How to take a good large-format pinhole photo——Photograph of DO58 Pinhole(yellow filter) sample

It is easy to get started with pinhole photography, but it is very difficult to take a satisfactory picture. There are several key points in order to take good large-format pinhole photos.

The exposure time of pinhole photography is long, and the commonly used aperture of pinholes is basically above 100-200. The exposure time is 1-2 seconds in sunny days, and 3-8 seconds in darker light. On cloudy and rainy days, the exposure time may take several minutes. So a stable tripod is very necessary

It should also be noted that when shooting, do not insert the tofu knife in the film holder into the machine, as this will cause vibration when the wind blows.

For light meter or light meter software, you must remember to calculate the reciprocity law. It is recommended to use the two iOS software pinholeMeter and lightMe. The former automatically adds the time of the reciprocity law. Moreover, the reciprocity laws of different films are different, so the data can be checked in advance.

Pinhole photography has a large angle at the wide-angle end and there is no corresponding viewfinder, so even people who often shoot pinholes will be troubled by framing and composition. My suggestion is to place the subject in the center of the frame, and getting closer to the subject will help improve clarity. Then keep the frame level and parallel to the subject.
Because the edge of the pinhole will become black with the loss of light, and because the film is a plane, the imaging at the corner of the film will also show radial deterioration. The pinhole atmosphere is actually caused by these two shortcomings, so when some pinhole cameras design a 120 wide format structure, they will design the focal plane as an arc with the pinhole as the center point, which will Significantly improved image quality.

For light, we can understand the pinhole as an ultra-wide-angle lens without coating, so the anti-backlight ability is very weak. Therefore, when shooting, unless required, try to avoid shooting against the light, and choose to shoot in the morning and evening to avoid glare from entering the picture. But there are also counter-examples. For example, shooting against the sun for a long time can produce a very psychedelic backlight effect. I have posted specific examples before.

When using a filter for black and white photography, it is recommended to try using a yellow filter. Because red needs to increase the exposure by 3-4 stops, it may make the shooting time a terrible value. Using a yellow filter will improve the contrast of the picture, as well as the color of the sky. Of course, it also brings more serious edge loss and image quality degradation. But still worth using.

The sample photos below were shot with a large-format pinhole lens and a yellow filter behind it. The shooting time was when the sun was about to go down, so there were two photos in the dark part without obvious development even after being exposed for nearly 20 minutes.

About Light Printing Large Format Pinhole Shutter （DO58.COM ）

DO58 PInhole

The original intention was that I couldn’t buy a pinhole camera that satisfied me. There were few 4X5 large-format pinhole cameras on the market. There were cheap ones and expensive ones. I bought them all. , but all kinds of dissatisfaction (some imaging is very good, but too simple, and some look cool, expensive, but the quality control is not stable imaging problems), all lack the kind of exquisiteness that I want. So I started to make this large-format pinhole shutter first. From the beginning to the landing of the sample, it took a whole month and I learned a lot of new knowledge. But finally I have a large format pinhole shutter that I like.

Because the design draft has been made into 58 versions, it is named do58 as the English name, and the Chinese name is tentatively designated as “Light Printing”.

Light Printing Pinhole Shutter has been released。Website。https://www.do58.com