Research and Development

The following is research on the development of photography and its uses over its evolution:

    Many people have forgotten the wonders of photography and its influences around every home of modern society. If it was not for the creation of the camera, our world would be very different to how we know it. The simplest things around us such as DVDs, CDs, televisions and even the clothes we wear have all been a product of photography. The basic function of a camera is capturing a aimed image by using radiation on a sensitive material such as film or electronic sensor.
    The first ever camera was talked about by Chinese philosopher Mo Di and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid which resembled the pinhole camera back in 5th and 4th centuries BC. Hundreds of years passed until the photography process involving chemicals became a running trade in the 1820s. Back then of course only the most wealthy were in touch of a camera. Photographs first had brown tones caused by the albumen process which then evolved to black and white. Black and white proved to be a successful product even outselling colour film after its invention. This was mainly due to the price of colour film but at the time people also favoured black and white for its ‘classic’ photograph look.
    Many camera qualities have come and gone over the last 50 years including the famous disposable cameras for holidays or special occasions which have sold in the millions. In today’s world, we probably all have at least one digital camera in our homes. Personally in my home we have at the least 6 forms of digital cameras including our mobiles. We forget that those what seem ancient inventions of displaying a memory onto paper has transformed our world from simple life all the way to the computers, mobiles, satellite systems and games we use and take for granted every day.

Pinhole image creating

The following is a description on how pinhole images are created and then converted via Photoshop:

For a pinhole image to be taken, you must allow light from a desired scene to pass through the pinhole for a certain period of time. This time is worked out as an ‘F-stop’ which is determined by how big the box is and whether you are indoors or outdoors. The light that is projected from the area records an inverted image onto the photography film. In soft light, such as indoor common lighting, the image does not take very well. This is why a longer period of time is needed for photos to translate inside. The light from the sun is different because it travels at a much faster speed as well as illuminating much of the surrounding location. To develop pinhole images, three liquid solutions are required. The developer, stop and fixer. The developer brings through the photo, the stop is simply water which stops the developing process and the fixer fixes the image permanently to the photography film.

Photoshop editing:

Step 1: Open Photoshop.
Step 2: Click on ‘import’ from the drop down bar on ‘file’.
Step 3: Get image from the scanner in the drop down menu.
Step 4: Select the correct scanner.
Step 5: Click preview to make sure you are happy with image position.
Step 6: Select, using the cursor, the part of the image you want to keep.
Step 7: When you are happy, click scan.
Step 8: Repeat the process again but click on the invert tab before clicking scan to have the correct viewing of your photograph.
Step 9: Save image (as a JPG format) to the desired destination.

Pinhole Photography/Photographers

The following is a collection of pinhole photographers and samples of their work with notes:


Peter Donahoe:

The following two pinhole camera shots were by Peter Donahoe. Both were shot using toned silver gelatin prints. I really like how the prints make the photo look old despite being taken in 2002. The reflection on the lake makes it interesting.

This shot has also been taken with toned silver gelatin materials. This photo, like the previous, looks old but its interesting because the farm looks moderately modern. There seems to be some dark patches in front of the main building and above the tower which could be due to under exposure.










David F. Stein:

This photo is of an old ‘John Deere farm machine’. Like the above pictures, this seems to have a gelatin tone. I like this photo because it looks very mechanical and industrial.

This pinhole was taken on 120 colour slide film. I love how the clouds have been captured as they all look light and fluffy. I also love how exotic all the colours are in this photo.







Rod Stewart:

 This photo is possibly my favourite of this collection. It looks like film quality from the 70s with slight grain. The setting itself is interesting by having a boat in a very dry location which makes it alienated.

This black and white photo is very striking. The wooden fence acts as a foreground and the car/house as a background. The foreground and background merge together to form one unified midground. Add onto that…it’s a beautiful car!

Pinhole images

Here are my first Pinhole Camera images:

Pinhole Evaluation

          The following is my evaluation into my pinhole camera experience. I will explain what I did, what I would do again and my reflection on how my work turned out.

            The first task was to make my camera which I found rather simple. The assembly was quick and effective for my work. The most time consuming factor was the painting as that took a long time to dry out which required assistance from a hair dryer and the toilet hand dryer. From then on the photograph making process was simple and enjoyable. The developing process has been something I have always wanted to do and it proved a bit more time consuming then I had expected. Each photo took around 13 minutes to develop by laying into the developer, stop and fixer liquids. After doing the practical work, we began blogging our work to the net because this is a simple and effective way of sharing work with the students and if need be global.

            If I did the pinhole camera task again, I would think more carefully about where I was shooting as it seemed I needed a flat and clear surface to capture from. I would also pick a bigger box so that I could take bigger pictures as I liked the look of other people’s bigger prints. I would possibly try to be more experimental as to how long to leave the print to expose as some photos turned out slightly dark. I would like to do bigger shots, maybe from a hill as much more could be captured within the cameras view.

            In all, I am happy with my work and feel both my camera and prints were a success. The process went well with no mistakes and the shooting process along with my worked out F-stop time went very well. I think two elements that would improve prints would be a more quiet location and a light area so no exposure time errors can occur.

            In conclusion, the pinhole camera task has been my favourite topic of the course so far. Everything seemed to flow well and it gave us our first look at blogging which is something we will be doing a lot from now on. I hope at one point in the next two years we return to doing pinhole images.