Use low-tech camera attachments to give you
black and white images with an arty feel
OPTiCAL iLLUSiOnS
Since the digital revolution took the
photographic world by storm, we’ve become
obsessed with image quality. More megapixels,
sharper lenses, heavier tripods – it has all
become a little bit ridiculous and is in danger
of overshadowing what photography should
be about – creating meaningful images.
Sharpness is important, obviously, but it’s
not the be-all and end-all and should never
be given priority over mood, atmosphere and
character in an image.
One way to explore photography at its
earliest roots is by creating pinhole images.
Instead of a conventional lens, a bodycap
is fitted to your camera body, which has a
hole in the centre and a metal disc with a
tiny pinhole in it placed over that drilled hole.
The pinhole acts as both the lens and the
aperture, and it produces images that have a
characteristic softness.
Digital pinhole photography suits a range
of subjects, from landscapes and architecture
to portraits and still life. It’s also much easier
than using an analogue pinhole camera as
you can see what you’re doing using LiveView,
which makes composition much easier, plus
you can assess your images immediately
and make any changes to help improve the
final result.
Exposures are usually long when shooting
with a pinhole, so mount your camera on a
sturdy tripod and use a remote release. If you
want to keep the exposures brief to avoid
subject blur, increase your DSLR’s ISO to
3200 or 6400. Your camera’s TTL meteringshould give reasonably accurate exposures,
but use the exposure compensation to correct
any error if necessary.
You can’t focus with a pinhole but you don’t
need to – a pinhole is so small it gives you
extensive depth of field, so everything will be
sharp from a few centimetres to infinity.
For another artistic option, have you ever
heard of a Holga ‘toy’ camera? If not, you don’t
know what you’re missing! They’re basically
cheap, plastic, medium-format film cameras
that were mass-produced so that working-
class Chinese folk could afford to take family
photographs – at a time when 120 black &
white was the most widely available film in
China. To keep costs down they were made as
simply and crudely as possible, so light leaks
are common and the simple 60mm f/8 lens
produces images that are sharp in the centre
but soft and vignetted at the edges due to
its poor-quality optics. It’s these quirks that
make them a popular choice among many
creative photographers.
If you don’t fancy using film (this is a digital
mag after all) you can buy a toy camera lens
and use it on your DSLR. Holga lenses in
common mounts such as Canon and Nikon
cost around £20/$25. Diana lenses are more
pricey at £39/$49.
Obviously, there’s no autofocusing – you
need to focus manually using focus zones on
the lens – but the images that are produced
have a wonderful fine art quality about them,
and they look really fantastic printed, mounted
and framed. DPPinhole solutions in Birmingham (pinholesolutions.co.uk) manufacture laser-cut pinholes. You can either buy one for £17.50 then drill a
hole in a bodycap and tape the pinhole over the hole, or make your own from scratch. here’s how.Make your own pinhole Transform your digital images by adding analogue effects
1
Get a can enjoy a can of
fizzy drink, then when you’re
done cut out a 1x1cm piece of
aluminium from the can with a
pair of scissors and flatten it out.2
Make a dent Place the
piece of can on a hard
surface. using a ballpoint pen,
press down on the centre of it to
make a small dent in its surface.3
File away With wet-and-
dry paper or a fine nail file,
gently rub down the protrusion
caused by the dent until there’s
just a thin layer of metal left.4
Pierce carefully push the
point of a needle through
the thin part of the metal, making
sure the point only just passes
through to make a tiny hole.Techniques