sunlight or a powerful artificial UV light source to expose the negatives.
Cyanotype Prints
I made a decision to work with cyanotype. It is the least light sensitive process. It is also the least expensive process to work with. Long term the 100% rag paper becomes a greater expense. Both Van Dyke Brown and Kallitype use light sensitive silver halides combined with other chemicals to make the image. Unlike them, Cyanotype uses iron salts. Also, unlike the silver processes, Cyanotypes create a blue image which ranges from Robbin’s Egg Blue to a deep Prussian Blue.
So far I have made a few acceptable prints. Here is one I just printed, a self portrait. The negative was exposed for 7 minutes. I sat in chair for 3 minutes, but I had on dark clothes so only my head shows unless you look very closely. The print was exposed for 50 minutes in cloudy bright sunlight.
You can see more Cyanotype Prints Here
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