DIY Pinhole Photography

So apparently pinhole photography is an actual real hobby people do. There are many "lenses" you can buy for modern cameras, that really are just a cover with a small hole in the center. For whatever reason, they tend to be somewhat expensive.

I am not willing to throw out 60€ for this, so I did something that may disturb the camera nerds.

Yes, that's right. I took some cardboard, made a small hole into it (with a diameter of roughly 0.2mm) and then taped it to my camera.

And it works!

Kinda...

Ok, not really. Not only does the red from the cardboard shines through and drowns out everything else, it also produces very dim images, despite using over thirty seconds of exposure and pointing a flashlight at the objects (the left one is an ancient funky USB drive that pretends it's a CD drive, the right one is a small glass dog I once got on a class trip to france).

So I upset the camera nerds once more, by taking a spare cover and drilling a hole into its center (diameter of roughly 1.3mm). This hole was way too large, so I taped some paper onto the cover from the inside and punched a smaller hole through that (about 0,65mm).

And the results are definitely a lot better. Here is the same USB drive as above, now without the extra red.

This method of photography needs a lot of light, so I still had to use a pretty long exposure, but not as extreme as before. And the flashlight also was no longer necessary, my normal room lighting sufficed.

Now I had to wait a few days before I had enough sun outside to try to get some more interesting shots. I did not get a lucky sunny day, but a day with few clouds should suffice.

The pictures have an eerie quality to them, pretty washed out, almost retro. Slightly spooky, even. Can you believe they were shot without lenses, literally through a pinhole?

This one is my favourite.

I initially wasn't too sure, but now that I see it here in my editor, I definitely quite like the outcome. I will revisit this in the summer, when I can get a proper bright and sunny day.