Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Oranges can take photos! Well, actually, they can’t, but you can use an orange to take photos. In fact, you can use pretty much anything to make a pinhole camera, the concept is exactly the same. A camera is merely a light-proof box with a hole to control the light entering (the pinhole in this case).
This fun video posted to the sub-Reddit Be Amazed shows you exactly how to prepare and use an orange as a pinhole camera.
There isn’t much of a shortage of LEGO cameras. We’ve covered a bunch on here before that either look like real cameras, such as Nikon, Olympus, Leica, Hasselblad and Polaroid and we’ve covered a few functional LEGO cameras, too, although most of those require some… non-standard (LEGO standard) components. This one, though, looks just like a real camera and works just like a real camera, too.
The LEGO ZH1 is a fully functional pinhole camera by Zung92 made entirely of LEGO. It features an actual shutter button, film advance, film take-up reel, a wind lever with a wind release, customisable lenses and you can even switch it up between half and full-frame mode.
I’ve seen some pretty weird cameras during my days here at DIYP. Creative folks made them out of most random things: from a pineapple or a mannequin, all the way to giant ones made out of old vehicles, and even buildings.
Just when I think I’ve seen all the unusual camera ideas, creative people surprise me with more awesome DIY projects. One of those people is a lady who goes under the nickname amuu. She made a 35mm film camera out of concrete and shared the instructions so you can make your own. It’s surprisingly good for something so rudimental, and it will give you some concrete results.
The Pinsta Instant Camera is an interesting new pinhole camera that lets you develop and even enlarge prints using the camera as its own darkroom.
The project is currently on Kickstarter and was created by Oliver New, who believes that analogue photography is for everyone. He grew up watching his dad developing his photographs in their darkroom and wanted to share that magic with others in this digital age.
Stereoscopic photography is a wonderful thing. Whether you’re able to use it in serious client work or not, it’s incredibly fun. It’s something I’ve been doing occasionally for years, and even recently with digital – thanks to the Weeview SID. But there’s no experience like shooting it on film. Until you’ve developed it, there’s no real way to know if you’ve got the shot or how it’s going to look. It’s an almost magical experience.
Well, Architect Dominik Oczkowski at Oczko Stereo wants to bring that experience to everybody with the new Minuta Stereo – a stereoscopic pinhole camera that shoots both 35mm and 120 medium format roll film. It also lets you adjust the “rise” of the film plane to compensate for off-axis horizons and keystoning. And it’s coming to Kickstarter next month.
Coming to you from the guys at COOPH, here are two ways to make and shoot with a pinhole camera. The first is analogue. Yes, that’s right, it uses 35mm film, the construction is as cheap and simple as it gets. All you need is a matchbox, a fresh roll of film, an empty film spool, an empty drinks can, some thin card and a whole mess of electrical tape.
The second method is for interchangeable lens cameras and can work for either 35mm SLRs or DSLRs (or mirrorless cameras) and essentially just converts your standard camera body cap into a pinhole lens for your camera.
Taking photos with a pinhole camera requires very long exposures. But how about eight years long exposure? Artist Regina Valkenborgh made a pinhole camera from a simple beer can and he took a solargraph that’s believed to be the longest exposure photo ever taken. The camera recorded the sun’s path across the sky for eight years, capturing nearly 3,000 sunrises and sunsets.
Have you ever wondered what the world will look like in 1000 years? Conceptual artist and experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats has decided to capture it on camera. He has created a public art project that will capture the environmental change in the Lake Tahoe Basin over the course of one millennium. And for this, he is using a photographic approach based on the traditional pinhole camera.
We may live in an era where high-resolution digital cameras are kings, but as photographer Steve O’Nions shows in this video, sometimes all it takes a simple camera to add some magic to an image.
Pinhole cameras are about as old as photography gets. They’re such a simple and basic concept that’s withstood the test of time and are still very popular today. While many modern photographers opt to get a pinhole body cap for their DSLR or mirrorless, it’s easy enough to make your own. In fact, there are many different ways to make one.
I’ve been following YouTuber Joe Van Cleave for a while now. And in between the typewriter and office supply videos, he puts out some great analogue photography content. Some of it covers photographic technique, sometimes it’s a new camera he’s just bought, and occasionally it’s something he’s built himself. And that’s what he’s done here, with these medium format PVC pipe pinhole cameras.
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