VE6AB Technical

The Old West through the Aperture

Possibly you know what a pinhole camera is, if not it is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture.

Basically it is a light-proof box with a hole on one side, with light passing through the hole and projects an inverted image on the opposite wall of the box.
So take it a step further, and place a sheet of film on the opposite wall, the image projected will now be recorded on the film.
Very early cameras were of this type, and later on a lens was added to the mix.

This image was shot with a pinhole camera, or more so with a DSLR that I removed the lens from, and with a modified body-cap that fits the body.
To modify the body-cap, I drilled a 8mm hole in the center of the cap, then chamfered the edges of the hole on the outside.
I then took a piece of aluminum foil and after determining the center, I used a sewing needle to just mark the center without pushing the pin through completely.
I then turned the foil over and taped it to a flat surface, and sanded the foil in the center very gently until the pinpoint made from the other side cut through. Taking the pin once more, I inserted it through the foil and spun it around until I had a perfectly tiny round hole.
I then taped the foil on the inside of the bodycap, making sure the pinhole was centered in the 8mm hole of the bodycap.
I used black tape to tape the foil in place to the bodycap, as you don't want the light entering the camera body through the pinhole to find any reflective surfaces, or it will degrade the image quality.

With my DSLR mounted on a tripod, and after some experimentation with the exposure time required, I found that with the shutter held open, a time of 15-30 seconds was required to get an image like the one shot here.
BTW, I asked the cowboy if he could pose for me, as I needed time to make this photo happen. He gladly obliged. For the record this image was shot with a Canon 20D and included pinhole bodycap.

The image is on the soft side, and probably due to irregularities with the pinhole, as the resolution will suffer if the hole is not perfectly round and include a very sharp edge to the hole (aperture).

With todays DSLR's, having this modified accessory riding in your camera bag, can turn a mundane scene into a work of art, well sort of!

Expand the photo for a closer look.....