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| Category: | Photographers |
Give pinhole photography a chance - Steve Gosling tells us why he loves to capture landscapes without a lens.
Posted: 19th May 2009
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Q1. What attracted you to pinhole photography?"When I first saw photographs taken with a pinhole camera I was hooked. I loved the ethereal & impressionistic images with a soft dreamy quality, a wide angle of view & incredible depth of field.
My pinhole photography started as a bit of fun, an experimentation to see what I could do with a pinhole camera in the landscape - it wasn't driven by any commercial considerations; it was motivated by my interest in exploring different creative approaches to photography as a way of keeping my vision fresh of challenging myself to try out new things (techniques, equipment, subjects etc)."
Q2. What are the advantages of pinhole photography over ‘normal’ photography?
"We live in a photographic world of increasing certainty - digital cameras help us check our composition and exposure before we leave the scene. But I must admit I quite miss the adrenalin rush that uncertainty brings and the accompanying feeling of excitement as my films return from the processors. Sometimes the predictability of digital photography feels a little too safe for my liking.
Pinhole photography panders to this strong masochistic streak in my personality and offers a complete contrast to my digital work - with not an LCD or exposure mode in sight it’s back to basics with a vengeance. In use the elegant but simple wooden box I use (a Zero Image 2000 camera) offers a complete contrast to the automatic cameras of the digital age. It’s the minimalism of the equipment that appeals to me - I enjoy the challenges that it presents.
But pinhole vs ‘normal’ photography isn’t a straight either/or choice. My 6 years experience with pinhole photography has influenced how I see and work more generally. One of my most used ‘normal’ camera/lens combinations is a Hasselblad SWC903 which has an extreme (for the format) wide angle lens (38mm on 2 1/4 square film) – it’s a mechanical, no frills camera that continues the simplicity of my pinhole equipment. When it’s fitted with ND filters to necessitate slow shutter speeds the results are very pinhole like (although much sharper of course!). Pinhole photography is very akin to the unhurried, methodical almost meditational approach to Large Format photography. It forces you to slow down and think much more about the subject and I’ve found this really suits my style of working.
I also enjoy the wide angle of view coupled with an aperture of f/138 which give tremendous depth of field. Not only do foreground objects loom large whilst distant elements appear significantly diminished in size, but objects a few inches from the camera all the way to infinity are held in focus. I consciously try to exploit these characteristics when composing my pictures.
Obviously an aperture of f/138 results in long exposures (my longest to date has been 40 minutes) and so any movement in the frame becomes blurred. But I’ve given up worrying about that and instead take great pleasure in the unplanned effects that can sometimes result. People become ghost like objects and clouds transform into weird shapes unseen by the eye at the time of taking the shot. It all adds to the surreal experience in my view."
Q3. What are the disadvantages of pinhole photography?"A pinhole camera is not suitable for all subjects – recording high speed action sports would certainly prove tricky! The slightly soft rendition of objects close to the camera wouldn’t work for those interested in macro details either. So careful choice of subject matter is important.
The slower pace of working I referred to before isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. However one of the things I’m always encouraging on my workshops is for people to take more time to understand the subject and consider what they are trying to communicate. Decisions about composition, angle of view, lens choice, aperture/shutter speed selection etc should all flow from this. Making the effort to take a more methodical & deliberate approach to landscape photography will never be wasted.
Photographers who like to have complete control over the picture making process may find the more random aspects of pinhole photography frustrating. But practice makes perfect and perseverance pays dividends. As a self confessed photographic ‘control freak’ I now feel very comfortable with my simple wooden box and am reasonably confident of the results I can produce with it."
Q4. What sort of problems/challenges have you faced and what did you do to overcome them?
"Initially the absence of a viewfinder made composition an extremely hit or miss affair. However it didn’t take me long to work out that an empty 6x6cm slide mount held on the top of the camera made a viable alternative viewfinder. With experience I’ve learnt that the angle of view can be estimated by pushing my eye up close to my ‘viewfinder’ and running my eye around the edges of the frame. Using 120 roll film also enables me to crop the frame at the printing stage if I have to, although with experience the amount of cropping I do has decreased significantly.It also took me a while to get used to the extreme wide angle view. Using a pinhole camera required me to work much harder at composition. For me simple images consisting of strong, graphic shapes and very minimalist photographs seem to work best.
Calculating exposure was a relatively pain free process as I regularly use a handheld meter for my photography. But what’s the aperture of a pinhole? With a home made camera some experimentation is required to establish this. Fortunately the manufacturer of my camera provides this information (for my version it’s f/138).
Unless very blurred images are the intent then a tripod is a must. The Zero 2000’s standard tripod bush and device for attaching a cable release with a locking mechanism does make the task of keeping the pinhole open for long exposures a relative doddle.
Long shutter speeds can of course introduce reciprocity failure (resulting in a change in the actual ISO performance of a film). I’ve found that when using Ilford’s Pan F doubling the indicated exposure and bracketing 1 stop either side of this produces an acceptable result.One unexpected challenge of pinhole photography is the attention from photographers and non-photographers alike. With my camera on a tripod I frequently get approached by people wanting to know more about what I’m doing and how a wooden box can produce a photograph. When you just want to get on and take a photograph in rapidly changing light the question and answer process can be an unwelcome distraction!"
Q5. What made you keep going (why didn’t you stop)?
"I really love pinhole photography and when you feel passionately about something that's what drives you on. Because the motivation is an internal rather than an external one then that makes it more sustainable I think.
Of course, success breeds success - when an area of work is acknowledged and applauded this spurs you on to do more of it. So what started as a ‘bit of fun' has resulted in several exhibitions, magazine articles & interviews and of course more recently my book, 'Lensless Landscapes'. All of these have given me the impetus to continue with and to develop my pinhole work. I'm very good at setting myself goals and working hard towards them so events like exhibitions & books are a way of providing a focus and maintaining momentum. I think that a willingness to tackle different subjects also helps to maintain interest. For example, I haven't previously chosen to photograph urban or manmade environments with any degree of commitment or enthusiasm but I'm now interested in photographing cityscapes with a pinhole camera to see where that takes me (geographically and creatively speaking!)."
Q6. Do you have any advice or tips for others?
"1. Work with the strengths of pinhole photography: -
- Look for bold dynamic shapes and simple compositions – complex, detailed scenes are best avoided;
- Make the most of strong foregrounds;
- Use moving elements (clouds, water, foliage) in a shot to create impressionistic images;
2. Break the rules – experiment with unusual viewpoints and angles on familiar subjects.3. If you don’t have a handheld meter then use your SLRs meter as a starting point for your exposure calculations;
4. If you’re into the Blue Peter approach of building your own pinhole camera be imaginative – shoe boxes and biscuit tins are obvious choices but I know of someone who made a camera from a table tennis ball;
5. Learn to enjoy the fact that limited control is a fact of life. The end results are not totally predictable – but this can be exciting;
6. Have fun! Pinhole photography can be a great way of stimulating your creative juices."
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