Smashing Magazine
The Showcase of Beautiful Pinhole Photography
Camera is a remarkable piece of innovation. However, it is people — professionals and newbies alike — who make it truly remarkable. It’s the photographer behind the camera. It’s his imagination, passion and talent and knowledge of the medium. You don’t need a high-end costly equipment to get beautiful results. Just your talent and a way of looking at things differently is together more than enough for a great shot. It’s also the ability to envision the final result in your mind which is also important.
A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small aperture — effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. You can easily construct this camera by yourself using things lying around like match boxes or any kind of boxes, paper, duct tape etc. The small amount of light passing through this pin sized hole produces image on a photographic film or a CCD sensor.
If you don’t want to get your hands dirty on creating a pin hole camera by yourself, you can use your DSLR with some modifications (replacing camera lenses with a pinhole). Also, pinhole cameras are available in the market: and they are quite popular, too — after all, you don’t have to worry about the focus and distortions as there are no lenses involved. Also, you might end up with lovely motion blurred photographs.
In today’s weekend post we present beautiful and inspiring photographs created using a pinhole camera. Please notice how photographers use the camera creatively to produce quite remarkable images. At the bottom of this post you will find links to some photographers and references to related resources that will help you get you started. Also, we listed related Flickr pools which contain thousands of further examples of what can be achieved with this technique. Get inspired, folks!
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that we are publishing a Smashing eBook Series? The brand new eBook #3 is Mastering Photoshop For Web Design, written by our Photoshop-expert Thomas Giannattasio.]
Beautiful Inspiring Pinhole Camera Photographs
The calmness of blue by Andrew Watson
An Oceanic Ghost Forest by Danielle Hughson
The Iron Cycloid by Scott Speck
The Sleeping Zebra by Scott Speck
Follow The Tunes by Tim Franco
Remarkable Photographers
And here is a brief overview of some remarkable pinhole photographers from Flickr. They have added a new dimension to photography: their photo streams are full of beautiful photographs.
Zeb Andrews
Tea Room
Scott Speck
Further Resources
- The Ultimate Guide to Create Your Own 35mm Pinhole Camera.
- Exposure Times for Pinhole Photography
- Photography 101 – Light and the Pinhole Camera
- 20 Strange Beautiful Pinhole Cameras
- Turn Your DSLR into a Pinhole Camera
- Turn Your Holga into a Pinhole Camera
- DIY: Pinhole Lego Camera
- DIY: Panoramic Pinhole Camera
- Pinhole Calculator
- Flickr Pool: Pinhole
- Flickr Pool: Pinhole Photography
- Flickr Pool: Color Pinhole Photography
- Flickr Pool: Polaroid Pinhole
- Flickr Pool: Pinhole Perspective
Vailancio Rodrigues, born and currently living in scenic beauty of Goa, spent most of his childhood in art and creativity. At present a college student who likes to try and do different things at every moment. Also a webmaster, web designer and developer.
- 49 Comments
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July 25th, 2010 6:52 amOops, my mistake. Sorry, Tom. Just fixed it.
- 3July 27th, 2010 4:20 am
2 x Mackeson still there (the forest)… :)
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- 4July 25th, 2010 6:56 am
Stunning showcase, I really enjoyed looking at these. Thanks for sharing.
- 5July 25th, 2010 7:06 am
This is beautiful and inspiring. Thanks!
- 6July 25th, 2010 7:28 am
Beautiful stuff!! Showing this to my dad – he is a college photography lecturer who starts every new year’s groups with a week doing pinhole. He’d love this.
- 7July 25th, 2010 8:09 am
an absolutely stunning collection – a definite bookmark for future inspiration.
- 8July 25th, 2010 8:31 am
nice photos, but I still have no idea what kind of camera you are talking about. The description doesn’t make sense.
- 9July 25th, 2010 8:46 am
That’s because the article is written in broken English. The entire thing is difficult to read and understand.
Great topic, Smashing Mag, but you dropped the ball on the editing side. More writing of this quality would be bad.
- 10July 26th, 2010 2:57 pm
It’s really not that complicated.
A pinhole camera is a very specific type of camera. Google it.
Or here, for the sake of convenience: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera
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- 11July 25th, 2010 9:14 am
Any ideas on how big of exposure time these type of photos need?
- 12July 26th, 2010 1:10 am
it’s hard to say exactly how long the exposures are, it really all depends on the film and the type of pinhole camera.
i did some b&w photos using a homemade pinhole back in one of my 2D design classes. i remember the exposures ranging from 30 seconds (the shortest time), to several minutes (i think one was seven minutes long, and it was taken outside and didnt end up looking washed out!)
overall, they have been longer than shorter in my experience
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- 13July 25th, 2010 10:22 am
Great collection of artists. I noticed at least seven of your selected artists are also featured in my new book “The Pinhole Camera”.
- 14July 25th, 2010 1:40 pm
they made better pinhole photos than i ever made photos with lens and my camera;)
- 15July 25th, 2010 2:56 pm
@SJL: exposure times are typically seconds for daylight shots, to minutes, even hours for those captured during twilight, the evening or indoors. Pinhole cameras typically have an aperture somewhere between f/100 and f/300, so that really doesn’t allow much light to get through during every second of exposure.
Another factor, when using film, is reciprocity failure. Film becomes very insensitive during exposures that extend beyond a second. So extra time has to be added for this too. I typically give the shot time-and-a-half for print films.
To give some perspective, the third picture from the top was exposed for 45 minutes at f/250.
@vailrodrigues: thanks for including my picture. BTW – I don’t know if you realise it, but quite a few of these shots were made by a small, but enthusiastic band of pinhole camera wielders from Portland, Oregon.
- 16July 25th, 2010 4:29 pm
Thanks for letting me stare to something amazing like this. :-P It sure gave me alot of inspiration!
- 17July 25th, 2010 4:53 pm
This makes me fall in love with pinhole photography even more. I’d love to try doing the traditional one but I’m curious as to how I can make my DSLR turn into a pinhole camera (without doing much damage, of course).
Thanks for the collection!
- 18July 25th, 2010 6:11 pm
Hello Bea. There’s a couple of ways to turn your DSLR (or film SLR) into a pinhole camera.
If you’re just interested in just a quick and dirty experiment, simply tape some aluminium foil over the bayonet mount of your camera after having made a small needle hole in the centre of it. Make sure you get the foil reasonably taught, and the needle hole as round as possible.
Alternatively, you can buy a body cap for your camera that has a laser-cut pinhole already mounted on it. Search for ‘pinhole body cap’ to find such things.
With either of these methods, you’ll not be able to see your composition through the viewfinder because the pinhole lets in too little light. If you’re experimenting with foil, you’ll have to rely on a series of experiments to get exposure just right. A body cap pinhole should come with the appropriate f-number stamped on it. You can use an external meter for more accurate exposures should you choose this route.
Happy exploring!
Andrew
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- 19July 25th, 2010 4:57 pm
terrify, an awesome collection of all time !!
nice to see Scott Speck in the list, one of my favourites !!
- 20July 25th, 2010 11:32 pm
Glad to be in here… Would have been nice if you sent an email, or comment or something to know I was in here…
The only way I found out was to see that my bananas photo suddenly had 319 hits in one day. And when I searched my name and the word “bananas” I found it.
I don’t personally mind being in here, but there may come a time when you get someone deciding to defend their copyright because you are posting pictures without asking first.
Great list of good pinhole websites to boot, and a very good showcase of work though.
- 21July 26th, 2010 7:21 am
Sorry Scott for posting your photo without permission. I am bit disappointed because you did not receive my e-mail before publishing this post. Every time we prepare any such collection we make sure that we obtain permission from the owners before publishing it. And it was same with this post as well. This post was prepared in February 2010 and I clearly remember that I sent more than 120+ emails to obtain permission from the owners. I really do not know how I missed in your case. Sorry once again.
- 22July 26th, 2010 4:15 pm
As I said… It isn’t the end of the world. I did rail someone who posted my work (justifiably in his case), but see no reason for it now…
Just mentioned the copyright issue because someone will have an issue sometime…
If you have been emailing people, and I just slipped through the cracks, then no harm no foul :)
Feel free to pick through my collection if there are collections you are gathering in the future…
If you ever do one on Lensbabies, I have tons of those :)
- 23August 19th, 2010 3:05 pm
Bonjour,
Pas reçu de mail non plus ;-)
Bonne journée.
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- 24July 26th, 2010 12:04 am
Just stunning! Awesome examples.
Will have to try this some day.. - 25July 26th, 2010 1:28 am
we love you guys.. our fav website so far.. thanks guys for all the hard work
:)
- 26July 26th, 2010 3:55 am
I fail to understand the advantage. The photos all look like taken with a wide angle lens. What is so special about them?
- 27July 26th, 2010 4:41 am
Hello Racketeer, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by ‘advantage’. It’s just different. A pinhole camera is simply another artistic tool. It really is a very simple way of making pictures, and its results have a very different feel to those produced by cameras with lenses.
A couple of ways that a pinhole image differs from those shot by a ‘normal’ camera are: all images have an immense depth of field, and the image is slightly soft throughout this range; no lens distortion unlike wide angle glass; and there is only a couple of controls: film speed and exposure time, so less dials and buttons to flap over.
Since a pinhole is a very small aperture, and exposures are consequently lengthy, you can capture time in a shot. For me, this is one of the most compelling reasons for using one. Bear in mind that this is not a unique property of a pinhole camera. You could just stack neutral density filters on the lens of your ‘ordinary’ camera to achieve a similar effect.
Lastly, pinhole cameras allow for easy tinkering and experimentation. Who says you have to have just one pinhole? Why not put the pinhole parallel to the film plane? How about turning a coconut/a cylinder block/a warehouse into a camera? All can be done with a little ingenuity.
- 28July 26th, 2010 4:19 pm
Don’t forget that pinhole is bascally infinite depth of field (or rather infinite almost in focus – haha).
The photo I did of bananas was maybe at most an inch away from the bananas. If there was a mountain behind the bananas, everything would have been in focus.
And they are only wide-angle if you make them that way. You can make them telephoto if you want too.
- 29September 2nd, 2010 6:26 am
wow ,thank you for the lesson ,I taught those pix are fantastic,want to see more ..
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- 30July 26th, 2010 3:56 am
That’s a really nice collection. Thanks for sharing it. I might try this today and see if I accomplish anything
- 31July 26th, 2010 3:57 am
This is a nice collection of images, and good to see my friend Scott Speck represented here. Concerning the possibility of DSLR pinhole, just drill a hole in a body cap, place a pinhole over it, remove your lens and replace it with the body cap, and you’re good to go. If you want to know how to make a pinhole then check out http://glsmyth.com/Pinhole/Articles/PinholeFAQ/PinholeFAQ.htm#BM3. The only problem with this is the fact that the hole will allow dust to find itself on the sensor, so realize that eventuality.
That said, my hundreds of DSLR pinhole images have been little more than disappointing – medium or large format film is really needed for things to shine.
Another possibility is to take things a step further and try Pinhole Sieve photography. You can see some examples at http://glsmyth.com/Gallery.asp?G=Pinhole%20Sieve.
Cheers -
george
- 32July 26th, 2010 7:47 am
It’s cool that Pinhole Photography is getting more popular. It’s a great hobby that can continue to build a niche in the photography world. Here are a few more resources that we’ve come up with if anyone is interested:
http://www.youdesignit.com/resources/pinhole-photography
I hope it helps.
- 33July 26th, 2010 8:26 am
@Andrew Watson, are you using a zero69 by any chance? Your photo is amazing!
- 34July 26th, 2010 11:20 am
Hello MC. Thanks for your kind comment! The photo in question was taken with a Zero 2000, which is their 6×6, square format camera. If you’ve visited my Flickr page, you’ll see some 6×9 shots, but those were made with a homebrewed camera. Cheers!
- 35July 26th, 2010 1:57 pm
Hi Andrew, Thank you very much for the response. I was confused by the f/250 you mentioned, I should have looked at your flickr page :)
- 36July 26th, 2010 3:54 pm
Yeah, I think the actual f-number for the Zero Image 2000 is f/138, but I compensate for film reciprocity failure shooting it as if it were f/250.
- 37July 27th, 2010 8:44 am
Got it, thanks! :)
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- 38July 26th, 2010 8:39 am
Valancio, these are really beautiful and inspiring images all around.
If I may piggyback on George, I would add that if you are bold then you may want to increase the size of your work and simply turn a closed space (van, room, etc…) into a giant pinhole camera…Several have done so and their work can be found on the web. Look for Illan Wolf or Vera Lutter , for instance. Also look for Abelardo Morell in a slightly different vein).In my own case, Zernike Au and the Zero Image site talk about how and where I started with room-size pinholin’: http://www.zeroimage.com/Guy/PinholeHotel.html
Check also one of my site at http://pages.infinit.net/memfloue/metro04.htmYou can also create a world-sized pinhole picture if you have friends around the planet: http://www3.sympatico.ca/guy.glorieux/flyingpinhole.htm
The beauty of pinhole is that there is no limit on what you can do, except the limits of your imagination… Cheers,
Guy
- 39July 26th, 2010 8:46 am
Thanks so very much for featuring me in this article, and I’m honored to be part of it. Thanks to the nice comments by others, too! :)
- 40July 26th, 2010 4:21 pm
A good pinhole solution is to build a foam-core camera around a polaroid back… This allows you to shoot 4×5 polaroid – to confirm your photos, as well as shoot ready-load 4×5 film for the actual negatives (or transparencies). That way it is really easy to load the camera.
You could probably pick up a polaroid back fairly cheap these days.
I just glued a hex plate to the bottom of my camera I made, which fits my tripod.
- 41July 27th, 2010 5:43 am
perfect shots
- 42July 27th, 2010 11:29 am
Incredibles!
- 43July 28th, 2010 4:31 am
Amazing, I don’t know how people can get such great shots from a pinhole camera! These are definitely some awesome photos which could be easily sold over ebay or even dubli…
- 44July 29th, 2010 12:48 pm
Those are some of the best images I have seen taken with a pin hole camera. It make me want to buy one and start shooting. It reminds me of one my favorite photographers work. Check out his like mcbeandesign.com/Studio.html
- 45July 30th, 2010 12:32 am
i have never seen this type of photography iam just shocked by seeing this pics and wiht good lightinggggggg
just rocking photographyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy 100 starssssss
extraordianryyyyyyyyy
- 46July 30th, 2010 12:21 pm
Great Post, Thanks
- 47August 1st, 2010 12:07 pm
Thank you for featuring one of my photos!! This is such a beautiful collection and I’ve enjoyed looking at all the other amazing pieces of art.
- 48August 9th, 2010 6:41 am
I love the 1st paragraph. I copied it on my website with a link to this page.
(fed up with people telling me I may have a great camera to be able to shoot pictures like mines)
Thanks.
http://www.freddyberriau.com - 49August 17th, 2010 12:11 am
the feeling is very good
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Hi!
You’ve got the same photos 2 times in this article (Danielle Hughson, Tea room and Mackeson).
Tom.